Dear McNeel Development Team,
As a passionate and long-time user of both Rhino and Grasshopper, I truly appreciate the incredible work you do to constantly improve our design workflows. With the exciting UI updates rolling out, I would love to share six structured proposals aimed at further unifying and streamlining the interface to enhance user productivity.
Proposal 1: Layout Panel Enhancements
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“Change Object Layer” Shortcut: Add a quick icon directly next to each layer in the Layout panel to eliminate switching back and forth between panels.
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Dynamic Object Counter: Integrate an object counter next to the layer color indicator with a toggle for “Total” or “Detailed” counts.
Proposal 2: Seamless Grasshopper Integration
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Grasshopper Workspace Mode: Introduce a dedicated mode where the Grasshopper canvas behaves as a native, dockable viewport.
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Modernized RCP: Bring back the Remote Control Panel with a modern UI matching the Rhino 9 Command Prompt style.
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Context-Aware Toolbars: Automatically switch active toolbars based on whether the cursor is in a Rhino viewport or the Grasshopper canvas.
Proposal 3: Unified Toolbar System
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Smart Tabs: Consolidate overlapping toolbars into tabbed categories (e.g., View & Workspace, Selection & Visibility).
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Adaptive Icon Display: Show only frequently used icons by default, with advanced/lesser-used commands accessible via dropdowns to reduce visual clutter.
Proposal 4: Blender-Style Workspace Tabs
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Dedicated Layouts: Implement top-level navigation tabs for task-oriented workflows (e.g., Modeling, Sculpting, Grasshopper, Flattening).
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Instant Switching: Provide immediate access to these presets via buttons adjacent to the main menus.
Proposal 5: Visual Command-Keyboard Overlay
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On-Demand Alias Map: Implement an overlay that appears when holding the middle-mouse button, displaying a virtual keyboard where keys are mapped to custom aliases.
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Workflow Benefit: This eliminates the need for modifier keys and provides a visual reference for custom shortcuts, significantly boosting modeling speed.
Proposal 6: Scrollable Input Fields
- Mouse-Wheel Adjustment: Enable the mouse scroll-wheel to increment/decrement values in numerical input fields and cycle through options in dropdown menus. This allows for fast “on-the-fly” adjustments without manual typing.
Thank you for your time, openness to community feedback, and dedication to making Rhino the best design tool in the world. I truly hope to see these workflows considered for future updates!
Best regards,
