OptionsImport V7 pretty broken

Rhino Rhino for Windows
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#1

Trying to transfer a few V7 settings from one computer to another. A number of things seem not to be working. First, an .ini file was created using OptionsExport and transferred to the new computer.

Attempts here to import some individual settings by checking boxes in OptionsImport results in the following:

Mouse: No change
Modeling Aids: No change
General: No change

and the worst:

Appearance: completely messes up my custom toolbar layout because the command prompt, docked at bottom, goes to the top, while the toolbars that were docked alongside it stay docked on the bottom.

In principle, Appearance should have nothing to do with toolbars, but I think the command prompt checkbox included in there is causing a reset of the placement - which by default is on top, and getting it to stick on the bottom has been buggy from the beginning - the only way being to actually undock it from the top and then redock it on the bottom.

On top of that, importing the Appearance section does not change the stuff itā€™s supposed to - the interface colors.

Hard to believe this stuff is so badly messed up.

Oh, and also, the Help entries on both of the above are also pretty ā€˜unhelpfulā€™ā€¦

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1 Like
#2

Hi Mitch - ugh. thanks, Iā€™ll test.

-Pascal

#4

Well, in my humble opinion this whole system needs to be completely redone from scratch. The basics of this date back to V3 (IIRC); many things have radically changed to the point where some of the entries donā€™t even make sense anymore. Hereā€™s the list for reference:

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Problems

Overall:
The detail of what can be imported is confusing and no longer granular enough. Most of the options pages now have sub pages; OptionsImport mostly refers to the top-level pages, itā€™s not clear if it imports settings from the sub pages or not. In one or two cases, there are redundancies, such as General and Never Repeat Commands - which is a subcategory of General; also the Context Menu entries which are sub-pages of Mouse.

Specifics:

  • Advanced display: the name makes no sense - that refers to the pre-display mode days settings. What does this cover exactly - all of the display modes? IMO, this should be removed from OptionsImport; importing display modes should be treated separately (see later).
  • Display: what does this cover? How is this related to the above/display modes?
  • View: again, now display modes are under the View pageā€¦ covered? Not covered?
  • File: the option page is named Files. It also has a sub-page ā€œsearch pathsā€. Included? Search paths is also a separate item further down. Importing paths (including autosave and template files) is always risky as paths may differ from one installation to another; maybe this needs to be handled differently.
  • Appearance: includes languages? Colors?

All of the above needs to be completely detailed out in the Help entries as well.

Final note concerning display mode export/import:

Within the same version, normally not a problem, except perhaps if a display mode includes a custom material that references a texture file that doesnā€™t exist on the importing machineā€¦

We have had problems importing display modes from previous versions because certain types of settings had changed. IMO, we need a separate ā€œdisplay mode converterā€ module that can convert display modes to be compatible between versions - ostensibly to allow custom display modes to be imported from previous versions and work correctly.

3 Likes
Trying to import my Keyboard shorts cuts from 6 to 7. No go
#5

Same problems on MacOSā€¦

Philip

#6

In the snip from the help file that Mitch included in his original post, under ā€œOptions Exportā€:
ā€œā€¦saves Options to a file.ā€

What is the name of the file and where is it saved? Seems like this would be a good thing for the help to mention.

#7

It just brings up the standard save dialog, you can name it whatever you like .ini and save it whereverā€¦

#8

Youā€™re right; itā€™s a pretty old system. Iā€™m not sure why we are even making ini files anymore as the settings system is all xml based now and you could probably achieve what you want by copying your settings.xml file to a different computer.

#9

A post was split to a new topic: Crashing with rotating view

#10

I thought about that too, I didnā€™t do it because I was not sure if all the settings should transfer safely between two different machines/setups and simply copying the whole file over doesnā€™t allow one to choose which options one wants to transfer.

If the old .ini system is obsolete as it seems, it should be completely removed and a new system that parses the .xml settings file and allows one to choose which settings one wants to transfer should be implemented.

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