Portable Rhino workspace?

Rhino Rhino for Windows
1

Hi all,
I started teaching Rhino in a local deisgn school. The school pc’s are running Rhino 4 with all the default settings.
I’d like to have the students to customize their workspace, but since the pc’s are shared with other classes they cannot save their settings. Is there a “simple” way for saving toolbars, keyboard shortcuts and workspace settings to a usb pendrive and to load them on the next class?
I’ve exported and imported all of my settings when changing computers, and it takes time. In this case by “simple” I mean someway to do it in just a couple of steps.
Scripts? Vba?

Thank you,
Guido

2

Hi Guido- by this, do you mean you used ExportOptions/ImportOptions, as well as saving toolbar files? You might try setting setting up schemes - if that is allowed - so that a special shortcut can open up saved/customized versions of the UI and the normal shortcut will open defaults. That might be a long shot in a school whether you can do this or not, but info here:
http://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/schemes

-Pascal

3

Hi Pacal,
yes, that’s what I’ve done in the past when switching computers or reinstalling Rhino.
I lookes at the schemes page and it looks like it might work. I could create a desktop shortcut to open Rhino using a given scheme name, and then move that shortcut to a usb pendrive. The students plug their usb keys in and ddouble-click the shortcut.
The only problem is, where is the scheme stored? Can it be stored on the usb drive so each student takes it with him and could also use it on his home pc when doing homework?

Thank you,
Guido

4

Hi Guido- the scheme is stored as a registry key on each machine. It is ‘inert’ of it is not called upon by the correctly set up icon.

-Pascal

5

Hi Pascal,
let’s see if I understood correctly.
If all the scheme settings are in a registry key, I could:

  1. create and customize a scheme on a machine
  2. create the shortcut for using that scheme and copy it to my usb drive
  3. export the registry key
  4. when I use a computer I double click the .reg file (on my usb drive) and add it to the pc I’m using (assuming I have the permisions to do that)
  5. start Rhino from the shortcut
    This way I can keep everything portable and “customize” on the fly whichever machine I use. Does it make sense?

Thank you,
Guido

6

Hi Guido- I believe what you’ve outlined will work, yes.

-Pascal

7

Would it not be more intuitive to have a menu selection in the Rhino GUI and not have to deal with any registry BS.

The heading would be under “tools or Panels” and would be titled “Workspaces” There could be some presets for specific tasks ie. modeling, rendering, etc with the option to Customize and name your own “workspace”

The Workspace selection would do this: 1) Remember the size, location and settings for of any Window, Panel, Toolbar configuration and status, and snap settings. This should work over a 1,2 or 3 monitor working area.

FYI: Most of the Adobe product line, as well as other major 3D software has had this feature set “Workspaces” for years… it is a real time saver !!!

Thank you,
Gregory