Relieving Rhino3d of these multiple startup focus

Hello,

Is it possible not to make the Splash Screen so intrusive with focus?


There, I have to buy a second screen… :slight_smile:
I don’t want to disable the Splash Screen, it’s handy, to get to the last file or see what’s loading.


Also with Rhino plugins is slow to start (especially with VisualArq and GHPython),
Even for 20 seconds I can open file explorer, access my mail or website, etc.
What’s annoying is that Rhino takes focus 3 or 4 times on startup. It’s annoying because during the whole charging process, you can barely use your computer.

jmv

6 Likes

That’s just how Rhino is wired up.
You’ll need to just wait, or disable the Splashscreen.

Sorry.

That’s why I’m in Rhino WIP. To make Rhino better.
It’s not just the new features that are important.
I just opened AutoCad, Unreal Engine and Twinmotion at the same time to check if this behavior is common. Well, I can check my emails.

3 Likes

Usually you can click on the tiny X button at the upper right corner to close the splash screen until Rhino loads all the plug-ins. This is what I do when I want to use another program meanwhile.

Hello @Rhino_Bulgaria

As shown in the image I’m in debug mode, no buttons work, Rhino is stopped by VS.
But I couldn’t use my screen.
And the splash screen does not resolve Rhino which resumes the foreground several times during startup.

2 Likes

Currently only way is to give /nosplash as startup argument to the Rhino process you want to debug.

I find this also super annoying and just cannot get used to it. It’s a small thing but very frustrating considering the amount of times I start Rhino per day. You click on Rhino, quickly open another window to be efficient and do some other stuff in the mean time, rhino pops up. I go back to other window, Rhino pops up again. Again to other window, Rhino pops up again.

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Maybe some plug-ins try to force focus on Rhino several times during its startup? I usually click on Rhino 7’s icon, wait for about 5 seconds for the splash screen to appear, quickly close it (no matter if I click on some recent file or just leave it blank by default) and then I’m free to use whatever other program I like. The only thing that annoys me is that Rhino’s tab at the Windows 10’s taskbar blinks a few times and remains that way coloured in red until I switch to it. No other program which needs a long time to load does that.

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That’s a little snippier reply than we usually get from you, John. Did someone tell you your baby is ugly?

It should be obvious from the tone of jmv’s original post that he’s mentioning a minor annoyance in Rhino that could be improved. I agree with him.

Unlike installation issues which are only encountered by the user once (hopefully) for each version, initiation issues can happen many times a day for some (many?) users because of their usage patterns and work habits and preferences.

Installation procedures can thus tolerate a more annoying level of poorly designed or lazily implemented processes and interfaces than startup procedures.

jmv says:

He’s identifying an issue that could use improvement, if just to catch up to the higher standard of most other programs if not to make life less annoying for a subclass of Rhino users.

I know it’s not as glamorous and innovative a thing as subD, shrink-wrap, etc. One of my pet peeves about the McNeel developer team is their apparent reluctance to revisit poorly implemented aspects of Rhino by de facto prioritizing them to “never”.

It may not be as annoying as living with a dread disease but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t or shouldn’t be better.

3 Likes

Sorry, I’ve been battling COVID for the last 3 weeks.
I did not catch the nuance that this was a request for something different.
To me it read like confusion over how it works now.

I have logged requests for a change in this behavior several times over the years. I just looked and see 4 previous requests for this. No doubt it would be a major project.
As a person that starts multiple versions of Rhino many times every day, the “focus stealing” is indeed annoying.

I’ll add another Wish List item to YouTrack.

7 Likes

That easily explains a lack of the usual good natured and patient reply. I didn’t know.

I certainly hope you are recovering and I wish you the best. Get well.

The fault was mine. I’m sorry.
I should just walk away for a while when I’m tired.

You know, I didn’t take it the wrong way at all. For me, there was nothing wrong. You told me; sorry we can’t do anything :slight_smile:

But it’s true that I’m disappointed to see that it seems more important to fill in new features than to push even further those that already exist. A software that does little but very well, it’s pleasant when you work.

I open Rhino 10, 20, 50 times by day maybe, sometimes just to take a dimension before closing it.
It’s true that it was a small thing requested (and I understand, a big project).
But this little thing has a direct impact on productivity, which for professional CAD software, is not a little thing.

Get well John.
jmv

2 Likes

The latest logged item is RH-71895 Stop Rhino Splash from stealing Focus during ing startup.

It is also annoying for devs. Logged at least in 2019

RH-54910 Rhino 7 steals focus when opening

Here is one even older

RH-14856 Startup Focus wrong

5 Likes

I think a workaround can be hooking SetWindowStyle/CreateWindowEx, requiring a bootstrapper to inject some code.

I second this wish. In the meantime I suggest to open Rhino files from inside Rhino rather then by double-clicking on a Rhino file, which opens a new session requiring a long startup wait.

could nosplash become and option in the advanced dialog at least?

have multiple screens?

May I “third” this wish as a plugin developer the triple steal of focus is rather annoying. I’ll launch Rhino from Visual studio maybe a dozen times an hour or more. I’m not willing to close the splash screen because it shows where a crash occurs and it helps reload test files quickly!

It would be super useful to be able to turn off focus stealing - particularly with 3 screens! or at least steal focus only once!

1 Like

Maybe the issue comes from the fact that the splash screen of Rhino is following some weird Windows–related rules so that it’s basically an active window on top of the main window of Rhino. A dropdown splash screen which is a native part of the main Rhino window will solve that issue. Think about the dropdown menu of the active viewport when you click on the viewport’s name with the RMB.