Squish on menu and icon

Serengeti (Rhino WIP)
1

Squish should be listed on the Surface menu along with Smash and UnrollSrf. An icon and inclusion on the Surface Tools toolbar would also be good.

Edit: Squishback should also be on the Surface menu.

2

https://wiki.mcneel.com/labs/advancedflattening

Squish is the preferred tool if your surface is not developable.
That’s why Smash is not on the menu.

3

@John_Brock I agree that Squish is preferred to Smash. However Squish is not on the menu. Smash is on the menu.

WIP menu 1.png512×757 43.7 KB

4

Yes, it is not on the menu intentionally.
Many Rhino commands are not in the pull-down menus.
Some missing from the pull-downs are in the toolbars.
There are some command with no U/I at all.
This is not done haphazardly.

What problem would be solved for you by adding this to the pull-down menu?

5

Problem solved would be users looking for an alternative to UnrollSrf for non-developable surfaces look at the menu, see Smash and not Squish, and assume Smash is preferred after looking on the pull down menu.

Why is Smash on the menu and Squish is not, particularly given that “Squish is the preferred tool if your surface is not developable”? My guess is Squish is not on the menu and Smash is on the menu is because Smash the older command and the menu list has not been updated. My guess is it is not “intentional”, particularly given your earlier post when you evidently thought Squish and not Smash was on the menu: [quote=“John_Brock, post:2, topic:39116”]
Squish is the preferred tool if your surface is not developable.
That’s why Smash is not on the menu. [/quote]

My guess is the change of which command is listed on the pull-down menu could be very easily made.

6

So is UnrollUV the same as Squish?

7

Hi Jody - it is not. Squish uses a completely different, mesh-based process to try to arrive at a fairly accurate development of not-truly-developable surfaces, whereas UnrollSrfUV is essentially an outdated version (V4, I think) of UnrollSrf that is useful in some cases ( FlowAlongSrf, primarily) because it preserves the input UV in the unrolled surface. It imay be less picky about strict developablility of the input, but is not designed to create accurate results from non-developable input… Neither UnrollSrf nor UnrollSrf UV should be used on non-developable surfaces if an accurate result is needed.

-Pascal

8

THanks Pascal,

9

An example from this evening of a user using Smash and not knowing about Squish until told about by an experienced user: Why this surface cant be shrinktrimmedsrf?

@pascal Can putting Squish in the Surface drop down menu be put on the to do list for Rhino 6?

10

Hi David - it certainly can be put on the list. I personally would like it if it were somewhat more developed (so to speak) as a tool before hitting the menus. But maybe that would be impetus as well, to polish it a bit. I’ll start the discussion…

thanks,

-Pascal

11

Smash is currently on the menu. If Squish is generally preferred to Smash then it should be on the menu. Or perhaps neither should be on the menu but that would give the appearance of Rhino not offering a tool for flattening non-developable surfaces.

12

Wasn’t Squish called ROADKILL at one point? I loved the icon, something like this;

1 Like
13

Icon is still here in my UI:

-Willem

14

Pascal,

May I chime in and ask for V6 to evaluate the naming of Smash and Squish…
They -to me- are both implying a forced flattening with (highly) deformed outcome.

I think it good to try and create more descriptive command names before they get into a new version again and people stumbling on them for the next years…

For Squish I’d say Flatten, but that is already taken… Expand does not cover the working quite well
Maybe ForceFlat or PushFlat. At least it’s a fresh command for V6 and the old command could be prevented from autocompleting but still work.

As for Smash…It should be something like ForceUnRoll or …

Furthermore while at it.

This page: https://wiki.mcneel.com/labs/advancedflattening
Could get some love to reflect the V6 setup of these tools.

-Willem

15

Hi Willem - I am not 110% sold on these names either. They have become somewhat ingrained to the Rhino fabric, so to speak, in the last few years, which makes it somewhat harder to change them. FlatPattern might be a plausible name, it seems to me, or …?

thanks,

-Pascal

16

Hi Pascal,

It’s a complicated matter altogether I know.

I just re-read this whole topic thread, please do so yourself. As read the conversation @John_Brock seems to have missed the point about Squish being absent in the GUI altogether.
I urge for Squish and Squishback to get a place alongsode UnrollSrf and other ‘flattening’ tools!
This is an example of sloppy GUI if it’s released like this in V6.

-Willem