Explorer
Hierarchical Model Organization 

The RhinoMarine Explorer is a tree control to help organize your model hierarchically, separately from the layer paradigm. For example, while your layers might be organized by material, your RhinoMarine ExplorerTree might organize the model by location or function (hull, deck, interior, machinery, etc.).

Objects in the model are given names (Rhino assigns default names when objects are created, but you can change them to something useful), and you can create folders and drag and drop the objects into these folders. Just as with organizing your hard disk, you can create as many folders and subfolders as you like. The RhinoMarine Explorer displays both the Rhino Layers and the RhinoMarine Tree. In the Rhino Layers tree, you can expand a layer to view all of the objects in a layer. Right-clicking on an object gives a context menu of functions (Hide, Inverse Hide Show, Rename, Set Color, Properties, etc.). The same is true in the RhinoMarine Tree. One very nice feature of this is the ability to quickly display a single object, layer, or folder; simply right click on it, and select Inverse Hide. Everything in the model, except your selection, will be hidden. Objects in either tree may be selected in the model or in the tree.

The left-hand image below is an example of the tree showing objects in the Layers, some of which have been renamed and some of which still have their default names that were assigned by Rhino. Note that "Bottom Surface" is written in red, showing that the color of that object is not assigned by layer, but rather has been assigned directly to that object. Objects whose color is "by layer" are written in black. The Layers tree is not hierarchical.

The image on the right is the RhinoMarine Tree, showing a hierarchical organization. You are free to organize the objects in your model totally independently of your Layers. Notice that this tree can be as many levels deep as you like.

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