Can someone please explain the thought process behind guidelines being invisible except when you’re in a selection mode? This seems counter-intuitive to the intended use of guidelines. I want to see them so I know if a layout is going astray for example. Or, if I want to know where to pick, it would be good to have the lines visible so I can plan how to draw something when I’m not in a selection mode.
Thanks,
Dennis
Hi Dennis - just to avoid clutter. Do we need a ShowGuides command?
https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-46194
-Pascal
Hi Pascal,
Indeed, It would be so useful!
(BTW happy anniversary day 
)
Thanks,
Elshar
Oh, and here I thought that was birthday cake!
-Pascal
That would be excellent.
Hi Pascal, I have found guidelines super useful since they are visible through solids without going to ghosted view and faster to set up than greyed out guides on a locked layer. I agree with Dennis I want to be able to control visibility with a toggle but would like to make 2 additional requests.
Hi Abraham - you can make a few aliases or buttons to conttrol guide color in the form
! _-Options _ModelingAids _SmartTrack _GuideColor 255,255,10 _EnterEnd
For now, you can make any curve into a workable guide by putting them on a layer and setting BringToFront on them, then locking the layer. Toggling the layer visibility will toggle the guides. Not exactly the same but with some clever macros, possibly workable.
! _Select _Pause _BringToFront _-Properties _Object _Layer MyGuides _EnterEnd
-Pascal
Thanks Pascal! Much appreciated. I used Artcam earlier this year for a project that involved quite detailed relief carving on an arched surface and liked the way I could use a slider to touch up the visibility of reference guides as I worked. The slider controls the contrast of underlying guide images, kind of like a BackgroundBitmap, or of the relief layer material. Hope something like this will find it’s way into Rhino soon.
We need fairly long debate about the guides. The fewer commands, the better! We already have 931 commands. Few if any Rhino users can memorize all of them. Worse yet, there are many Tweedledum and Tweedledee commands
I would replace the two commands (AddGuide and RemoveGuide) with one command named Guide. Within this command I would give the users all the options they want.
I would have a tendency to agree with Andrew here, something like Guides or Guidelines with all the options might be more coherent. The options could be macroed for buttons.
–Mitch
How about just on or off? Easy-peasy!
Coming from SketchUp Pro where “guides” are amazingly useful, I find the “guide lines” in Rhino one of the few things where they are truly behind other applications.
I get how you can snap to a guide in Rhino. I can use the guide lines to an extent. I just wish they were as functionally beneficial as they are in other applications. Here are my thoughts (which are similar to many others on here):
Parallel Guide Lines and setting accurate distances between guide lines : In SUP I can click-drag to create a parallel guide an exact distance away. For example; I can draw a guide, and then grab that guide or an edge and draw a parallel guide, say, 10mm away. I have yet to find how to do this with Rhino guide lines. Again, I’m very unskilled so may be missing it. Can Rhino actually do this already? If so, how do you easily draw a guide parallel to another or to anything?
Visibility : Rhino guides disappear and this drives me completely insane. I WANT to see the guide lines so that I know if a part has gone passed it. Please allow us to turn on and off guide line visibility just like SUP. I get why some would want them to disappear when not being used, but that should be a toggle.
Distinguishability : I would also like the guide lines to be clearly distinguished, instead of being confused as lines. SUP uses dotted lines. Could Rhino do the same? Or make them greyed out or faded or colored or anything to distinguish them from regular lines? I could use a separate layer, but Rhino is already so “click heavy” that it’s too much extra work to do that.
Measuring : In SUP, they have incorporated guides in with a “tape measure” tool. I can simply click “t” and then measure something. Or I can click-hold to draw a guide. I can’t seem to make a connected guide line an exact distance away from another guide line. In Rhino, I have to go to “analysis” and then select “distance” or “length” to measure, but would rather use a NON-infinite guide to do that, and that remains on the screen. More, more likely, in Rhino I can draw a temporary line a specific distance and the draw a guide line from that line, and then delete the temporary line. I’d rather just do all that within a better guide-line function.
Rhino is obviously a better and much more powerful application that SUP, but that doesn’t mean that Rhino can’t learn from the few places where it’s behind. Having a robust guide line functionality would further enhance Rhino.
Thanks!
Hi @stevedeligan - Thanks for the detailed explanation! As mentioned, I’ve added these items to the wish list for the developer to take a look at. The item number is RH-58757.
any news about the birth of this command?
Still “Future”…
sounds like: burried under a big pile of paper 
Virtual paper…
Any news about this feature?
Hello- no, not in plain Rhino but some scripting may be able top help some .I’m poking at a couple of ideas.
Note the From osnap can be used to place a gvuideline a specific distance from any point.
-Pascal
Hello,
You can always Ctrl + click, to set the height of a gideline.
Just Ctrl + Click and then se the specified distance un or down