Streamlined naming to go with the new UI

[Tom Klaber]

Liking the UI refresh. I think we should build on this cleaner aesthetic and use the momentum to rename some things:

 

Design Layers -> Layers

Sheet Layers -> Sheets

Renderworks Textures -> Textures

 

Let's Marie Kondo this thing!

 

[Dave Donley]

Haven't caught up with this energetic thread fully yet.
 

Regarding the choice of the term "texture" instead of "material", when these were first added I tried to call them materials but was told by an experienced and well-respected architect the term "material" means something else to architects and something perhaps more important than the use for mere rendering.  Hence using the term texture for this.  In the source code these objects and dialog boxes were called "materialXXX" for many years despite the UI term being "texture".  In rendering it really doesn't matter all that much, use of the term texture is not way incorrect despite the way the industry has coalesced around material as a standard term in the software, in the time since textures were added to MiniCad.  I really like how Substance used that term, it's cool IMO.  Now Vectorworks does have Materials and that term is fully occupied, and all the uses of "material" in the source code that previously meant "texture" were renamed.

 

I like some of the suggestions, and you can know this thread is being read by responsible parties who can make these changes if that is decided.

 

[Matt Overton]

On 9/28/2023 at 4:07 AM, Dave Donley said:

Haven't caught up with this energetic thread fully yet.
 

Regarding the choice of the term "texture" instead of "material", when these were first added I tried to call them materials but was told by an experienced and well-respected architect the term "material" means something else to architects and something perhaps more important than the use for mere rendering.  Hence using the term texture for this.  In the source code these objects and dialog boxes were called "materialXXX" for many years despite the UI term being "texture".  In rendering it really doesn't matter all that much, use of the term texture is not way incorrect despite the way the industry has coalesced around material as a standard term in the software, in the time since textures were added to MiniCad.  I really like how Substance used that term, it's cool IMO.  Now Vectorworks does have Materials and that term is fully occupied, and all the uses of "material" in the source code that previously meant "texture" were renamed.

 

I like some of the suggestions, and you can know this thread is being read by responsible parties who can make these changes if that is decided.

 

Well, the other option would have been to listen to that older Architect and upgrade textures to make them worthy of the internal name. 

 

More advanced still than the texture groups (surface presentation) called "materials" in the current version. Actually, have Material resources that fully define the common geometry, included in that all of the visual presentations of the surface(s). The current system doesn't even handle end grain for timber and the like. 

 

Then we could just have Materials, Material Style (common families of similar materials, Steel, Wood, etc) do away with textures and so many classes.

 

Doesn't need to all at once, roadmap the steps then we know where it's going.

 

Terms wouldn't need to be as wordy IMHO is features were pushed incrementally towards a larger goal. We need a good spring clean.