Escape Dream [...abort any Command by simply hitting the “Esc” key]

I’m going to show my complete lack of modern programming knowledge here but maybe this will trigger some thoughts. As failure to abort on Esc seems to occur when big operations are in progress (we can add Intersect, Boolean Diff, sometimes Boolean Split, to the list), it seems that Rhino literally grinds to a halt, finally becoming deaf to all interrupt requests. Presumably, the program is looping through a set of subroutines, storing the output of each iteration until it completes a large repetitive operation. Might it be possible to clock the loop, such that Rhino gets an early heads up that it is going to run out of steam (e.g., time to complete the first 100 loops versus time to complete 100 loops after the 1000th)? It could then offer the user a chance to abort before it reaches the stage of not being able to accept any input, internal or external.

One last comment… In my dream of Esc for any command. JC1’s comment about “clock the loop” caused me to remember something. I have talked to someone at SIGGRAPH a few years ago and she said that it isn’t impossible to allow for an exit from any command that would cause a clock-back to just before the initiation of the command. As I recall she suggested a two key something like Esc-Ctrl… maybe. I explained this conversation as best I understand the mysteries that go on inside my computer, that’s not a lot. Because I’m not a programmer and only know how to break things, I’m depending on my recall of the conversation and could be totally full of it and got it all wrong. This Esc has been a glitch for me for a really long time.

This argument is not convincing in the age of multi-core processors. The most likely cause of this problem is that Rhino rarely uses more than one processor core.

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Please provide repeatable examples so we can find the time problems and fix them.

To quote a meme, “that’s not how that works, that’s not how any of this works.”

Are you asking for a model to be sent to you? It could be several GB, do you have an FTP for such things?

Yes. There’s a link on the Support page for uploading large files to support.
Please include the details in the comments on the form.

Thank you

I’ll try to get to it over the weekend. I’ll sent one part that I’ve needed to explode the mesh. This model will be confidential data. Please do not share it or post it.

The repeatable example for MeshOutline:

  1. make a box
  2. Array 30 x 30 x 30, any spacing; you will end up with 27,000 boxes.
  3. Run MeshOutline on these
    That’s it. It should take several minutes at least of Rhino going into a freeze mode, with no way to cancel. With this particular command it’s either the number of objects or the object’s complexity.

Asking for repeatable examples of files for this general request to make more commands Escapable is too generic. Take any of the commands that was requested and logged into YT for ability to ESC and make the scene/operation complex enough (like the simple sample above) and you will have plenty of “cases” to test this and implement esc-stop. You guys just need to realize how important or disruptive it is to experience these freezes. Even for experienced users that know what to expect from Rhino and when it would get into that frozen mode with some commands, it’s hard to avoid this. Many times we wish we saved just before running this so we can kill the process instead of waiting to finish it math-crunching-non-escapable-code. As I am writing this the above example is still processing, 8 minutes so far; time to kill the Rhino process…

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Thank you.
I’ll give that a try.

Added to @GregArden’s pile:
https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-63136

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Hi @all, please add our commands to this topic:

thanks,
c.

Could you post a link to the Support Page, please.

Hi Gary, Here you go…

Upload form page.

It asks for a recipient’s email… who should I enter and what is their email?

@gary.core

My guess Greg Arden
@GregArden

https://www.mcneel.com/contact
(all McNeel staff emails on the right column)

Only works for Seattle office e-mail addresses if you happen to be situated in North America. Here, that gets you the McNeel Europe staff and e-mails. (yes, I have complained about this)

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thanks Mitch, i did not realize that.

So, now who do I send the file to? Please give me an email address in your return email.

I’ve tried 3 time to upload the file and it is either timing out or exceeding your FTP capacity, it flat out fails.

Regards,

image005.png

image006.png

The Core - Gary R Fulkerson, CEO - 10185 Elizabeth Lake Road, White Lake, MI 48386 - 248 819 8052 - gary.core@comcast.net

Being able to ESC opening of an large file (IFC etc) would be great too.

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