Feature request: An alternative camera navigation

Rhino Rhino for Windows
1

As we all know, Rhino already offers a bunch of different modes for camera navigation. However, it would be nice if Rhino 9 or Rhino 10 could offer a new mode that focuses on easy targeting and rotating around the manually clicked point of interest (if the mouse pointer was on the object upon clicking with the RMB) or around the center of the scene (if the mouse pointer was not over an object).

While manually picking a center (target) of rotation, a temporary circle should appear for a brief moment to give a visual indication where the new point of interest will be located.
The same applies when panning the view, except that in this case the temporary circle should appear always in the center of the viewport, letting the user know where the center of rotation will be after the end of the panning.
My 3d mouse (SpacePilot) has a similar option to show a temporary point of rotation, with 3 options: Always, Never or Only during camera movement.

I can see this as a convenient way to navigate the camera on tablets or touch-screen laptops or monitors by a finger or a pen.

The product web page of “Lidl”, the German version, is a nice example of how the aforementioned camera navigation mode can be implemented in Rhino. I also recorded a short video to show it in action, but my recommendation is to visit the link and try the camera navigation by yourself.
Note: You have to pick the 3rd photo in the link, then click on “3D Ansicht” to activate the 3d viewing mode.

2

Hi Bobi, how much does a 3D connexcion mouse do in this type of navigation?—-Mark

3

The 3d mouse is extremely usable. At least for my taste and needs.
I know that some people don’t like to navigate through a 3d mouse, or simply can’t learn to use it as intended and give up quickly.

My proposal is for those who don’t have or don’t like to use a 3d mouse. I believe that they will benefit from this kind of simplified camera navigation through the regular mouse, a pen or a finger (on a touchscreen). The camera targeting and reposition in this “Lidl” website is more reliable and feels more natural than Rhino’s default approach.

4

Blender has a ‘walkthrough mode’ that I find very useful to inspect models and get a good camera angle. You use the arrow or WASD to move like you’re in a first person shooter game.

5

Rhino also has a similar “First-person waking mode”, but it’s quite rough and lacks the typical smoothness of camera rotation and walking speed seen in video games.

6

Like Alias’ “point of interest” viewing, would be very useful in Rhino also.

7

Yeah I actually find it useful as a tool to inspect a part assembly. Fly under the PCB, look around at the clearance between the housing, make sure bosses are correct etc. Provides a nice alternative way to check things. Be nice if it was smoother in Rhino.