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User interface features only in Rhino for Mac

A number of commands and features are available only in the Rhino for Mac version. There are additional ways you can invoke commands besides clicking tool palette buttons or typing a command.


Mouse features

Apple Magic Mouse

To use the right-mouse click function in Rhino

  • If the Magic Mouse is configured as a one-button mouse, hold down the Control key when clicking the mouse button to perform a mouse right-click.
  • To make a right-click possible without using the keyboard, in the System Preferences panel, turn on Secondary Click.

Navigating with a Magic Mouse

  • An Apple Magic Mouse has a touch-sensitive top surface.
  • To turn on Magic Mouse features, in Rhinoceros > Preferences > Mouse > Magic Mouse, check Enable Magic Mouse gestures.
  • By default, one-finger gestures will zoom the viewport in or out. To zoom, drag your finger on the top of the mouse.
  • To change the behavior to pan and rotate instead of zoom, check Scroll with one finger to pan and rotate views.

Multiple-button mice

To set up the extra buttons to run commands, go to Rhinoceros > Preferences > Mouse > Buttons and enter the commands for the mouse buttons.


Trackpad features

On a trackpad, two fingers can pan and rotate viewport views.

You can also assign commands to three-finger or four-finger swipes on the trackpad. In our tests, the four-finger left and right swipes can be unreliable, and the four-finger up and down swipes never work. If you want to try these, remember that the Mac OS X also assigns actions to these gestures, so you will need to disable the OS X settings in System Preferences.


Screen edge

You can run a command by touching the edge of the computer screen with the mouse cursor.

Set the commands to run in Rhinoceros > Preferences > Mouse > Screen Edges. Type the command you want executed when you touch a screen edge.


Additional commands

The following commands have been added to Rhino for Mac for use in mouse gestures, trackpad gestures, and mouse buttons.

_-Layer _Visible=_Toggle _Enter: Toggles the Layers panel on and off.

ToggleObjectPropertiesPanel: Turns the Properties panel on and off. This is especially useful as a Screen Edge command. For example: In Rhinoceros > Preferences > Mouse on the Screen Edges tab, in the Right edge edit box, type ToggleObjectPropertiesPanel. Touching the right screen edge will then turn the Object Properties panel on and off.

ToggleLeftSidebar: Shows or hides the left sidebar.

ToggleRightSidebar: Shows or hides the right sidebar.

ShowToolPalette: The command options are: ToolPalette={name of tool palette}, UnderCursor={Yes,No}, and AsMenu={Yes,No}. The command _ShowToolPalette _ToolPalette=Popup UnderCursor=Yes AsMenu=No _Enter will activate the Popup tool palette under the mouse cursor.

ToggleOsnapPanel: Turns the OSnap panel on and off.

ToggleOsnapPanelUnderCursor: Pops up the OSnaps panel under the cursor, making it easy to change OSnap settings. The panel disappears when you move the cursor off the panel. Assign this command to a mouse button if you have a mouse with more than three buttons, or to a trackpad swipe gesture.

ToggleActiveToolPalettes: The active tool palettes are all the tool palettes that are currently visible. This command lets you turn those tool palettes on and off.

In Rhinoceros > Preferences > Tool Palettes, the Hide tool palettes when starting commands option lets you keep tool palettes hidden. The ToggleActiveToolPalettes command, along with these settings, lets you show the tool button palettes only when you need them.


Tips for modeling on smaller laptops

You can comfortably model on a 13“ laptop using only the built-in trackpad and a combination of the above settings. Try the following as a guide:

  • Change Mission Control, App Exposé, and other settings that might use three-finger gestures to four-finger gestures or disable them.
  • In Mission Control, put Rhino in its own desktop so it is not covering other applications. Use a four-finger left or right swipe to switch to Rhino or to switch to other applications.
  • Click the green button in the upper right corner to Maximize your modeling window.
  • Open any tool button palettes that you commonly use. Use Window > Active Tool Palettes for easy access to any of Rhino's tool palettes.

System Preferences > Trackpad > More Gestures

  • Set Swipe between full screen apps to Swipe left or right with four fingers. We want to reserve three-finger gestures for Rhino.

Rhinoceros > Preferences > Trackpad

  • Turn on Use two fingers to pan and rotate views.
    Two fingers will now rotate a perspective view.
    Shift + two fingers will pan a perspective view.
    Two finger pinch zooms a view.
  • For Swipe left with three fingers, enter _-Layer _Visible=_Toggle _Enter.
  • For Swipe right with three fingers, enter ToggleObjectPropertiesPanel.
  • For Swipe up with three fingers, enter ToggleOsnapPanelUnderCursor.
    Now three different three finger swipe gestures will bring up panels. Performing the same swipe gesture again dismisses the panel.

Rhinoceros > Preferences > Tool Palettes

  • Check the Hide tool palettes when starting commands option.

Rhinoceros > Preferences > Mouse > Screen Edges

  • For the Left Screen Edge, enter ToggleActiveToolPalettes.
    Touch the left screen edge with the cursor to turn all the tool palettes on and off.
    When you click one of the tool palette buttons, the command starts and all the tool palettes automatically disappear.
rhino/mac/uniqueui.txt · Last modified: 2020/08/14 (external edit)