Picking Objects without CRhinoGetObject
Windows only

by Dale Fugier (Last updated:  Wednesday, December 5, 2018)

Problem

Imagine you have a 3D point, now you want to pick all the objects that are underneath it.

Solution

You can use CRhinoPickContext to build your own object picker. For more details on CRhinoPickContext, see rhinoSdkPick.h. With the CRhinoPickContext class, you can define the rules for picking. For example, you can specify a picking style (point, window, crossing). You can also specify a filter so you only pick the types of objects you want. The most important part is to define a pick chord, which starts on near clipping plane and ends on far clipping plane.

After you have created the CRhinoPickContext object and filled out its parameters, call CRhinoDoc::PickObjects. This function goes through the list of eligible objects and intersects them with the pick frustum. If they hit the frustum in an acceptable manner, the object is added to a pick list passed in by the caller.

Here is a simple example of a function that might work for you:

static int MyObjectPicker( CRhinoDoc& doc, CRhinoView* view, POINT point, CRhinoObjRefArray& pick_list )
{
  if( 0 == view )
    return 0;
 
  CRhinoPickContext pick_context;
  pick_context.m_view = view;
  pick_context.m_pick_style = CRhinoPickContext::point_pick;
 
  CRhinoViewport& active_vp = view->ActiveViewport();
  switch( active_vp.DisplayMode() )
  {
    case ON::shaded_display:
    case ON::renderpreview_display:
      pick_context.m_pick_mode = CRhinoPickContext::shaded_pick;
      break;
  }
 
  int pick_count = 0;
  if( active_vp.GetPickXform(point.x, point.y, pick_context.m_pick_region.m_xform) )
  {
    // adds objects to pick_list - does not change any status
    active_vp.VP().GetFrustumLine( point.x, point.y, pick_context.m_pick_line );
    pick_context.UpdateClippingPlanes();
    pick_count = doc.PickObjects( pick_context, pick_list );
  }
 
  return pick_count;
}

And, here is a sample of its use:

CRhinoCommand::result CCommandTest::RunCommand( const CRhinoCommandContext& context )
{
  CRhinoGetPoint gp;
  gp.GetPoint();
  if( gp.CommandResult() != CRhinoCommand::success )
    return gp.CommandResult();
 
  CRhinoView* view = gp.View();
  if( 0 == view )
    return failure;
 
  ON_Xform w2s;
  view->ActiveViewport().VP().GetXform( ON::world_cs, ON::screen_cs, w2s );
 
  ON_3dPoint pt3d = gp.Point();
  pt3d.Transform( w2s );
 
  POINT pt2d;
  pt2d.x = (int)pt3d.x;
  pt2d.y = (int)pt3d.y;
 
  CRhinoObjRefArray pick_list;
  int pick_count = MyObjectPicker( context.m_doc, view, pt2d, pick_list );
  for( int i = 0; i < pick_count; i++ )
  {
    const CRhinoObject* obj = pick_list[i].Object();
    if( obj )
      obj->Select( true, true, true );
  }
  context.m_doc.Redraw();
 
  return CRhinoCommand::success;
}