diff --git a/mcutils.py b/mcutils.py
index 05378f3..58db3fc 100644
--- a/mcutils.py
+++ b/mcutils.py
@@ -733,9 +733,19 @@ def loadRecArray(fname,hasVectorHeader=True,asObj=False):
     ret = np.core.records.fromarrays(a.transpose(),names=",".join(names))
   return ret
 
+def dictToRecArray(mydict):
+   shapes =  np.asarray([v.shape[0] for v in mydict.values()] )
+   assert np.all( shapes==shapes[0] )
+   names   = list(mydict.keys())
+   formats = [ mydict[p].dtype for p in names ]
+   arr     = np.empty(shapes[0],  dtype={'names':names, 'formats':formats})
+   for n in names: arr[n] = mydict[n]
+   return arr
+
+  
 
 def prepareRecArrayFromDict( mydict,n=1,leaveEmpty=True ):
-   names   = mydict.keys()
+   names   = list(mydict.keys())
    formats = [ type(mydict[p]) for p in names ]
    if leaveEmpty:
      array_kind = np.empty
@@ -1178,6 +1188,14 @@ def insertInSortedArray(a,v):
 
 ### Objects ###
 
+def objToDict(o):
+  """ convert a dropObject to a dictionary (useful for saving); it should work for other objects too """
+  if isinstance(o,dict): return o
+  d = dict()
+  for k in o.__dict__.keys(): d[k] = getattr(o,k)
+  return d
+
+
 class dropObject(object):
   pass
 
@@ -1200,11 +1218,16 @@ class dropObject(object):
     k.sort()
     return k
 
+  def asdict(self):
+    """ return a dictionary representation (useful for saving) """
+    return objToDict(self)
+
   def __repr__(self):
     return self.__str__()
 
 
-def dict2class(d,recursive=True,cleanNames=True):
+
+def dictToObj(d,recursive=True,cleanNames=True):
   """Return a class that has same attributes/values and 
      dictionaries key/value
   """
@@ -1220,7 +1243,7 @@ def dict2class(d,recursive=True,cleanNames=True):
         except:
           pass
       if recursive and isinstance(d[elem],dict):
-        c.__dict__[key] = dict2class(d[elem])
+        c.__dict__[key] = dictToObj(d[elem])
       else:
         c.__dict__[key] = d[elem]
   return c
@@ -1241,6 +1264,9 @@ def Hdf5ToObj(h5):
       ret._add(name,h5hande[h])
   return ret
 
+def dict2obj(d,recursive=True,cleanNames=True):
+  print("DEPRECATED: use dictToObj")
+  return dictToObj(d,recursive=recursive,cleanNames=cleanNames)
 
 def fac(n):
   import math
@@ -1273,7 +1299,7 @@ def define_colors(fname="colorbrewer_all_schemes.json"):
     ff = open(fname,"r")
     f = json.load( ff )
     ff.close()
-    colors = dict2class(f)
+    colors = dictToObj(f)
     for t1 in colors.keys():
       for seq in colors[t1].keys():
         for nc in colors[t1][seq].keys():