Rhino is a dream on Windows but I’m not sure why Mac has to be so incredibly different? It’s pretty obvious Rhino isn’t some electron app that can be designed once and magically deployed into any platform, like Slack — which of course is a relief, since it would be a slow, bloated nightmare.
But… UI implementation isn’t really THAT much different between these two platforms.
The Mac interface design choices just kind of baffle me.
Why is Osnap hidden from the primary viewport selection methods? Why are those at the top of the editor and not the bottom?
Why is the console reduced down to a tiny “command” box?
The list could go on, but I’m wondering if this decision was:
A. To reduce cost/time/engineering of the Mac version to get it out the door? If so, I still don’t see why fundamental controls have to be relocated in such totally different ways.
B. Because a Rhino UI designer felt Mac was an opportunity to “simplify/streamline/modernize” the old Rhino UI layout?
C. Because the intention was to create a more Mac-native experience, and at the same time use Mac native UI elements (dialogs, etc.) supplied by Apple to save designing their own custom elements. I think there are also certain constraints imposed by having to run in a MacOS environment that influence how Rhino for Mac has to be programmed.
Whether they actually succeeded in the first (experience) part is something I personally can’t tell you - not being a hardcore Mac user myself.
What I find annoying in the Mac version is the osnaps being fixed to the left panel. Most of my students work on smaller MacBooks and I always find that area to be condensed in a small box with scroll bar. And not being able to right click on them to isolate, which I use constantly in windows.
Osnaps should be visible at all times imo. And being text based it would fit better in a horizontal strip at the top or bottom of the screen.
When Rhino for Mac was developed they started with a clean slate regarding the UI to make it fit to the Mac OS UI conventions. So it was done on purpose. Many people prefer the Mac command line btw.
To isolate the osnaps (if this is the function I intended) I use the ⌥ plus click button (it only works on the sidebar). To have an equal or customized horizontal osnap panel, you can easily and quickly create it by customizing the commands and then activate it from the active panels. In addition, you can move wherever you want.
I personal total likes the MAC UI -> For me the Windows version sees a littel bit out dated in UI experience.
I think it is a total depends on the personal preferences and how open you are to other kinds of usabilitys. I use Rhino for mac since the aplha the phase. And skipped the windows version very early because of the great workflow (for me). The alphas were a very nice constructive process from bottom up.
There is also _ToggleOsnapPanelUnderCursor which places a temporary Osnap panel under your cursor and it disappears as soon as you move your cursor away from the panel. I use it with a shortcut and it’s my preferred method as it let me have a clutter free workspace while being a very fast way of modifying osnaps.
