I would love to see an alternate version or improved version of the handle curve that has the full functionality of Bezier illustrating/Vector programs or pen tools in a wide variety of programs (Illustrator, Photoshop, Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, Corel Draw, etc). The features missing are:
Don’t start with a handle, start with a control point, unless the cursor is dragged.
hold space bar down to reposition node while still dragging out handle (handle is locked during this action)
holding Alt before clicking also creates a kink, which is followed by a straight line, unless you drag out the handle when you click(Rhino has this one close to correct, but it doesn’t work for a straight line after a kink, and it is not very controllable in my experience. it requires a double click)
Double click node to create kink. The line following a kink should be straight until/unless you drag out a handle, not automatically curved like current Rhino handle curve. This version is important and used more frequently than the Alt version, because it allows you to have two handles affecting a curve that then leads into a kink, which is not possible when you use the Alt version.
Holding Ctrl allows for the adjustment of any node or handle along the curve, while you are still drawing the curve.
These improvements are not simply to copy the function of pen tools for the sake of those who already know how to use them; the improvements allow for the quick and accurate tracing and drawing of complex geometry. That is why they are common for drawing outlines for masking in photo editing and for drawing everything (other than geometric shapes) in vector graphics programs. They are MUCH faster than any of the curve tools in Rhino for drawing that sort of geometry, because can make small edits as you are drawing and you can draw every type of line in the same tool without stopping, changing tools, typing, joining, editing control points and adding control points after you finished drawing the curve.
Since Rhino doesn’t work with Bezier curves, I understand that all of that may not be possible. May I suggest a second alternative. Introduce a second version of the curve tool or the curve through points tool that has the following features.
The ability to draw continuously between straight and curved lines by using a modifier while you are drawing. I know the polyline tool and single line tool are there, but the point is that switching tools and joining lines or doing curve booleans after you draw them, requires significantly more time and effort with complex geometry. Going from Curve to Straight line to Conic Tangent at start, then another Conic Tangent at start, then another takes more time and way more clicking.
the ability to click to create both curve handle points and curve edit points by using a modifier to switch between the two.
The ability to edit the curve handles and curve edit points as you are drawing them. It would be best if both were visible at the same time, but toggling with a modifier could also work.
Totally understand where you’re coming from on this, but it’s worth pointing out that the reason why this is not how Rhino works is because more often than not, beziers are very sub optimal downstream of tracing. You might save time on tracing, but you’ll lose that time when you go to make a model from that geometry. You’re better off creating NURBS curves as simple and clean as possible, and if you want things to auto update, simply use Match with History enabled. You can also use EndBulge to move control points without losing continuity between adjacent curves. If you do a lot of this type of work, it’s highly advantageous to hotkey your most used commands. Here’s how I trace shapes - I start with a straight line, setting the appropriate end points for each piece of design intent. Then I up the degree (ChangeDegree) and point edit as needed to hit the desired tolerance.
ETA - if you’re using InterpCrv, my suggestion is to not use it. Just pretend it’s not there. It’s the worst way to trace a shape, out of all the existing ways in Rhino.
Thanks. I have seen your video before. It is a really good method for the sort of thing that you are doing. I understand that Bezier is different, which is why I proposed perhaps increasing the functionality of the Curve tool. The method you show works great, and there are many great ways to create curves, but the problem is that they are way too slow, and unnecessarily so. I have hotkeys, custom popup tool bar, and a cadmouse with radial menus, which does make me a lot faster, but it is still 5 times as much clicking and typing than having a multifunctional tool. If I were designing cars or airplane wings, I am totally onboard with taking my time to draw a few shapes, create edit points, move them around. But I am tracing thousands of complex and irregular non-smooth shapes in a single file, and have no intention of turning them, in this case, into 3D geometry.
not a perfect command - just to be mentioned: _handleCurve
which will draw a polyCurve, each segment a single Span Degree 3 with G1 / tangent continuity between the segments.
the result is quite hard to edit - fine-tune.
(use rotate / scale on single or both CVs not to destroy the continuity between the segments)
… or maybe Rhino is the wrong tool ?
if you consider an automatic tool as Gijs suggested, also explore some of the newer AI featured stuff and / or online vectorize tools…
I have used vectorize for some things, but generally for tracing hand-drawn things, or photos, scans, or low resolution diagrams it is not suitable, and in my case it is best to have clean geometry with fewer control points. I can get the results I need using the variety of curve tools within rhino, but they are prohibitively slow compared to a pen tool in Adobe Illustrator or Affinity Designer.
So why don’t I just do it in one of those? Because those programs don’t have the powerful variety of Osnaps, easy dimensioning, array functionality, alignment, precision and all the things that make Rhino great. Plus, I work in Rhino all day at my full-time job so it is currently my most fluent program.
To me, its like once you’ve used command line and variables in Rhino, you wonder why graphics programs haven’t implemented anything similar, because it is so efficient, intuitive and doesn’t require memorizing 500 shortcuts. Similarly, once you have learned the pen tool it is so much faster, efficient and accurate at drawing and tracing, which is why every graphics program and photo editing software has implemented it. Rhino has implemented something similar with the handle curve tool, but it needs to be fixed so it works like the pen tool in the aforementioned software.
