Rhino Basics for Shape Machine

This is a brief summary of Rhino commands that can be helpful when using Shape Machine. If you’re familiar with any type of CAD software, this should be very familiar to you. This is not an exhaustive list, but should cover most of the basics you’ll need to select and modify shapes.

Creating Shapes

Line creates a single line.

Lines works the same as the Line command, but it allows you to draw multiple connected lines. You can also think of it as drawing an exploded polyline.

Polyline creates a polyline. You can also circle around to select the initial point or select the “Persistent Close” option to create a closed polyline.

Point places a single point.

Points works the same as the Point command, but it allows you to place multiple points without retyping the command.

Circle creates a circle from different parameters.

Rectangle creates a rectangle from different parameters. Holding the “Shift” key locks the dimensions to create a square.

Polygon creates a polygon based on a specified number of sides.

Text creates text boxes that can be useful for creating small annotations and notes.

Hatch fills an enclosed area with a pattern. Hatches are not currently supported in Shape Machine, but can be useful for annotating designs.

Selecting Shapes

Clicking an object will select it. Holding the “Shift” key will allow you to add additional objects to a selection. Holding the “Ctrl” or “Command” key will allow you subtract objects from a selection. Holding the “Shift” and “Ctrl” or “Command” keys will allow you to select individual objects regardless of how they are grouped.

Tip

Elements of the Drawscript templates are grouped by default. Shift-Ctrl-Select can be very useful when expanding your Drawscript blocks.

To select multiple objects at once, drag your cursor to create a rectangular selection area. Clicking to the left and dragging right will only select objects completely within the selection area. Dragging to the left will select any objects that are partially or fully within in the selection area.

SelectionFilter allows you choose which objects can be selected. For example, checking the “Points” box will only make it possible to select point objects in your selection area. Checking the “Disable” box will allow you to select objects normally without clearing your selection filter settings. We suggest docking the Selection Filter panel somewhere on your screen for easy access. To do this, type in the command and then select “Show”.

Modifying Shapes

Move allows you to move an object freely or by a specified distance.

Copy works the same the Move command, but allows you to create a copy of the selected object. It is possible to create multiple copies without retyping the command.

Rotate allows you to rotate an object freely or by a specified distance.

Mirror allows you to reflect the selected object across an axis.

Trim allows you to trim objects to the points where they intersect selected “cutting objects”.

Scale allows you to scale objects uniformly.

Scale1D allows you to scale objects in a single dimension.

Warning

Shape Machine currently does not support non-circular arcs. Using the Scale1D command on a circle or circular arc in your rules or Drawscript will prevent Shape Machine from working with it.

Gumball is a command that turns on/off the “Gumball” when you select objects. This widget shows the center point of any selected geometry, and controls for moving and rotating the selected objects. If you are on the “Top” viewport, you should see a red arrow, a green arrow, and a blue arc. In the majority of cases, we recommend having the Gumball enabled. The Gumball can also be enabled/disabled in the bar along the bottom of the screen.

The Gumball will allow you to quickly move, copy, and rotate objects. Dragging the center point will allow you to move the selected objects freely, dragging one of the arrows will allow you to move the objects along the respective axis, and clicking one of arrows will allow you to move the objects a specified distance. Dragging one of the arcs will allow you to rotate the object, and clicking it will allow you to specify the angle of rotation. Holding the “Alt” or “Option” key while dragging one of the controls will allow you to copy the selection when you release the control.

Hovering over any of the controls on the Gumball will allow you to see the entire list of available commands.

Group groups objects together so that they can be selected together.

Join joins a set of lines with common endpoints into a polyline.

Note

To join lines that are collinear but do not have common endpoints, you can use Shape Machine’s MGEO command.

Explode converts a polyline into a set of lines.

Divide lets you subdivide a curve into equal segments, placing points at the segment boundary points.

Hide allows you to temporarily make individual objects no longer visible on the screen.

Show will unhide all objects hidden using the Hide command. This will not affect objects on hidden layers.

Note

The next three sections are about the Layers, Linetypes, and Properites panels, which you will need to have enabled in order to use. To see how to do that, look at the Panels section of the Rhino Setup page.

Layers

The “Layers” panel allows you to separate objects and collectively manipulate their properties. This is very important when creating your Drawscript, as it will allow you to differentiate what objects in your shape a rule should apply to.

In the panel, you’ll see a chart with a set of headers and a list of all the layers currently in your document. You should already have several layers active by default. Your currently selected layer will be marked in bold and with a small checkmark. To change your active layer, double-click the layer you would like to select.

You will also see information about the default properties for objects on each layer, such as color, linetype, etc. Clicking the header will automatically sort the layers alphabetically from A to Z, and clicking it again will sort them from Z to A. To edit what properties are visible, you can right-click the headers. By default all of the properties are visible, but when using Shape Machine you will usually only need the following:

• Current will place a checkmark next to your active layer. This is the layer that any new geometry will be drawn on by default.

• On adds a lightbulb indicator to every layer. Clicking this will allow you to hide individual layers so that any objects assigned will not be visible on the screen.

• Lock adds a lock indicator. Clicking this will allow you to lock individual layers so that any objects on them can not be selected or modified.

• Color adds a small colored square that shows the default color for that layer. Clicking this square will allow you to change this color.

• Linetype adds a label with the name of the default linetype for that layer. Linetypes will be discussed further in the next section.

Each layer also has a name that is displayed automatically.

Layers essentially function as folders, allowing you nest sublayers within them. You can click and drag layers to reorder them or nest them within another layer.

To rename, add, duplicate, or delete a layer, right-click the layer you would like to select and choose the command from the dropdown. You can also “Select Objects” or “Select Sublayer Objects” to select all the objects within a layer and it’s nested sublayers. You can also add layers and sublayers, delete layers, move between layers, and filter which layers are displayed in the panel by clicking on the small icons above the headers.

Linetypes

The “Linetypes” panel allows you to modify the way lines are displayed. The panel includes a list of all the linetypes in a document and area to modify their properties. There should be several linetypes included in the document by default.

Each listed linetype includes a name and pattern. Select a linetype to modify it. The section below will change to reflect the current pattern settings for the linetype and allow you modify them. You can change the name, width, cap style and add dashes or tapers.

To add dashes, you will need to type in the “Segments” section of the “Pattern” properties. In order for Rhino to correctly process the dashes, they need to be formatted in a specific way. For example, to create a dash of 2 units with a 2 unit gap, you would need to input: 2, 2. You can also specify multiple numbers, such as: 3, 1, 2, 1.

Warning

You will always need to specify an even number of values for this input. Even if the dash and gap numbers are the same, you will need to specify a dash distance or else Rhino will default to a gap distance of 0.

You can change the default linetype for a specific layer in the “Layers” panel.

Properties

The “Properties” panel allows you to modify the properties of an individual object or group of selected objects. When you select objects, the properties panel will change to reflect the current properties of the selected objects. If all the objects are the same type, there will be more attributes that can be modified. The type of the selected objects will be listed at the top of the panel.

All objects will have an assigned layer. Unless otherwise specified, objects will inherit all their properties from their assigned layer. These inherited properties will be listed as “By Layer”.

You can click to change individual object properties if you want to make them different from that of their assigned layer. When using Shape Machine, you will typically use the color and linetype properties. You may also use the name property to differentiate a specific object that you don’t want a rule to apply to.

Tip

Shape Machine differentiates objects based on: Type, Name, Layer, Color, and Linetype. If any of these properties are different, Shape Machine will not recognize them as the same object. For example, a line that is on the “Pink” layer and a line that is on the “Orange” layer will not be recognized as the same object, even if both of them are orange in color.

Some object types also have their own specific properties that will open in additional panel. For example, selecting a text element will open a “Text Properties” panel with text-specific properties such as font and text size.