UI improvements

[Karin]

I am a long time fZ user struggling to migrate to v.8, but it's like fighting with treacle in slow motion.
My top-of-the-head list of suggestions will be:

1. UI speed improvements. All palette interaction is very slow compared to v.6. It quickly became a major source of irritation.
2. Dockable palettes. All of them, not just "the chosen few". 
3. Better skp import. The version in v6 is much more robust.

4. Bring back the lasso select and the Nudge keys options to the tool options palette for the Pick tool.

5. IFC import/export

 

I haven't really experienced any of the good stuff yet, except the ability to plug in Thea render.
That might be the ting that makes me stay with fZ a bit longer.

Covered in frustration but deep down an optimistic and hopeful mind.;-)

[Tech]

Hi Kevin,

 

Thanks for your suggestions.  A few specific comments:

 

1. This will be significantly improved with the next update.

 

3.  If you ever have a file that is not working as you would like (especially if it worked better previously), please send the file so we can investigate the issue.

 

4.  The Area Selection tool has the Lasso option, and the Nudge keys are still available via the Palettes: Quick Keys Palette.

 

It does take a little while (few days if direct studying) to get used to the changes, but we are confident that soon you will be up to speed and appreciating the new improvements!  

 

 

[¢hris £und]

2, allow multiple docks, not just one.

[Karin]

4. The nudge key control now sits in a large palette.  
I change the increment very often, and am stuck with this palette which covers a lot of the screen.
I still wish this "small" option could move back to the tool options palette.

 

Also I would like the layers/materials/lights/cameras etc to be active when I click on them (photoshopstyle). (At least as an option)
I do this all the time and mistakenly believe its activated. Then I find out its not and have to mouse all the way back again.
Hitting the tiny ball icon is more miss than hit...

[Karin]

Life would be a little bit easier if I could display a background image in Wireframe (as in v6), not just in Shaded.
It's much harder to find/match camera position in Shaded view.

[etroxel]

Karin, the same thing happens to me but only in the Materials Palette in list mode. I'm typically not using it in that mode, so the behavior is as expected when using the larger icon view - select a material and it's active. But in list mode, as you said, we have to click the little red dot area to activate it and I never remember to do that. The only reason this comes up is because sometimes I'm dealing with so many materials or I need to see their full names that I have to be in list mode.

 

The Scenes palette drives me a little crazy too having to turn the dot off to stop recording changes.

 

I guess with the other pallettes I'm just used to it.

 

I really like the idea of selecting a layer/material/view and having it be active. That's a pretty normal behavior to borrow the idea from other programs that may lead to less confusion for new users as well. 

 

 

Also I would like the layers/materials/lights/cameras etc to be active when I click on them (photoshopstyle). (At least as an option)

I do this all the time and mistakenly believe its activated. Then I find out its not and have to mouse all the way back again.
Hitting the tiny ball icon is more miss than hit...

 

[gasjar]

Karin, V7/8 changes have and remain difficult for me to adjust too. Still, slogging at it, but after 20+ years (started 1991) of using formZ, this old dog is struggling to learn the new tricks. Coupled with the loss of the MetaShapes plug-ins it feels like a tremendous step backwards in some ways. Others, HUGE Improvements, especially in handling smooth and parametric objects have made parametric modeling truly functional now. Though, I did like being able to control how circles and their control points would endup for drafting and dimensioning. You could specify 360 points at a 0degree rotation or some sequence thereof and have points end up at 0, 90, 180, 270 for dimensioning outside of a circular based object and get a point lining up for cartesian dimensioning on working drawings rather than a segment between points at those cartesian dimension angles which would lead to wrong radii or diameters or simply redrawing in a 2D environment to get the right geometry for dimensioning. Again, maybe this is an old user problem and that I simply am not understanding formZ's new paradigm for generating models to end up with working drawings. After 20+ years usage and being 50 now, I have way to much invested to start learning over again nor have the time to reinvest said time.

[Justin Montoya]

I recently saw a demo of the new Strava 3d, and I have to say I was a little jealous of the UI.  It's very clean and easy to understand.  Strava is nowhere near as powerful as FormZ at modeling or rendering, but for what it does, it does it very well.  I believe the interface is inspired from Adobe so it is very familiar and very functional.  The way it can automatically launch Photoshop and Illustrator to edit maps and instantly update them is really cool too.  

See more here - 

 

 

 

 

I really like the way the materials palette works, and it's location always showing at the bottom, like an artists color palette that inspires and evolves as you design.   This is where I have always placed my material palette, and I think it would be a good default for FormZ.  I also liked the way the Material library is built into the material palette at the bottom.  I think this makes much more sense having it here than taking up a ton of space on the material options editor palette like we have with v7+.  These simple pop up windows make me really miss the way v6 handled things with simple pop up windows that automatically closed when you were done editing in them.  No need to keep them open cluttering up the interface with extra palettes when a pop up window works better.   When you are done with the changes, a simple close (not some tiny button!), and it just leaves everything much more clean, open, and functional.  

 

Another problem I have with the default FormZ 7+ UI is the unprofessional format of the default Project Settings Appearance.  

 

 

WHY in the world would you pick an UGLY beige color for the default when for many many years the classic FormZ white is much much more professional???

 

Thankfully this is easily rectified, in the project settings > Appearance > FormZ Classic.  Which in my honest opinion should definitely be the default.

 

 

Much better!  

 

I am also really missing the way I could easily rotate an object back to align with Ortho using only the normal angle snaps.  Now if you have an obscurely angled object and you need it perfectly straight, you have to drop a guide.  It should work automatically like it did in v6!

 

Another thing that bugs me is the way that OpenGL shaded does not read the tiling settings from the texture map settings.  For example, if you set it to only tile 1 v and 1 h, and you map the texture to an object, in OpenGL shaded view, the material will still tile infinitely, despite it being set to only 1 tile.  It makes it a bit confusing when the OpenGL Shaded does not closely match the same texturing settings that you get when you Render.  The same applies to Decals, which I am unable to use because they do not show up in OpenGL shaded!

 

  I guess those last ones are not really a UI complaint, but there you have it.  

 

[¢hris £und]

Justin, 

 

Create an empty project with all of the settings you like  (background colors, materials etc...)  and save it as a template.   then set the preferences to load the template for all new projects.

 

Then you can have the default you want all the time.

 

 

Angle snaps... Yea, I suggested that one too.

 

 

 

I don't have issues with mapping and OGL, can you clarify?    It is a lot different than before.

 

decals never worked in OGL.    This would be nice, as I do use them all the time.

[etroxel]

My opinion is similar to Justin's in that first impressions to new users are important. Yes, you can make a template and get exactly what you want, but that's something a seasoned user is going to do, not a new user. If someone doesn't like how an interface looks immediately, they are less likely to use the software. Just ask me, the guy who stays away from Rhino.