Dislike both of these options. Hovering is invisible and will cause confusion for users (fine for cursor tooltips - it doesn’t change function just pops up info.) And using RMB/LMB would stink for users who want snappy to be default. But if it were selectable (user would decide whether LMB or RMB would be the snappy one, as you suggest in your other post) would be fine IMO.
And I also don’t like the suggestion of adding something else to click on in the gumball itself. It’s hard enough to click what I need to click as it is.
@Joshua_Kennedy 's solution of tapping a key would be better for me.
I specifically emphasized that it could be done the other way around, i.e. the default mode with the LMB could be set to “Snappy dragging”, while the RMB will activate the “Smooth dragging”. This is the best possible way, other than having an alternative arrow handle next to the existing one.
The tooltip after hovering over the arrow handle literally tells the user that the dragging mode has switched from smooth to snappy, or vice versa (depending which one is set as the default by the user). I don’t think that new users will be confused.
Also, I already explained that my proposal includes an option to set which of the two modes (snappy or smooth) to be the primary one (LMB) and which would be the secondary one (RMB).
As for the extra icon next to the Gumball, it’s optional, so you could hide it entirely or change its size and distance from the origin of the Gumball. It’s already done that way with the “Menu ball” handle.
The Tab key is not used while dragging the arrow handles, so it could be used to switch the dragging mode while dragging with one of the 3 arrow handles.
One thing that is driving me absolutely nuts in Rhino 8 is that on a rectangle that’s orthogonal to the active Cplane, the scale handles of the new gumball show up exactly at the midpoints of two sides of the rectangle. Also, on a line orthogonal to the Cplane, the scale handle is on one end of the line.
In Rhino 7, the scale handles appeared at a fixed distance from the center of the gumball. And this meant that if I wanted to scale, I could scale, and if I wanted to drag using the midpoint or end osnaps, I could do that. I could do either, without turning the gumball off. Now, if I want to use certain osnaps on orthogonal objects, I need to turn off the gumball or it’s handles cover up the osnaps I need.
It’s really annoying and I’d at least like an option to make it revert to the way it worked in Rhino 7.
As far as I know, it was not possible to invert the number in the numerical field in Rhino 8 Beta. I no longer have access to my now expired Rhino 8 Evaluation, so I can’t say if that huge inconvenience was fixed in the newer releases.
If there’s a command-line option, then you can either type a key OR click on the command line, so you don’t actually have to leave the 3d mouse. (I don’t use one, so maybe I’m wrong?) Rhino already has a lot of command-line options, so I’m sure you deal with those somehow already, right?
Having a command line option will not force me to leave the 3d mouse with my left hand, that’s true.
However, the ideal solution is to implement one of the following 5 alternatives:
extra arrow handles that do not require any key tapping/holding or Command line option;
clicking on a small round icon next to the Gumball to switch between both modes;
hovering for a certain period of time (adjustable by the user) to temporarily activate the secondary dragging mode (the user also must be allowed to choose which of the two dragging modes will be primary and which secondary);
clicking on the arrow handle with the RMB to switch to the other dragging mode;
dragging an arrow with the LMB uses the primary dragging mode, while the LMB activated the secondary dragging mode (again, the user must be allowed to choose which one is primary and which is secondary).
The last two options are the easiest to implement, will not require any change of the UI and will be the fastest and most convenient among the others.
You can ta Alt to copy the object while you move it, rotate it or scale it.
Also, you can adjust the angle at which the planar handles will show up relative to the camera. I use the following settings for Gumball in Rhino 7. Keep in mind that I use 200% scaling in the Windows 10 options on a 4K screen, so some of those settings may not look right at 100% scaling. Simply modify the “Plane visibility angle” setting.
well, i learned something new. in either rhino 7 or 8, pressing alt while dragging didn’t copy, but pressing alt twice did the trick. never would have occurred to me to press alt twice if you didn’t mention it, so thanks again
I’m assuming you meant RMB activated the 2nd dragging mode. But it’s more complicated for the user (and probably for programmers) than just having a command-line option. And users would have to set up preferences which they may not even know when they start using Gumball for the first time.
Your other ‘easiest to implement’ idea of clicking the arrow handle with RMB - if you’re already dragging a gumball thing with LMB, how do you right-click on the arrow handle without letting go of the thing you’re dragging?
This is what my Rhino 7 gumball looks like. The handles are the same distance from the center of the gumball, in pixels, regardless of the zoom. They aren’t extended to the end of the selected object.
Is there a preference I changed long ago in Rhino 7 that does this? It it available to change in Rhino 8? If it exists, I can’t find it in the gumball or modeling aids options tabs, and if it is an option in Rhino 7 it didn’t carry over to Rhino 8 when I imported my options.
Thanks! You showed me how to fix one of the things that was making my transition to Rhino 8 a hassle.
Seems like that option, and any other preferences related to the gumball, should be in a check box in the gumball options, in addition to being a standalone command.
