Just wondering if Rhino 9 will have a “Tutorial mode”, which will be able to display a small window consisting the currently active command along with its icon?
The user must be able to relocate that tiny window in any area of the viewport by simply dragging it and snapping it to either corner automatically.
The user also should be able to choose whether the last used command will be:
- … displayed “forever” until a new command is ran;
- … displayed while it’s active and not yet completed;
- … displayed for a certain period of time, then it will slowly get transparent and disappear.
The tiny window must not have a visible “X” to close the window, because it will be too distraction. Instead, make it so that a right-click will bring a pop-up menu to close the window or relocate it (snap it) to another corner of the viewport window(s) by dragging it with the mouse.
The width of the display window should automatically adjust to the width of the command itself.
A special case must be made for the macros, because they would consume a lot of space inside the screen. In this case, the Tutorial mode’s window will expand both horizontally and vertically to include the entire macro on-screen.
Other options for the “Tutorial mode” could include:
- Background colour and transparency percentage;
- Colour and thickness of the frame (a value of 0 pixels will remove the frame entirely);
- Adding gradient (up to 4 colours, similar to the gradient option for the viewport’s background);
- Blur (turns off the frame and makes the transition between the background and the viewport smoith by adding an alpha channel with blending;
- Font type and colour;
- Font outline thickness and colour (a value of 0 means no outline is used);
- Auto-relocate (temporarily) if the Properties panel or another pop-up window is opened. That will help to avoid obstructing the view to the Tutorial mode’s own window. Obviously, if the user opens a gazillion of toolbars simultaneously so that there is no free space inside the viewport, the Tutorial mode’s window will have to stay on top, but the auto-relocating will not work until the former closes some of the toolbars.
- Size of the active command’s icon and name. I think that making it 200% larger than the toolbar icons by default will work best for most users;
- Corner radius (set a value of 0 for a sharp rectangle shape). A radius of 20-30 produces beautiful window shape if the icon size is 200%;
- Distance from the viewport’s border in pixels (20-30 pixels by default is a good default value);
- Overlay priority (on top of everything or behind the geometry).
