Where can I find this command?
SmartTrack is a system of temporary reference lines and points that is drawn in the Rhino viewport using implicit relationships among various 3-D points, other geometry in space, and the coordinate axes' directions.
Temporary infinite lines (tracking lines) and points (smart points) are available to object snaps very much like real lines and points. You can snap to intersections of the tracking lines, perpendiculars, and directly to smart points as well as intersections of tracking lines and real curves. The tracking lines and smart points are displayed for the duration of a command.
You can add or capture new points as needed up to the current maximum after which the oldest smart points disappear as new ones are added. Captured smart points can be cleared at any time if they are not proving useful.
SmartTrack™ options manage settings for SmartTrack.
General
Enable SmartTrack
Toggles SmartTrack on and off.
Smart point activation delay ___ milliseconds
Hover time, in milliseconds, for a smart point to be captured.
Max number of smart points
The maximum number of smart points held at any one time.
Appearance
Dotted lines
Sets the tracking line style to dotted.
Line color
Sets tracking line color.
Tan and perp line color
Sets tangent and perpendicular tracking lines color.
Point color
Sets the captured but inactive smart points color.
Active point color
Sets the active smart points color.
Behavior
Implied From
When a single Smart point is highlighted, and you see the ortho cursor with a distance, you can either type a distance or Enter relative coordinates to place a point relative to the active smart point.
Example 1
| 1. | Start the Polyline command. |
| 2. | Place some points. |
| 3. | With Point object snap on, hover over one of the previous polyline vertices (or any other snap) to wake up a smart point and pull the cursor away along an ortho tracking line. You should see the cursor tooltip telling you a distance from the Smart point and an angle. |
| 4. | Type a single number and press Enter to place the next point on the polyline that number of units away from the Smart Point in the direction you are pulling along the tracking line. |
| 5. | Type rx,y,z then the r will make the point relative to the active smart point. |
Note: This only works along a tracking line from a single active smart point.
Example 2
| 1. | Start the Polyline command. |
| 2. | Place some points. |
| 3. | With Point object snap on, hover over one of the previous polyline vertices (or any other snap) to wake up a smart point and pull the cursor away along an ortho tracking line. You should see the cursor tooltip telling you a distance from the Smart point and an angle. |
| 4. | Type a single number and press Alt +Enter to activate distance constraint for the next pick. Without the Alt key, the pick will be finalized number units away from the active smart point rather than the last point picked. |
Smart ortho
Sets Smart ortho on or off. Smart ortho automatically draws ortho tracking lines from the last point picked without the need to specifically go back and capture that point. It is independent from the Ortho setting.
Smart ortho is like having ortho on and off at the same time. When the cursor is away from ortho directions or object snapped to something, it works like a normal pick. When the cursor is near ortho directions, it works like an ortho pick.
Smart tangents and perpendiculars
Turns on and off the ability to draw tangent and perpendicular tracking lines.
Example
| 1. | Enable the end object snap. |
| 2. | Draw a curve or a polyline. When you snap to a curve end, you can see the smart tangent tracking line. |
Example
| 1. | Enable Smart tangents and perpendiculars. |
| 2. | Draw a polyline. Every time you click, a smart point is generated at the current end point of the polyline. |
| 3. | Snap to a curve end, the ortho tracking line appears. |
Parallels
Turns on and off the ability to draw parallel tracking lines.
Example
| 1. | Enable Parallels. |
| 2. | Snap to a curve end and another point with a different type of object snap. You will see the parallel tracking line (when the mouse cursor is close to the parallel tracking line). |
Semi-permanent points
Toggles the retaining of captured points for the duration of a command as opposed to discarding them after each mouse click. For example, when you use the Copy command, clicking the mouse to place an object does not clear the existing smart points.
Save Options settings to a file.
Restore Options settings from a file.
Note: When multiple sessions of Rhino are open at one time, changes made in the last Rhino session closed will be saved.
See also
Manage global options: 3D mouse, alerter, aliases, appearance, context menu, display modes, files, general, idle processor, keyboard, libraries, licenses, modeling aids, mouse, plug-ins, render, RhinoScript, selection menu, toolbars, updates and statistics, view.
Rhinoceros 5 © 2010-2015 Robert McNeel & Associates. 17-Sep-2015
