SketchUp refugee here.
After SketchUp’s recent “updates,” I’m looking for a new home — and Rhino looks very promising!
I’ve already got navigation and shortcuts feeling somewhat SketchUp-like (big thanks to ChatGPT), but there’s still one thing bugging me:
In Rhino, pressing a shortcut like R still needs an Enter. In SketchUp, it’s just one tap and you’re flying.
Is there a trick to making Rhino just go when you hit a shortcut key, no Enter needed?
Trying to regain that fast, lightweight feeling.
You know how Rhino works, right? How is that possibly supposed to work? How do you distinguish between “R” as a shortcut and “r” as the start of one of the dozens of commands that start with it? All the proposals how to do it are TERRIBLE, contrary to all tenets User Interface design.
To everyone who keeps bringing up this silly idea, if you want you can get a second keyboard and put custom macros on it, that’s what editors do.
i really love that feature, it just works better in the testcommand on the mac v8 currently without any hick ups, there you unfortunately have to turn it on each time you start a new session.
though that idea is indeed intriguing, how would you go about using the second one with macros without remapping all the keys to some arbitrary symbols with some vodoo 3rd party programm? if not then you just have the same keys as the first one, i suppose.
Appreciate the info.
I’m brand new to Rhino, but from what I see, it has serious potential — especially now that SketchUp seems to be falling asleep.
When one giant sleeps, it’s the perfect time for others to rise.
There’s a reason SketchUp dominates in construction and architecture — it’s small, fast, and easy, like a city car.
Most projects don’t need a Ferrari; they just need something that gets them there quickly.
If Rhino introduced a “lightweight mode” for speed and simplicity, it could open up a huge opportunity.
No we can see the results of the efforts so far to copy Sketchup and it’s been users who have no understanding of the fundamentals of NURBS modeling–which is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT FROM SKETCHUP, it’s a mistake trying to just transfer your workflow 1:1 just like if you were moving to Rhino from Solidworks–and just flail around producing “push-pull” garbage that support has to try to fix.
Also this is CAD, not Fortnite, the concept you are “saving” anything avoiding that Enter key is utter bunk, it becomes a single gesture it does nothing(which makes me think of a REALLY interesting experiment to try…) Also note that in Rhino you can assign whatever you want to a macro an execute it with name+enter, just like any regular command, and that’s way more bloody useful. And Rhino is not a house-sketching app, it’s a development platform.
It feels more like a cross breed between driving a Honda with vtec going 0-60 km/h in 18 seconds and a Subaru: enjoyable to drive but damn those warning lights come on offten after warranty.
Sometimes it can be a hellcat you smile as the engine roars and the speed it makes until you blow up the engine.
I’ll add that the right mouse button defaults to mapping the Enter key. I can type a letter, then right click and done.
I don’t recall seeing anyone else mention this on the forum, but here’s what I do to get single key functionality.
I’ve got 3 gaming keyboard/mouse devices that are programmable. They can have separate app profiles that automatically detect the current app. There are a number of vendors out there, but I use Razer. Almost every key/button can be remapped to another key or macro key sequence. My Razer Naga Trinity mouse has 12 side buttons. My Razer Tartarus V2 keypad has 20 keys, a scroll wheel, 8-way thumbpad, etc. I have setup a Rhino3D profile as well as profiles for a number of other apps.
I know 3Dconnexion has similar capabilities with their devices. I have an older Spacemouse, but I use that mostly for controlling my views.
Love folks who want features from software they know longer want to run. They cherry pick out some “features” that need to be implemented because they are sooooo much better.
Tell ya what I think about “shortcut keys”. They suck in all applications. I run a LOT of different programs, they all have various “shortcut keys”, yea, uh huh, I am going to remember all those different combos. Sure, right. Shortcuts may be good for folks who run one, maybe two apps all day long. That is not what a lot of us do. I run Rhino, Corel, Aspire, 3D Coat, Blender, Nomad Sculpt, UGS and a few other sundry programs. Sure, I am going to remember all their clever little shortcut keys. Too funny,