I would like to see a mode in Rhino for Direct Shortcuts. Meaning I can tap L and immediately draw a line. I could tap W to initiate the Move command etc.
Now I am a long term Rhino user, so I am not after changing the way Rhino works with the commandline. Instead, I would advocate for a new Direct Shortcut mode that you can activate to switch keyboard input to feed the commandline to keyboard input to Shortcuts. In this Direct Shortcut mode, there would be the option to, for instance tap Spacebar to then activate the command line.
THIS SHOULD NOT REPLACE ANY EXISTING FUNCTIONALITY, SO DONâT WORRY ABOUT THAT IN THIS THREAD.
When working with the new Constraints feature, I feel like it would be so much easier if I could switch to Direct Shortcut mode to work the way I am used to from Fusion 360 (FreeCAD seems to work that way as well). The reason is, youâll need to use many constraints and youâll need to use them in rapid succession, perhaps moreso than when you are modelling. This mode would therefore save a lot of keypresses, hand strain and time in the long run.
Direct shortcut should activate any command with any single button keypress, this shouldnât be available only to the function keys, it should include the numpad, numeric row, symbols and letter keys as well as the tab key.
I really hope this could be considered in the future!
Well, you can have roughly 50 commands mapped to a single key. So thatâs a start.
The best way to add this is context sensitivity. So if you are in Surface modelling mode, youâll have these 50 keys available and in Sketch mode you can have them anew, etc. Blender does this and thatâs the absolute best way I have seen. For instance, if you work in a panel, such as the layers panel, this panel is seen as an entirely new context as well.
In Blender, you need to activate a mode with a dropdown, keyboard shortcut or pie menu. In Fusion 360, the context is based on which toolbartab is active. So if I open the surface tab in the default toolbar, Iâll get my surface context.
For all the other commands, you can hit a hotkey and switch back to the âlegacy/ defaultâ mode that we currently have and do your thing. Or, hit a hotkey to go to the commandline and type your alias or search for the command.
Option 2 is to automatically activate an alias with 2 characters and up if the sequence was pressed. So LI = Line in this example, typing L does nothing, typing LI activates the line command. This shaves off all the repetitive spacebar activations. Itâs what Revit does, and Inventor might too. Not as efficient as single hotkey, but it could be an asset for a âLegacy/Default+â mode.
Option 3 is to reduce spacebar activation is by using modal hotkeys, like blender does. So if you need to change a command option, youâll type the underscored letter only. Thereâs no need to press spacebar if you typed the correct letter to begin with.
If you would like some clarification of these, please let me know.
I already have some 250+ aliases and know how I want to setup my hotkeys, but would need shift and shift+alt options available to me to implement my scheme.
I personally really notice the many daily spacebar activations. Considering the many options to circumvent it, I really do hope that this will be possible one day.
I have also asked for this before. Itâs also like that in SketchUp, modo, and lightwave. You save at least half the clicks and as a result Modelling feels more direct and intuitive.
I see several ways to implement it. The safest is to create a panel in the preferences that allows the user to choose this mode (off by default), set his shortcuts (characters and modifiers) and a special key (spacebar) to temporarily activate command input mode.
How many times does someone whoâs job consists of writing emails and using Excel hit the spacebar?
It doesnât matter how long the alias is, it becomes a single âgesture,â thatâs more important than this desire for modalities to cram 50 aliases onto one key, which leads to errors and slows down learningâit makes learning to do anything without having to think about it to make sure youâre in the right âmodeâ pretty much impossible, actually. See Jef Raskin, " The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems."
I really donât care that 3D software X does some interface thing. Theyâre all uniformly terrible, absurd messes of goofy trends and archaic nonsense. No one does proper testing. Yes that includes Rhino. Google canât stop screwing up Gmail and they have more resources than the entire CAD industry, thereâs no way theyâre going to be any âgood,â there is only âwhat I am familiar with.â
I am aware of using multiple keys, but at some point there is a limit to how much I can memorise before having to look up an alias.
It would have been nice to have a search bar instead of doing all the scrolling through the list.
And for those who say: âhey you can also customise the toolbarsâ - yeah thatâs not my thing. Also, the icons, unfortunately donât click with me in terms of seeing what command they represent.
The spacebar thing is more that, since you HAVE to press it after letâs say W, you basically strain your entire hand, unlike when you are typing, where you move the fingers more gently. Itâs subtle, but different.
Direct/ Single hotkey mode (as it is known in Alias) helps by making those commands that you use most often and most repetitively available at one keystroke. As with all the options I outlined above to access commands by keyboard, having quick access to the majority of the tools offsets the additional key required fir accessing less common commands. And what I propose here is that you can even switch between modes. In that case mode switching by hotkey (or UI button) takes two inputs, but that already grants less overall inputs if you used that to access 2 or more commands without spacebar.
It might be that you are right, but you see, people are weird. There are some of us that like to work another way and all we are asking is to have the possibility to do so. I donât see how a toggle to allow this mode should affect you. If you donât like it, donât use it.
Thatâs just trolling, I know what I am saying. And I know that this is how I want it. Having used dozens of different kinds of software, I know what I am talking about with shortcuts. I have configured each of them and know the possibilities and limitations. Outright dismissing this request is not constructive at all. Itâs your opinion, donât like it donât use it. But donât come and complain here.
This is also a long-time wish of mine (based on other software uses and efficiency of such shortcuts). But I have to start by saying I love Rhinoâs command line, I canât imagine it going away anywhere, so I am sure nobody is asking to mess with the concept that has been working so well for everyone for a long time.
So it gets a bit tricky, as the ideas and discussion above shows.
The ideas below could be implemented as âoptionalâ, not destroying current workflow for anyone that does not want to/like to change how they work, but maybe possible to implement or at least consider and refine by RMA.
How about âfreeingâ the Spacebar key and making it an optional key modifier that could work as instant key shortcut when combined with regular keys? We already have Enter and RMB. The good thing about spacebar is that its easy to combine with any key around one-handedâŚ
Another option: use âShiftâ + key as instant shortcut. Rhino commands are not case-sensitive, so typing lower-case would be still standard command line behavior⌠Two potential issues with that: a) less convenient to use one-handed, b) Rhino would need to be smart enough to know when user types command input like layer names, etc. and actually wants to use UpperCaseâŚ
We have a bunch of in-house scripts where Shift+key instant commands shortcuts are implemented not to interfere with Rhino command line and keyboard shortcuts UI and it works quite well.
Same as above, but with âAltâ - is that an option?
Currently we actually use a wide array of instant shortcut keys in Rhino that are implemented via script that uses MMB as the modifier key. Basically if MMB is down, keys behave as instant shortucts. It may sound odd but quickly it becomes a habit one does not even think about. That script includes key combos with MMB that one can assign actions to as well, like Ctrl+MMB, Shift+MMB, etc. which is also super handy. So for those that would not want to lose their current MMB functionality, it may be implemented as Modifier+MMB, freeing up the rest of combinations for instant shortcuts etc.
I personally donât like context-aware actions and shortcuts that change depending on mode, itâs really hard to wire the brain around these, so I would not vote for any of that. But adding some * optional * way of instant shortcuts in Rhino would be a much welcome update.
Whatever you want. L could also be used for Polyline. The logic is all up to the user, I would configure this so that I can work with the Constraints as best as possible. So you could think about using L as line and configure your other most used commands to be one key shortcuts.
Then you can do something like:
Shift = Layer based
Alt = Constraints
Ctrl = Solid
Ctrl + Shift = Surface
Alt + Shift = Selection
Ctrl + Alt = Opening dialog windows
Ctrl + Shift + Alt = vertex operations
And expand on the fly.
E: Do note that this is for the more infrequent commands. And you can always have a command mapped to any button (e.g. spacebar) to search the command line. So then it becomes single hotkey and the rest is still easy to be found (Grasshopper also defaults to space search, so thatâs not as much of an issue to me as confirming afterwards). The difference is the repetition of spacebar vs regular typing where you use two thumbs on the spacebar.
And, Rhino could be context sensitive as I said. So if I have a surface selected, the hotkeys could go to Surface mode. If I have any of the SubD (sub-) selections, it does SubD commands, with a closed polysurface it does solid commands, with Curves it does curve commands, with sketch items Constraints, etc.
So L could be: Line without selection, Loft with a surface edge selected, SubD loft with SubD edge/ loop selection, etc.
You set a mode. With the mode set, youâll see the command line greyed out. So, you tell the command line not to listen to input until you ask it to do this again. This could either be a toolbar button (enable/ disable toggle) or a hotkey or even a Hit this hotkey first so you can type in the command line
This is not rocket science really. The difficulty is probably in rewriting Rhino to make the commandline a less centralised thing. And this happens without affecting the workflow people use now (they would simply toggle this mode off and that could be the default). Donât use preferences for this, it needs to be easily accessible to quickly change it on the fly if need be.
