Lightweight Survey -User Manual

Introduction

Lightweight Survey is a plugin for Rhino, designed to be used on a Windows 10 tablet. Its purpose is to write down every excess or missing masses in a ship, then process the data into various reports.

Installation

Overview

The plugin installer can be downloaded at: https://www.tomkod.com/product/lightweight-survey/
A free trial is included, and yearly licenses can be purchased on the aforementioned page.
Lightweight Survey is developed for Rhino 6¹⁾, it might work with Rhino 7 but this has not been tested yet.

Yak

Our plugins are also compatible with Yak, Rhino's new package manager ²⁾, which is basically an application store for Rhino. You just need to call Rhino's command _PackageManager:

You can also install from the repository with the following command line:

"D:\Program Files\Rhino 6\System\Yak.exe" install 'PluginName'

If you add this in a batch file (*.bat) at windows startup, it is probably the best way to keep all your plugins up-to-date

License activation

Prerequisites

The free evaluation can be used once per computer, and requires network access to www.license.tomkod.com
The license activation requires network access to www.tomkod.com
Please check your firewall in case of failure.

Activation form

The activation window automatically shows up when the plugin is loading and a valid license or trial is not registered. If you want to see, change or remove your license while the plugin is already loaded, you can use the Rhino commands PluginName_License.
Activation status is always visible on the upper right corner of the form, if the icon is green your plugin will be enabled:

Trial Tab

This first tab is dedicated to the trial requests. Your trial status is displayed, and the button is disabled if a trial is not available for your computer (Your trial has already been activated, or the server is unreachable)

Commercial Tab

This tab's two main buttons let you Check-out (Activate) or Check-in (Desactivate) your license from our license server. When the checkbox “Enable floating licenses” is checked, every TomKod's plugin will try to deactivate the license automatically when closing (Making it available for another of your computers)

Finally, a license certificate (*.TkLic) can be selected at the bottom of this tab. It allows to activate a license offline, but the license won't be floating anymore. If you need one, contact us at https://www.tomkod.com/contact/

The toolbars for Rhino are always included in your plugins installation directory, or can be downloaded here.
You just have to drag/drop the file “Tomkod.rui” to a rhino window to install them.

Skin

TODO

Definitions

MassPoint: Custom rhino object with mass and location
Lightweight Survey (LWS): A rhino doc is considered to be a Lightweight Survey if it has at least one Deck
Deck: Special Layer with LWS-related data (Height, Room names, etc…)

Interface

Skin

The skin is a custom interface for your plugin. When you launch the skin, you'll have a rhino interface customized just for the Lightweight Survey Plugin. Any change to this interface will not be applied to Rhino's main interface.

Panels

Main Panel

The main panel is where you will find every available information on the selected MassPoint(s).

Result Panel

The “result” panel displays real-time computed information concerning the model and the current deck, such as the Mass Points global centroid.

Magic Toolbar

The “magic toolbar” is a panel that mimics classic Rhino ToolBar but with a dynamic and contextual display. This toolbar will be your best friend while working on a touchscreen.

Rhino ToolBar

The toolbar is only meant to be used when preparing the model on a desktop computer.

Annotations

The annotations system displays MassPoints related data in text dots. In the Options panel, you can define the colors (For excess and missing masses), size, and content of the annotations.

They can be shown/hidden anytime through the magic toolbar or the command LWS_HideAnnotations and LWS_ShowAnnotations

Features and commands

LWS_License

This command can be used only from the command line prompt. It displays the plugin's activation form.

See license_activation.

LWS_About

This command can be used only from the command line prompt. It displays the plugin's current revision and license status.

TODO

Change deck

TODO

Unselect all

TODO

LWS_AddMassPoint

Icon:

This command creates a new MassPoint in the current deck.

Rhino Toolbar shortcut

The command is canceled if the document is not a valid Lightweight Survey.

Magic Toolbar button

This button is grayed out if the document is not a valid Lightweight Survey.

Usage

Start the command
(Optional)
Pick the selection method with the 3 buttons on the right corner:

The location can be picked with a point (default), a line's middle, or a rectangle's center.
Pick the MassPoint's location. If the command was started from the MagicToolBar, the selection helper will be displayed.
Select the appropriate data for your MassPoint on the edition window:

The light-red buttons are shortcuts to reuse the values existing in the model. The light-blue buttons are preset values defined in the LWS_Options.

The camera button on the bottom-right corner is a shortcut to Windows' camera app. While this “MassPoint Editor” window is open, any picture added or created in Windows' picture directory will be linked to the MassPoint.

LWS_Copy

Icon:

This command relocates a MassPoint to a new location.

Magic Toolbar button only

This button is grayed out if the document is not a valid Lightweight Survey. The command asks for a MassPoint then a new location, and the touchscreen helpers are displayed.