Interface Proposal

I’m sick of complaining about all of the interface problems with SolidWorks 2008. I want something flexible. It doesn’t have to be sexy, it doesn’t have to be trendy. It doesn’t have to have a corporate logo in it. It doesn’t have to be different every third year. It doesn’t have to take a lot of getting used to. I just want it to be flexible. People who do drawings work differently from folks who do assemblies, who work differently from me (I mainly do just parts). We all have different needs for our tools, and for the work area. Beyond different types of work, we also are just different mentally – people think or visualize or problem solve in different ways. Restricting the interface to all work the same for everyone doesn’t make sense.

It seems there are people who like the new 2008 interface, but clearly it’s not everyone. I think most of the people using the stuff now are the early adopter types who are more amenable to change, and as the mainstream masses start using it, we’re going to hear more grumbling, or just have more people stay on an older version. Getting real statistics on how real people really feel is almost impossible. People are too polite, or simply don’t think their input matters much in the scheme of things. The only people you wind up hearing are the ones who scream deleriously, not the common joes who make up the vast majority.

So, here is my idea. Throw darts, whatever, but be constructive. This is how I would set my interface up if I could, and it addresses most of my current complaints. I think it also offers enough flexibility that if you wanted to use the interface a la 2007 you could. You could also get more radical with your set up. I cobbed this screen composite together with Snagit and Powerpoint, with a little help from Kim in Photoshop. I don’t have any delusions that this is anything other than part of a discussion, but I’d like to add something to the rest of the people thinking about the same thing. Plus, doing this has helped me figure out what it was that I thought was most valuable. Click on the image to see one that’s large enough to read, or right click on it and Save Picture As… to open it on your local computer with your own image viewer software.

Anyway, the main ideas are:

– multiple CommandManagers, features on one, and tools on another (ignore spline tools used on both)

– sketch toolbar is separate because you switch to or from sketching so frequently, it just needs to be separate, I think

– toolbars when docked do not obscure the entire row, only the space the buttons take up

– sketch toolbar docked regardless of rectangular shape

– docked mass of toolbars can be moved en masse to second monitor (toolbars snap to one another even when not docked to the window, also toolbar names can be turned off)

– “ManagerPane” bases all of the manager windows which have traditionally been placed on the left, with all of the Pane windows which have traditionally been placed on the right into a single mass of flyout panes. The FeatMgr is the base of it all, and it has all of the tab icons (PropMgr, ConfigMgr, as well as Task Pane stuff) all attached to the right side

– MgrPane can be detached from the SW window and be moved to second monitor

– Other managers and panes fly out when necessary or when you click on the tab icons – this addresses a huge problem because SW has these backwards right now. The FeatMgr disappears exactly when you need it in many situations. If you start a new sketch by selecting a sketch tool first, then selecting the plane, as soon as you click the Line tool, the FeatMgr (where you can select a plane) is changed into a ridiculous dialog telling you to pick a plane, but you can’t because the message just blocked access to the planes. I hope someone at SW hears this. I’ve been complaining about this since the PropMgr started usurping the FeatMgr… Big workflow problem.

– If you hit the tab icons, panes keep stacking, FeatMgr, PropMgr, ConfigMgr, Photoworks tab, Library, search, TaskMgr, etc. all of these can be flown out and pinned if you like, and best of all, the whole stack of ManagerPanes can be moved to the second monitor.

SolidWorks acts like the reducing mouse travel game they’re playing makes sense. It doesn’t. Reality contradicts what they are trying to do. SW is trying to put all of the commands in the middle of the graphics window, but users are getting monitors that are bigger and bigger, and they’re getting multiple monitors. I’ve got a 17″ widescreen laptop monitor next to a 24″ widescreen lcd, with a 20″ normal aspect lcd for other computers. You can’t keep the mouse restricted to the center of the screen.

My idea to counter that is to allow programmable hotkeys that snap the cursor to the center of definable interface elements or even definable pixel locations. Press S to snap to the center of the Sketch toolbar. Press Alt-F to go to the FeatureMgr. SW has to figure out how to efficiently use MORE screen realestate rather than less.

More ideas:

– Status bar is where SW issues warnings and messages, slightly taller than it is now, but doesn’t take up the whole width.

– Window management buttons in upper right do something more sensible than 2008, could even be moved left right next to the menus.

– The flyout menu at the top of the screen was just a bad idea. very annoying. If you argue that it is saving space, well, the space it saves is just wasted anyway, so losing it doesn’t really save anything.

Does this look like anything else? Not that I know of. Does this follow any trends? Probably not. Those aren’t things that really concern me. Lemmings. All I know is this is the way I would set it up if I could, plus or minus.

You want to reduce mouse travel easily? You know those prompts that show up when you click the Close Window button? Why do they pop up in the middle of the screen instead of near the cursor? Why does the ESC key not work to dismiss simple warning or error messages? Why can’t you do simple things which have a much larger impact rather than rearranging the entire interface for a rather questionable impact? Speck vs mote and all that.