Is there anybody who would even consider removing the command line?
I type more commands than I press buttons and it’s one of the things I like the most about Rhino.
Don’t recall that one…
Might have been Doug Jones… that was a long time ago. However, if you are comfortable with creating your own toolbars, there have been about a million scripts posted here that do everything from A to Z… There are even some that include toolbars… like mine. I started of a major revision of my setup for Windows (it’s 3 years old), but it’s unfortunately not going to get done any time soon…
–Mitch
Yes, I was thinking of Doug Jones.
Well, lets trod that path then.
No, but there was more to it than only the existing menus and tabs - useful dialogs supporting “wider” use cases, or workflows. Perhaps even customizable dialogs are present, if so, then lets strat creating new UI stuff ourselves.
But good UI’s, that serves a purpose (workflow) to the extent that it can have a dedicated name, really needs to be shared. Only few individuals would have the skills, or time, or patience, to actually learn how to create a valuable theme.
Also McNeel could make some specialized themes, if for no other reason than to make us shut up regarding intimating UI stuff… 
// Rolf
Interesting. Will it work for Rh5?
// Rolf
That maybe one I did, I think it was started with v1 and finished in v2. Each button was a tiny render of 3d geometry. It was available for render on rhino3d.com but I can’t find it anymore.
Now I use a mostly default one, so I can easily do quick hands-on on colleague’s workstation.
The things I change:
-I remove the right-click command on all buttons that are on top of expandable toolbars, so that a right-click quickly expands the toolbar
-I fill the blank spaces below the left main toolbar with often-used groups of commands like “Analyse”, Edge tools, etc.
-I fill the blank spaces on top with custom buttons
And for those who want an up-to-date UI design, this just in:
The command line is handled differently in the Mac version, it’s hidden most of the time and you just start typing to use it iirc. It’d be nice to have that as an option in Rhino for Windows…
As exciting as a larger ui refresh would be, there don’t have to be huge changes made to improve things. For example the gumball is GREAT and it’s such a small addition. If anything fixing what’s already implemented would go a long way. The inconsistency between toolbars and panes, how tabs function, where things can and can’t be docked etc. is irritating at best. All of the customization is great, but if that’s the main goal it could stand to be more user friendly than it is now.
To tack on to CountryGolden’s comment about the user-friendlyness of customization, yeah, there could be some improvements. For instance, how about a way to save the current setup and have it stick? I rarely have only one instance of Rhino running, and often lose changes I have made to my toolbars because I forgot to close all the other instances before the one in which I made the changes. Saving the toolbar files does nothing if other instances don’t flag the changed RUI and offer the option to preserve or overwrite it.
I keep my customized toolbar files in Dropbox so I can access them from both work and home, and if I leave a file open at home and then make changes while at work, I have to remember to open a fresh file at home before I close the existing open one or I lose those changes.
One advantage to allowing users to tailor their setup is it permits those with larger, high res screens to take advantage of the extra real estate by adding more buttons to their toolbars. I would hate to be stuck with a lowest common denominator setup.
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I have good retention with my students. You might look at your teaching methodology if people are turning away in droves. Breaking out lessons into smaller pieces with an initial focus on navigation helps with the overwhelm factor. Some people are just going to want lower powered software like sketchup, not much you can do about that.
While I am no fan of the “new” multi-tab icon system, it isn’t a problem as I simply don’t use it. I do find that new folks like the tabs though, as they can have a graphical example of the commands while they don’t seem to suffer from overwhelm. The general number of icons on the standard toolbar seems fine, not any worse than adobe products, for instance.
Otherwise, the quantity of commands is on par with many cad systems. The students can always ignore the icons and use the menus or command lines. Whether that is a more user-friendly approach that is another matter, but either way an excess of icons seems an odd problem to me…
Unless we are talking about the Mac version, which is a complete mess, I can’t even get into it right now. I hate the UI, which is a strange thing to say about software hosted by the mac OS, but then again mac OS itself is going downhill with meandering bloat anyhow. I strongly encourage my students and clients to go with the PC version.
I am fine with the UI on it except for the fact that toolbar files are VERY dificult and annoying to manage- if there was a section in the preferences that was more useable in terms of toolbar management that would be great, as I never have any luck with what is there and scratch-rebuild my toolbars after loss at least twice a year. In the end it is actually a good thing for me, so when I sit on a client’s machine to consult I am not too tied to my own workspace, but I don’t think that an entropy of workspaces is normally considered a desireable feature.
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Exactly !
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So true!
+1, I’m a user, I just feel I’m still in 10 year ago . 