The latest Rhino 9 WIP has a new feature called “Instant Aliases”. Any alias can be made instant in that it immediately executes as soon as you type the letter or letters for an alias without needing to press enter or space.
The aliases options page has a new column with checkboxes for setting individual aliases as “instant”
I’m wondering how you capitalize/lowercase letters if you are using Shift to suspend instant aliases (sorry, can’t access a Serengeti machine to check for myself right now).
Hi Steve, did you mean to say that they are NOT case sensitive? Which means that the shift key will be ignored as a capitalization input, and used strictly as an instant-override?
The first use I would have with this feature is to use the keys:
4, 6, 8, 2 to position the camera on the left, right, top view, etc. (like in Blender, which I find very practical).
I just tested it, and the numeric characters are ignored. So I tried with A = '_SetView _World _Top, it works very well but not when a command is activated.
For example: I am in the top view, I activate the _Box command, I draw the base rectangle, then I press SHIFT+2 to switch to the front view and make the extrusion of the box. Using SHIFT for instant aliases can avoid conflicts in commands that would have an option with the same key (e.g., _Box / 3Point and SHIFT+P).
Switching from one view to another during a command is an operation I perform hundreds of times a day.
That scenario sounds pretty difficult to get right as numbers are very common to input while you are inside of a command. It may be better to use the keyboard shortcuts of CTRL+4, CTRL+6, CTRL+8, CTRL+2 to get this functionality (I know there’s a lot of overlap between keyboard shortcuts and aliases…)
Tap the Space bar, then Rhino will know that you want to bypass the instant alias as you type in the Command line in the next few seconds. This is a much easier to execute than having to press any hold the Shift key.
I proposed that several years ago in another topic about making better aliases in Rhino 7.
Tapping the spacebar has always immediately performed a repeat of the previous command. We have discussed a “not so instant” delay that could be defined, but I wanted to get a minimal implementation out for feedback first.
This is a very useful feature
When I am doing SubD modeling, using aliases to select vertices, edges, faces, and objects means I don’t have to press the spacebar, which helps improve efficiency.
We were only talking about when we are in a command, I was taking the example of changing the view (Left to Front) to draw a cube. I see very few instant aliases useful during the execution of a command (apart from moving the camera), so the constraint of using a modifier key is quite limited.
@stevebaer
I think I will try to use an external input device such as a numeric keypad or a remote control like XPPen. I don’t know yet how to configure it, but it could be useful if inputs like these are supported.
Yeah, unfortunately, Spacebar doubles what Enter does, making it less useful compared to the expanded number of commands that could be implemented via the former.
I use the space bar a lot, especially with my left hand, it’s very convenient.
I have already tested using the combination ALT+Space or CTRL+Space to activate and deactivate the command line. It’s not too bad. It’s a common combination often used in code editors for auto-completion.
Is that not right-click or enter? Why do you need three shortcuts for one thing in Rhino?
What Bobi said is a better solution, because tapping something once is easier than holding down a modifier key (which often requires two hands, ie letting go of not just the 3d mouse, but your regular mouse as well, and essentially stopping work… seconds, but it adds up, which is what this improvement is about).
Not to mention that the Spacebar is the best modifier key, because it’s very wide and covers almost the entire range of letter keys. With the same fingers on my left hand I can press Spacebar+A, or Spacebar+H, or Spacebar+L. You get the idea.
Also, it lets you press the keys faster and with a lesser amount of failure (for example, sometimes I hold Caps Lock instead of Shift).
By the way, the Rhino developers can get some inspiration from the proposals in this topic:
To be clear, I meant that I want to hit the spacebar once to signal to Rhino that I want to type a command line command, not to use it for an instant alias.
(Which, btw, would also make it consistent with Grasshopper!)
I also see a discussion above regarding instant aliases while inside of a command which I don’t understand that at all. Instant Aliases should naturally be disabled if another command is running, or at least any input should be piped to the running command first, and if it doesn’t want it, check for instant aliases second. That part feels like a solved problem (just look at how literally any other program does it).
if there would be any way to achieve that, that would be so terrific, maybe its possible to contain the numbers within that field without triggering other stuff.
would it also be possible to use , and . as instant aliases? on mac v7 that was still possible though there it was rather a command (i could of course also live with that) but the effect is the same, and if it worked there maybe that could work for everybody in v8/9?
I even wrote that several years ago in at least 3 other topics.