Post your tips and shortcuts here!!!

[kirisute]

heres an obvious one but its suprising how many people i talk to that dont realise it:

you can turn off SNAP, or turn it on, during the drawing of any object,curve etc....
so just because you start snapped to grid dont mean you have to stay snapped to grid to create your curves and objects......
i usually start with SNAP on then turn it off and turn it back on when i finish the curve.....

like i said obvious but easily overlooked!

[KBOC]

When using Networksrf, my favorite drawing command to use is either interpcrv with Osnap: Near turned on. It'll give you a well defined curve network to get you the nurbs patch very close to what you need.

Turning Gridsnap on and off, S+Enter...

[Xist]

Alt+Left Click to drag a selection box even if your pointer is right over an object. It prevents unintentional dragging, can be quite useful.

Zoom Selected If you are unable to zoom any farther just highlight any object (small ones work better) and zoom selected. It will reset your camera and allow you to get much closer.

Really small things but they've helped me in the past.

[andrewjohn81]

I didn't know the alt + left click. That's an extremely useful one.

Someone pointed out something that works better than the zoom selected though. Often you don't have anything small to zoom to.
Zoom Target (you'll need to turn some sort of snapping on, near works fine, to get it to work good)

I put it to a keyboard shortcut. In case you're new to doing that, go to options > keyboard and find a good shortcut. Something like ctrl shift Z.
Type: '_Zoom _Target
That's it. Not too hard. There are quite a few unused shortcuts.

If you're a max user than you may want to do put shortcuts that are similar to Max's for your different viewports. Unfortunately you can't have a shortcut unless you start with some modifier keys, but it's as close as you can get.
I also put a zoom selected in each one, so that if something is selected it automatically zoms to it when I switch views using my shortcuts. If nothing is selected it just changes views. I could see how some wouldn't like it, but it makes my life a bit easier most of the time.

[tilite]

i love the alt key i cant believe i forgot to mention that.

what it does is disable snaps. extreemly handy when there is alot going on.

when dragging something you can hold alt to make a copy of it.
when dragging soemthing if you hold ctrl it will now drag along a vertical axis.
when dragging something if you hold the shift key it will enable/disable ortho.

when used in different circumstances the shift key is the only one that works the same.

[Hypernaut]

I use a spacemouse which is just a great tool, so most functions mentioned above are binded to the buttons on my space mouse - almost forgot that they exist *g*

here is another handy function with the control-key if you want to create an object, that shall be directly created away from the main construction plain:
e.g. you want to create a box (corner to corner) which's first corner shall be for e.g. on coordinates 2,2,2 then follow the following steps:
go to right-viewport, and press the ctrl-key and then left mouse button at coords 2,2; then let loose key and button; when you now switch to the top or front viewport you can see that you can also direct the creation coords for 3rd axis by again clicking the left mouse button. Also very useful for creation of 3d-twisted curves!
I know I express myself a bit complictaed here (don't know how to describe it otherwise), so just try it out and you will see what I mean and find it very useful

another thing which is very useful is the project-button within the OSnap-options - good for "outlines" and plane surfaces from 3d-object's point and knots but which are needed on a plain etc.

[dukduk]

I've written a tutorial with tips/tricks/hints on rendering, mood lighting, and postworking over at Renderosity, here's the link (http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12371&Form.ShowMessage=2278452).

[7Stones]

Hey, thanks for posting these short-cuts and tips. Its nice to be reminded that some of them exist. I tend to forget a few now and then as I jump between programs for different projects.

Here's a minor tip which may or may not be obvious...

I've noticed that when working in Rhino (specifically Rhino 2) on a small area of a large model with critical detail it is not unheard of for various Rhino tools/commands to fail unless you first scale up that portion of the object or the entire object before applying the tools/commands. Once you are finished you can then scale down the portion of the model you were working on or the entire model.

[tilite]

the properties menu... properties is really great for those tweaks... it allows you to edit text/lighting/materials/object for everything in tou sceen... you can do them all at once or individual tiny tweaks.... regaurdless of there layer too. so lets say uve mad a table with a wooden cutting board on it.. here all on the same layer and you have assigned a map to that layer... you render, you realise that this cant possibly have a good outcome and you want to change the map on the board... go to its properties and change that... it still remains on the same layer as the table but the map is different.

could have some problems wiht file size??? (im not sure about the logistics) but i can tell you it does become rather messy... so use it towards the end when you cant afford to create another layer or even the very end where you need miniscul tweaks.

[Dimos]

In the tools > toolbar layout... is a toolbar (in the default toolbars) called "Object Snap". Along with the standard snaps we find in the osnap bar (in Rhinoceros v3) in this toolbar are some other snaps, that can be usefull. These snaps are usually used in the middle of a command, i.e. when picking points for a curve, and they are "from point" "along line" "between points" "on surface" "allong parallel" etc.

[sabaman]

am i the only one that doesnt use layers and just opens rhino several times?....

[kiwi8]

I always use layers but seldom name them, and use hide/unhide to no end.

Heres one that I sometimes use when rhino decides to only open in safemode, i dont know why.

Open regedit and find
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\McNeel\Rhinoceros\3.0\Scheme: Default\Options\OpenGL


delete "opengl" it and restart rhino.
it doesnt erase any shortcut or toolbar.

[Dimos]

It is usefull to change the tolerance (Rhino Options > Units), and some of the other values there as well, to small numbers, i.e. I always put tolerance of 0.001. Small tolerance gives more precision and resolves some problems that some times occur when creating, merging surfaces etc.

When things do not look and they are not like they should, i.e. surfaces do not follow the curves, some teeth around surfaces etc., despite changing the mess settings (Rhino Options > mess) there is the _Reparameterize command which eliminates many of these problems as well.

[andrewjohn81]

I always use layers, and if there are more than 4 or so I always name them. A few of the files I use have roughly 30-40 layers. If they weren't there, or weren't named the file would be nearly unmanageable.

Layers can be handy for exporting as well. If you make it a practice of putting different colored objects on different layers that can help. I don't do that though. I do it on a per part basis.

[Hypernaut]

I always use layers - its super practical to arrange and organize; some are for lines some for cutting objects, some for solids, some for backup of unsplit objects etc. And the color options make things easier of course, as do the possibilties to turn on/off and lock object in an instant without the need to selct them (which sometimes can be quiet hazardous if you have manny overlapping objects...)

[7Stones]

I can't imagine using Rhino without Layers!
Like others I use layers for...
-- Separating parts
-- Storing Setup Curves and Locked/Unlocked Guides
-- Distiguishing between objects in a complex object/scene and hiding/locking them.
-- Backing up an object before performing further operations on it (by placeing a copy on different layer which has been turned off).
-- I'll also place mesh conversions of NURBS objects on their own layer(s) as well as any lights I might assign. Eventually I save just the mesh objects to their own file and will only render from those mesh layers or files, turning off all other layers except for the lights layer.

As soon as I have more then four active layers I always start naming them and I always assign specific colors to layers. The colors I choose also represent, according to my own code, what type of objects are stored in the different layers. I tend to use reds and oranges for setup curve layers, another range of color for setup surfaces layers, and yet another range of color (grays) for finished object layers.

[maxwater]

Hello Rhinos,

"TAB" key is very useful. It constraints the direction.
This way it is possible to snap to other Curves-ends
while keeping a given direction.

Just start drawing a line, get your direction, then press
"TAB" and see what happens....

----------------------------------------------------

Ctrl-W is nice for drawing a zoom-marquee

----------------------------------------------------

while drawing a line you just can type in its
needed length. e.g just type "5.25"

or you can type in a needed amount of deegree
like "< 30" now it snaps to each 30°

----------------------------------------------------


greets,
maxwater

[furo]

am i the only one that doesnt use layers and just opens rhino several times?....

don't worry, my workflow is the same.. i've got no layers defined, i'm workin' in a few copies of rhino opened, just switching between aplications;)

[andrewjohn81]

when you start working with files that have more than a few thousand surfaces you'll see the importance of layers.

[Xist]

I don't forsee many people being able to open multiple 800 meg Rhino files at once. The only way to achieve *anything* in that situation is by using layers.

[tilite]

hey guys, lets get back on topic.

[andrewjohn81]

shrink surfaces to get rid of access stuff.
Some will disagree with me here, but they just use a different workflow. If I have to reuse a piece of geometry later I'll keep a copy of it, untrimmed, on a layer called construction, or something like that.

MergeAllSurfaces
this one is great, and a suprising amount of people don't use it. The best place to use it is on planar/degree 1 surfaces. Often times you will create/get a file that has like 3 surfaces trimmed all next to eachother to create one surface. Why aren't they one surface then? Joining them is nice and all, but they could be just one. This command does this for you. It attatches and retrims all the surfaces. And you can usually get away with not exploding as well, depending on the object.

I'm cleaning up a past employee's file right now, and these two commands are my current best friends (in rhino, I'm not That lame).

______________________________________________________
edit:

Just an added little note I found today.
I often am working in inches/millimeters and someone gives me the opposite dimension. I usually have no problems getting that, but I was curious and typed it in google. If you type it certain ways it gives the the conversion without a problem. I don't do this enough to remember all the conversion numbers, other than 2.54, but can never remember if that's even accurate.
Try it. Type something like, "convert 45.65456inches to feet" and you'll get something like this:
45.65456 inches = 3.80454667 feet
Yes, it's acually that big too. It kind of relates to rhino so I thought I'd throw it in.

[Taria]

oh cool I have a tip, now someone may say it's not a smart thing to do but it's helps me..never know. if your needing to pull points and you select the ones you need but then find you have selected the back ones as well, and you go into another view and deselect them, here's a better way. If you dont need the points on the back, try selecteding all the points to as far as you don't need then and turn them off. Hide'em so to speak and then you can pull all the points on the front without having to go a deselect cause you picked up ones somewhere else. I have had it happen so many times. you can do that with anything, even the poly meshes, just turn them back on or you'll find half your mesh gone, well not gone, hidden, it looks funny and i panicked when it happen.

btw it's under the 'HIDE' button along the bar, and it's the third icon button in (next to the word 'lock' which is another good button to use.)..just in case you don't know.

anyway there you go. I'm all excited.. I got to give a tip, not that it's much, but it helps!

[Porro]

Here is my little contribution. As I come from an AutoCAD background, and i strongly suggest to use the keyboard keys as aliases. For example you can set the "c" key as copy, or "o" as offset. You can then hit key then the space bar to enter the commands. It speeds up workflow amazingly as you dont have to look for the icons or drop menus.

Once you run out of keys on the keyboard you can use the pop-up menu set to the middle mouse button.

What i do is my most frequent commands are on the keyboard aliases, and the 2nd tier ones like surface creation tools or special line creation tools i use on the pop-up menu. I almost never have to use the left icons or drop menus again!

[caffonne]

An easy one:
RMB on command line shows you the last 20 commands used.

btw/ I can't find this command MergeAllSurfaces , does it comes with Rhino 4 beta?

[Maximus3D]

[Edit] : Problem solved on my own, sorry. A mod can delete my post if necessary as it's no longer needed (i can't seem to delete my own posts..)

Thanks anyways :)

/ Max

[sabaman]

is there anybody that mimics g2 fillets without using blend?...if so, any tips


i mostly just make a fillet, extract iso curves, then sweep with curvature on and rebuild with 6 control points,


is this the only way?....

[EquiNOX]

Well I doubt anyone could mimic fillet curve w/o blend.. How is it possible? You can either use BlendSrf or Fillet tool, thats the only other way.

[han3d]

does lowering tolerances may help on render times

[tilite]

does lowering tolerances may help on render times

If by 'lowering tolerances' you mean lowering the mesh density then, yes - it will decrease render times.

If your mesh is less dense then there is less for the comp to think about when rendering - hence faster renders, with less quality.

[han3d]

no i didnt mean mesh
i mean production unit tolerances
like 0.001 absolute tolerance etc.

[tilite]

Oh... I see :)

Give this a read it will explain better than I ever could

http://en.wiki.mcneel.com/default.aspx/McNeel/FaqTolerances.html

[Snecx]

no i didnt mean mesh
i mean production unit tolerances
like 0.001 absolut tolerance etc.

The quick and short answer is no. Tolerance is only about the accuracy of your model, nothing to do with the mesh. :)

[TadMadLad]

Wow !
I've been looking for Rhino shortcuts! I especially like the ctrl, alt ones. Getting so frutrated turning snaps on & off with my mouse.

Thanks guys, pls post some more!

[andrewjohn81]

here's a good tip. Never use blend surface or sweep. Instead, use blend to get the two (or more) curves you need, then rebuild them to be degree 3. Degree 2 will not produce good tangencies.
Then use the network surfaces tool. This has the ability to use curvature, something that is Sadly missing with blend and sweep.

One more Excellent tip: If you need a perfect quarter round and it is large enough to see from a few feet away consider making the flat surface have an ever so slight curvature. If you don't do that you will end up seeing a seam where the round joins the surface.
Try it out. You'll notice a Much more beautiful surface. This happens especially on cylindrical surfaces. Due to the way reflections happen on a perfect cylinder as soon as you break that shape you'll see a sudden change. So instead of a perfect cylinder with it's shape breaking all at one point, blend that out over a longer point and it looks Soo much better. Flat surfaces actually hardly ever look good. Try and find a flat surface on Any car. Well....on any car that looks good. I'm not talking about "the thing." lol

Hopefully that helps some of you.

And people....Use layers. Jeez
If you aren't using layers, you are Really just wasting time.

If your files are really just that small then you might even consider putting related files into the same rhino file. Take advantage of the nested layers feature. It's pretty nice.


Oh, and learn Auxpecker. Sweet plugin. Easy to use, and can often substitue the need for a render. Our designers are catching on. It's Awesome for WIP images. No one really needs shadows for most WIP images.

[han3d]

One more Excellent tip: If you need a perfect quarter round and it is large enough to see from a few feet away consider making the flat surface have an ever so slight curvature. If you don't do that you will end up seeing a seam where the round joins the surface.

Try it out. You'll notice a Much more beautiful surface. This happens especially on cylindrical surfaces. Due to the way reflections happen on a perfect cylinder as soon as you break that shape you'll see a sudden change. So instead of a perfect cylinder with it's shape breaking all at one point, blend that out over a longer point and it looks Soo much better. Flat surfaces actually hardly ever look good. Try and find a flat surface on Any car. Well....on any car that looks good. I'm not talking about "the thing." lol

I couldnt fully understand what you mean can you put an image for explanation

[Paxad]

I couldnt fully understand what you mean can you put an image for explanation

I couldn't understand the first paragraph at all. I use sweep constantly for tubing purposes, not sure if he was talking about a particular scenario...