Rhino WIP User Interface Updates

What: Rhino 8 for Windows and Mac will have a more similar user interface. We’re taking what we think is best from Rhino 7 for Windows and Rhino 7 for Mac, and merging them together. Many of the changes are coming from the Windows version, so the differences are more striking on Rhino for Mac.

Why: We want Rhino to be easier to teach, learn, and use across platforms. Many tutorials are written and recorded with one platform in mind, but Rhino is different on each platform - sometimes subtly, sometimes radically. This causes confusion.

New Stuff:

1. Workspaces are a new way of saving and restoring user interface arrangements. Workspaces contain positions and arrangements of docked and floating tool windows, toolbars, and panels - on both Windows and Mac. The ability to rearrange the user interface is new on Mac.

  1. Your workspace stays correctly arranged, even when Rhino changes monitors or you install updates.
  2. Share user interface layouts between users and across platforms.
  3. Everything can dock everywhere, together. You can dock the command line, toolbars, and panels together in any dock site in Rhino. Group related toolbars and panels in “Containers” and place them in dock sites.
  4. Rhino will integrate new toolbars and buttons into your arrangements without destroying your customizations.
  5. Tabs are on the side. When docked to the sides, panel tabs are drawn to the side of the docked items. This allows for more items to be docked without cramping the tabs. Pin and unpin tabs. Mouse-over unpinned containers to expand them.

2. Clean, crisp icons throughout Rhino are displayed based on SVG artwork. Continuously resizable to fit your screen, these icons look great at any size. The bitmap editor for toolbar icons has been removed; use an external SVG or bitmap editor to make icons for your buttons.

3. Layer panel has been rewritten and behaves the same on both platforms.

New on Mac:

  1. The status bar has moved to the bottom of the window, and the panes are in the same order as on Windows.
  2. The viewport tabs moved below the viewports.
  3. Inspector panel groups on the right have been combined into one panel by default. The tabs are along the right side.
21 Likes

5 posts were split to a new topic: New UI: Text along with tab icons?

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: New UI: Text along with tab icons?

3 posts were split to a new topic: New UI: First try using Workspaces

A post was merged into an existing topic: New UI: First impressions (WTF?)

2 posts were split to a new topic: New UI: First impressions (WTF?)

4 posts were split to a new topic: New UI: Plugin toolbars and rui

There’s a lot of awesome feedback here already, but it’s going to get difficult for us to track all of this in one monolithic topic. I’m going to lock this topic and request we all post separate related topics to this. I’ll also work on breaking out some of the above feedback into separate topics too. Keep it coming…just in separate topics. Thank you :raised_hands:

2 Likes