Hi, I cannot find the toolbar setting in Rhino 8(see below screenshot). Is there another way to import a toolbar in Rhino8?
Short answer: you cant. (as far as I know)
Longer answer:
There is no function for importing individual toolbars like that of V7 that I have discovered in V8. The only thing you can do is open (ālinkā) an .rui file. So to āimportā a toolbar from V7 for example, you need to first create a new .rui in V7 and put the toolbar(s) you want to export in that .rui. In Options>Appearance>Toolbars in V8, you can then open (link) this .rui. You will likely have to go to Window>Toolbars, pull up the .rui in the dropdown list and open the toolbar(s).
Note you have not actually āimportedā anything. The toolbars continue to reside in the .rui and there is no way (again, as far as I know) to actually transfer them to the default library. So if you close the .rui you linked, the toolbars will be gone. If you copy buttons from the toolbars in your .rui into other toolbars that reside in default, if you close the .rui after, the ācopiedā buttons will also disappear.
Hi Mitch and McNeel team,
Thanks for explaining this Mitch. We still havenāt moved to V8 because of this toolbar mess, and declared lack of stability, so letās see if I get more clarity and a strategy at least on the customization part, while McNell works on stability:
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In V7 I can create a .RUI with all the toolbars that I want to bring to V8.
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In V8 I can āimport-referenceā that toolbar, and that .rui file has to always be accessible by any V8 installation that is trying to use its tools, because itās a link.
So far I understood that, and it seems a good strategy.
Now my questions:
Q1. If I want to update/grow the content of that .rui file, how do I do that in V8? Examples that nominal things I want to do to such .rui file with tools/toolbars:
- update icons to vectors
- modify a script/macro in a button
- add/remove buttons to a toolbar
- add/remove an entire toolbar.
Can I make those changes in the .rui file and hit save somewhere?
Or it auto saves the changes?
And if it auto-saves changes does that mean that such .rui file is not not V7 compatible? (What happens to vector icons?)
Q2. Once we figure out how to update the .rui file (questions above), when I make those changes to it, do all the users that are linking to that .rui file are seeing those changes propagated (our .rui file sliced una shared Dropbox directory with common/excact file path for all users)
Q3. What happens when one user wants to deviate/make a different tool from what was linked in the original .rui file?if copying buttons only means instancing links, this cannot be achieved? Is there a way to ācopy unique/unlinkā?
Q4. Once (if ever) I figure out how to make my V8 session customized the way I want it in one PC, how to I bring it to my other PCs? ( I use 3 PCs Desktop at studio, desktop at modelshop, laptop for travel/home).
Thanks,
Gustavo
Hi Gustavo,
Good questions, all. I donāt have any definite answers as I did not design the system, so anything I mention here is from empirical testingā¦ and all I can answer is Q1 and maybe part of Q2 for now, all the rest are completely up in the airā¦
Yes (apparently and partially)ā¦ I think the general rule here is āWhat happens in .rui stays in .ruiā 
I tried copying a button from one toolbar in the .rui into another toolbar in the same .rui. I then saved the .rui via Options>Appearance>Toolbars and hit the gearwheel icon, there is a āSaveā option under it. It popped up a message that the .rui file was saved. I have no idea how to do this via a macro/alias as I could in V7:
! _-Toolbar _Collection _SaveAll _Enter _Enter would save all open .ruiās in V7
But there is no path for this in V8 via either -Options or -Toolbar.
Deleting and adding buttons is still junky, youāre likely to end up with stuff that looks like this:
(thatās two text buttons on top of each other)
No, it does not as far as I can tell.
I think that would be the caseā¦ I donāt know if the update would be automatic as changes are made or if you would need to re-load the .rui file though.
Q3 and Q4 I cannot answer - but I fear the worst.
Oh, and as a precaution, always make sure you have an open window next to where you are testing this stuff - that way, if you get the sudden urge to throw the computer out the window, at least you wonāt break any glassā¦
Thanks for the feedback and validation Mitch. We had a big discussion about this at the studio and this was our summary of the situation (me paraphrasing):
āThere are some nice things in Rhino 8, but Rhino 7 is working just fine for what we need, so we are happy to wait until V8 works well for us weirdos running everything custom and scriptedā
Iāll try to test some of this stuff when time allows, but luckily our days are busy doing billable work so Iām not sure when or if Iāll have time to test this. Maybe over Xmass break or somethingā¦
G
Itās under Appearanceā¦ Toolbarsā¦ Newā¦
You can save your own toolbar from Rhino 7 then add it into Rhino 8 as new.
For me itās working.
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Thanks allā¦ good to know the situation
Cool, thanks foreigner.
I have try the way you mention. But with no luckā¦I guess I have add my custom toolbar
But I cannot show it on the modelling space. Did I miss something?
Options>Appearance>Toolbars - Newā¦ only allows one to create a new, blank .rui. One can then create new toolbars in that .rui.
If you are looking to import toolbars from V7, you still have to populate the .rui with toolbars in V7, as there is no mechanism to import toolbars into a .rui while in V8.
I donāt remember the progress, but I creat the my own toolbar in rhino 7 then saved my own toolbar on somewhere location on my system then use that toolbar in rhino 8 as expected by opening that toolbar.
Yeah, I hear you, especially as you have a business to run, clients to satisfy and personnel to payā¦
I have time here as I donāt have any personnel to pay and client support doesnāt take all my time. However, given that my clients are now buying V8ās I need to be able to tell them what they can and cannot do and how to adapt their V7 and earlier working methods to V8. I therefore need to be working in V8 as much as possible and I am already behind on that score.
Given the current structure of the toolbar system, I have decided on the following tactic:
I have a bunch of custom toolbars, mostly they are text-only or icon+text which function as pop-ups from a custom bottom toolbar row (docked above the command line) or dropdowns from a modified top toolbar row. The left side toolbar is basically sorta default with icons re-arranged and some button images modified.
So, again using the axiom āWhat happens in .rui stays in .ruiā, I will create both new top and bottom toolbars that reside in the custom .rui That way everything is consistent - all the really custom stuff stays entirely in the .rui. The minor mods I make to the default library left side toolbar will be saved in the settings file, everything else in the .rui.
Yes, thatās exactly what I said.
I think you should use a legal copy of Rhino to get the support.
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Good catchā¦
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that is logged as RH-77523 Rhino needs a restart to be able to see a deleted button
When you link a rui file from v7, changes made in v7 will keep showing up in v8, changes in v8 are made and stay in v8 without affecting the toolbar in V7, in other words, Rhino saves only the changes it has made to the toolbar. A toolbar reset will also reset changes made to linked RUI files. In my testing, changes are saved as soon as they are made. If you donāt see that behavior Iād like to know how to reproduce.
Itās even more complicated as what you describe: if you copy a button from a linked toolbar to the default, and you close the linked toolbar, the buttons are just āclearedā, they stay in the toolbar as empty buttons. Once you will link the toolbar again, they magically reappear.
RH-78592 Copied toolbar buttons are āclearedā when copied from a linked toolbar
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This will come soon RH-77225 Toolbar: Make it scriptable
Man, thatās just so complicated and unpredictable. OK, I would never link an .rui I was also using in V7, all the things that I do in V8 are done on COPIES of .rui files that I made in V7 that have been placed in V8ās UI folder. I DO NOT want any crosstalk between V7 and V8 in that regard. I sincerely hope also that saving an .rui that has been modified in V8 and then copying that to be able to open it in another installation will actually work and have everything. The idea of saving differential changes made to a .rui somewhere else other than in the .rui file itself is a recipe for disaster.
Another recipe for disaster. In V7 and earlier ToolbarReset would reset the default.rui but leave any customized .rui strictly alone.
I tested this previously and it did not seem to be the case, I will test again and get back to you.
Edit: yes, it does seem to be saving immediately now without having to manually hit the save button.
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I agree with you that this new system is overly complicated. All I can do on my end is to make sure all anomalies get logged.
And while I am at it, trying to see the current state of things, it gets even more complicated 
Rhino automatically saves the edits to the linked toolbar, but there is a catch. Once you go into Options, Appearance > Toolbars and explicitly save the changed linked RUI file, it now becomes a Rhino 8 rui. This file cannot be read anymore by Rhino 7ā¦
The good part: now changes will survive after a reset, if you care to re-link the rui. So that would mean that this is (partly) covered. I agree that the changes made to this rui should be kept when performing a reset though
Iāve logged RH-78594 Modified linked toolbars from Rhino 7 should be saved under a new name
OK, thatās fine, backwards compatibility of .rui files V8 >> V7 is not one of my concerns.