Vectorworks Manifesto - One Workspace to Rule Them All

[Mark Aceto]

@Ian Lane starting a fresh thread about unifying a single workspace that adds Menus in the Menu Bar for each modality (FKA "workspace").

 

Past discussions linked here.

 

Issues with current workspace implementation:

1. Redundant resizing and repositioning of all common window palettes is inefficient
   • Attributes
   • Snapping
   • Resource Manager
   • Object Info
   • Navigation
   • Visualization
   • Basic
   • Tool Sets
   • Preview Features
2. Redundant editing of a single hotkey across mulitple workspaces (instead of just doing this once) is inefficient – why is this even edited here instead of VW Prefs?
   • Architect BIM
   • Architect
   • Braceworks
   • ConnectCAD
   • Designer
   • Fundamentals
   • Landmark
   • Spotlight
   • (popular third party plugins)
3. Discovering / knowing / remembering which tools are available in which workspace
   • Can I ignore the Spotlight workspace if I'm using the Braceworks workspace?
4. Switching between workspaces, primarily to access a single Menu in the Menu Bar is jarring and interrupts / slows workflow
5. Having to remember which workspace you're working in as you switch back and forth
6. Editing workspaces is painful
   • Cannot drag toolsets
   • Have to create a toolset (with no icon)
   • Can only drag one tool at a time (possible user error)
   • Have to recreate menus in the same manner which gets really complicated (possible user error)

Solutions to the issues above:

1. A single consistent workspace
2. Replace workspaces with menus in the menu bar

I full understand / appreciate / respect the challenge of organizing tools in the "a la carte" manner that users have purchased or subscribed. Therefore, short of a complete rewrite, I see a triage approach to solving these issues:

• Short Term Must-Haves - v2021 SP3
  • Save all palette (and windows) positions / sizes across workspaces
    • Don't make me resize / reposition the Attributes palette 8+ times
    • This has become especially painful with all of the killer customization added in v2021 (tear-away tabs, docking) that is lost when we switch workspaces
  • Move Workspace Editor / Keys (hotkeys) to VW Prefs (there's no reason any of these settings would change from workspace to workspace)
    • Don't make me edit 8+ workspaces to change the hotkey for Launch Quick Search
• Short Term Nice-To-Haves - v2021 SP3
  • Drag toolsets from the master library (or another workspace) to the custom edited workspace
• Long Term Must-Haves - v2022
  • Eliminate workspaces altogether (replaced with the menu solution above)

I realize that pace is ambitious but the UI improvements in v2021 are super slick nice-to-haves on the surface. Improving the current UI/UX of bolting on workspace after workspace is a must-have under the hood. In other words, when I draw an outdoor concert, I use every single workspace (except Fundamentals), so streamlining that workflow is a top priority for me. Honestly, if all of these proposed solutions (thought-starters for now) came to VW22, that would be epic.

 

As VW continues to acquire great partner products, and third party developers continue to write great plug-ins, the current UI/UX that VW is rapidly outgrowing will continue to get clunkier and weigh it down.

 

That said, everyone, please keep the criticism constructive, the conversation positive, productive and solutions-oriented (for both Mac & Windows users). 😎

 

Thank you, VW team, for implementing improvements based on user feedback as demonstrated by the many UI/UX improvements in v2021!

 

Edited November 1, 2020 by Mark Aceto

[Mark Aceto]

Also, maybe this is already in the roadmap but… embiggen the font size please 😆

[Mark Aceto]

Also, lobbying again for the Organization dialog to become a palette — One Palette to Rule Them All:

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Mark Aceto

[Art V]

On 12/16/2020 at 1:47 AM, Mark Aceto said:

I undocked my palettes for a Zoom meeting earlier today (so I could resize the shared VW window on my 43” screen to fit my client’s laptop screen). VW has crashed or force quit 3 times since then. Every time, I’ve had to reassemble the palettes.

Unfortunately this is not unique to VW, I see similar behaviour in other software as well if it crashes after palettes have been changed before it could be saved and closed properly. Though I agree it should be possible to solve this except for perhaps crashing immediately after a change was made.

[Mark Aceto]

Very excited to see this on the Public Roadmap!

 

https://www.vectorworks.net/en-US/public-roadmap?url=workspace-editor-improvements

 

Please visit the link above and "upvote" the enhancement 🙌