I’ve seen a number of plugins and other programs where, when a user calls a command, there’s a panel that will show sliders and text entry windows allowing for parametric adjustment during a preview phase, before executing a command.
Any plans or discussion of adding this feature to Rhino 7? We already have popup windows for more complex commands like NetworkSrf, Loft, etc. A similar interface would be great for SubD, allowing previews of things like number of subdivisions in each direction when creating a primitive.
It would also be great for previews to be WYSWYG, rather than appearing as overlayed wireframes as is often the case in Rhino.
As for my the suggestion that it be possible to opt to view these things in a panel rather than a popup, the main advantage would be to keep viewport screen real estate static.
There are no plans to turn Rhino into a parametric, feature based, modeling tool.
Grasshopper gives you the tools to create the parametric relationships and controls to build your own.
I wasn’t suggesting that objects remain parametric after being created.
More like, for example, Loft currently offers a bunch of options in command and has a popup window for them rather than just command line options. And it even has previews.
All I’m suggesting is the option of a dedicated panel for those pop-up windows to display in when they occur, and sliders in some circumstances, like, with Loft, the “rebuild with ___ control points” option.
Here is an example of where this would be very useful: SubD pipes.
When applying a SubD pipe to a curve, the command could make the user pick the number of parallel and perpendicular subdivisions in the command line, and if they don’t like the results they can undo and rerun the command, or the command can offer a preview and allow the user to see what various numbers of subdivisions look like using sliders or number boxes before exiting the command.
With some situations, like perpendicular subdivisions on a pipe or a loft, the feature I’m suggesting seems like the difference between smooth workflow and tedious workflow.
Ok, but why not also consider allowing the popup options to be opened in a panel for things like _Loft? or _FilletEdge?
I guess the suggestion is twofold here:
more options in SubD commands, please, and with previews (which I imagine might be coming, because SubD is so new at this point.)
how about a panel, like the layers and materials panel, that stays blank unless you call a command with options and a preview, in order to get stable screen real estate in the viewport? Not just stuff like _Loft and _FilletEdge, but also _Zebra and _CurvatureGraph would be good candidates as commands that we should be able to have automatically pop up in a dedicated side panel, rather than a loose window, if we want.
Althought panel for popups sounds like a nice idea it brings problem with its blank state. Having a blank panel all the time is not a good idea. We can say that normally it’s hidden, but I would like to avoid switching between panels every time I go into some command. If it could switch automatically (and switch back after command ends) it is ok. Popups may not be that bad…
Mostly I see it as a decluttering option, some people might like popups, some, particularly laptop users with less screen real estate, might sacrifice a little panel space to keep viewport area consistent.