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UI Improvements / Dockable Palettes in OS X / Full Screen / Toggles


Owen Walz

Question

I know this may have been mentioned before, but I'm not seeing anything recently.

I feel like a full screen UI similar to Adobe Creative Suite software, with dockable palette areas, palette toggling, full screen modes, etc, would really improve the usability of VW. This approach has already been adopted by most pro design software, be it video editing, graphics or modeling. VW is looking really dated and cluttered by comparison, particularly on the Mac. Awkward floating palettes are constantly blocking other interface elements and require constant fussing and adjustment.

Please make this a priority. It would really compliment the nice new modeling visuals added in 2014, and make for a much clearer interface.

Edited by Owen Walz
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Had watched an excellent presentation on Landmark recently. What was immediately obvious as I was watching is the interface gymnastics a user has to perform with the OIP, resource browser etc etc.

Userface needs updating. (at least not as bad as Archicad)

+1

EDIT:

Apparently, Chief Architect are releasing a mac version next year. If this is true it would be interesting to see how they handle the interface.

Edited by Kizza
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I think you should have a look over at MODO interface, it's task specific tabs at the top are amazing, in VW they could be translated as such; Modeling, Annotating, rendering/texturing, page layout...

What they have done is to think of the usual order of tasks that an animator would follow to create sequential tasked tabs that the artist can follow through and easily skip back and forth. Each tabbed page window is customized with the tools specific to it's activities.

It streamlines the workflow and removes clutter.

Check it out...it was designed from the ground up without having to deal with legacy code... Smart people over there at Luxology and the forum community is strong.

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Personally I don't want an interface that's divided into tasks. Streamlined, yes, but separated by workflow where I have to click to switch tasks, no.

(I currently move all the tools into a couple of palettes which run linearly across the top of the screen, close to the menus. That way all of the mouse movement is towards the top of the screen for tools/menus. Much more efficient on a big screen.)

KM

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Great thoughts all. It's true there are a lot of good examples out there. I hope we can get someone's ear on this, even if just for basic enhancements. The interface doesn't appear to have been touched since I first used VW in 2003. Modest improvements would really help users get the most out of what's 'under the hood' in VW.

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I think you should have a look over at MODO interface, it's task specific tabs at the top are amazing, in VW they could be translated as such; Modeling, Annotating, rendering/texturing, page layout...

What they have done is to think of the usual order of tasks that an animator would follow to create sequential tasked tabs that the artist can follow through and easily skip back and forth. Each tabbed page window is customized with the tools specific to it's activities.

It streamlines the workflow and removes clutter.

That sounds like you're describing the Ribbon concept in AutoCAD, Excel, and Word. I personally hate it and find just the opposite - it slows down my productivity. I'm constantly having to switch between the Home tab, Annotations tab, Insert tab, etc. now in AutoCAD (Autodesk removed the option of not using it in R2012). It is a major pain. And a very inefficient workflow for me. I prefer to have all my tools grouped by how frequently I use them, not by associated tasks. This way everything I need is in one place.

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I imagine the user base of Vectorworks would prefer to have their tool pallets remain customizable, but there's nothing to say that the software shouldn't include more creative preset workspaces to choose from (perhaps one would be organized the in the MODO way described above). Either way they would benefit from behaviors that make them easier to look at, lock down and manage.

Again, I feel like a full-screen, pro-software style option that integrates the workspace and dockable tool pallet areas, instead of these sloppy floating windows, would be an obvious first step (and not terribly controversial).

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As long as full screen is an option, it's good. I often work with several types of files open at once, thus need access to those several open windows.

As for floating vs fixed palettes - customizable either way please.

I keep flogging this, but what I really want is a master key or voice toggle to make the palettes (all of them at once or my custom subset of them) completely disappear - not minimize to a bar, but to just go away or all come back, same location as where I left them.

We have this piecemeal now at least for some of the palettes, although it is a 2 or 3 key toggle. See Window>Palettes - key stroke toggles shown at right side of palette list.

-B

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Poster: Kevin McAllister

+1 (Cinema 4d is a good example of a UI that would work well with VW)

KM

Cinema 4D's UI is my favorite of any application that I work on. The levels of customization that you can do are simply incredible and once I'm set up, my workflow just flies.

I could easily see Cinema's UI being adopted for Vectorworks, and have actually wished for it on several occasions.

Edited by SamIWas
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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I agree with the majority of the suggestions here. Going to break this up into a number of smaller feature requests, which should increase the likelihood of the features being added faster:

1) Dockable palettes on OS X, to match Vectorworks' Windows UI.

2) Full Screen Mode compatibility for OS X 10.7 and later.

3) The ability to "embed" palettes within each other, later selectable by tabs. (similar to Adobe products UI)

4) A toggle for "Show All Palettes" and "Hide All Palettes", something like a Quick Prefs button.

If I missed something key, please let me know.

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I'm happy with the concept of contextual toolbars but I hate the idea of horizontal toolbars.

A vertical contextual toolbar (like the latest iWork) would be my preference.

No one said it has to be a horizontal ribbon. I wonder why people always think a ribbon is horizontal? I see a ribbon as contextual toolbars where when you add one, you have an extra tab, .... A ribbon can be so much more than what we see in Office...

Like a customized workflow, ...

Edited by DWorks
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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I haven't downloaded the trial yet as of several reasons, but what can we understand of fullscreen mode?

Its the basic Fullscreen mode offered by OS X, when you enable it the drawing area window will resize to fit the entire screen and the menu bars will retract. The palettes become a little stickier, letting you stick them to the edges of the screen or each other. (I wouldn't really call them dock-able yet though, not completely.)

I do not use it personally. I often have many, many different applications open and switch between them frequently, but this is what it looks like:

[img:center]https://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=11103&filename=Screen%20Shot%202014-09-17%20at%209.51.50%20AM.png[/img]

Full screenshot.

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That's the way OS X fullscreen mode works.

No title bar, no dock.

That's fine for Apps like Safari, iWork, etc.

I don't use it either as I normally use, and switch between,

a lot of Apps where I need to access the title bar very often.

In VW I arrange my menu windows on screen and if I open a file

I push the green button to scale the drawing window to jump in

between the Menus.

Don't know why but it makes me nervous if parts of the drawing

are hidden behind Palettes.

I'm looking forward to get a non palette one-window UI like

in Cinema or Modo some times in the future :)

Would be nice to change the width and proportion of Object Info,

Navigation and Resource Browser in one go.

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