TryBuy

User Interface

Efficient & Customizable User Interface

Why the Interface Matters

A program's user interface is like a language. If you don't speak the language, you can't have a conversation. The organization of the interface, icon color palettes, tooltips, and more all determine how complex that language is. We like to think our language is one of the easiest to learn out there, and one of the most efficient.

The Home Window

The home base of the software - a control center to start new designs, access recent files, explore training and documentation, manage add-ons, and change options. Hide your recent files when you're in a meeting with a client to protect the privacy of your other clients. Right-clicking on a recent document opens its location in Windows Explorer.

Dedicated Workspaces

Cramming every tool into a single window or environment is crazy and makes it really hard to learn. We've split the environments into major functional chunks: part design, sheet metal design, assembly design, drawing creation, bill of materials, and design variables.
Each workspace has just the tools it needs and nothing it doesn't. This lets you get up and running faster and stay focused on the task at hand. You can have more than one workspace open at a time and can switch between them easily.
Clockwise from top left: Part, Sheet Metal, Assembly, Design Variables, Bill of Materials, Drawing

The Ribbon

The ribbon interface is the primary way to interact with the software. Each workspace has its own ribbons, but all are consistently laid out and similar tools are always in similar locations. You can basically learn a few and then you'll intuitively know the rest.
Each ribbon is carefully crafted to maximize efficiency while also being easy to navigate. Quick visual cues let you rapidly find the tools you need. Hovering over icons displays rich tooltips with pictures.
Various examples of different toolset ribbons including part modeling, assembly, and sketching.

Search Ribbon

If you can't find something, search the ribbon and see results with both icons and tool names.

Customize Ribbon

Choose between several themes to make the ribbon your own: Gray, Blue, or White.

Minimize Ribbon

If you want to maximize screen real estate, you can minimize the ribbon and expose it only when needed.

The Menu

Old school? No problem - show the menu for a more traditional feature navigation experience. Just like the ribbon, each workspace has its own set of menus so you only see things that are applicable to what you're building.
If you've got the shortcut keys memorized and want to maximize screen real estate, turning on the menus may be a good option to maximize efficiency. You can either enable the menu permanently or toggle it with hotkeys.
Using a traditional menu interface.

Toolbars

Prefer a more traditional UI with toolbars you can freely position? Simply enable toolbars and dock them where you want. With extremely high information density, toolbars can be very efficient once you learn the software.
You can create your own toolbars with the toolbar customization tool, allowing you total freedom on the layout of your workspace.
Using toolbars instead of the ribbon interface.

Mouse-Centric Popups

Mouse-centric, context-sensitive smart menus serve up the commands most commonly used for your selection. When you don't have to move the mouse or touch the keyboard to find a tool, your efficiency skyrockets.

Sketch Popups

Selecting 2D sketch figures dynamically changes the popup suggestions based on what you've picked. You can apply constraints, dimensions, mirrors, offsets, patterns, etc. or select the 3D feature for the sketch right at the mouse. It's insanely fast to use.

Drawing Popups

Selecting items on a 2D drawing dynamically changes the popup suggestions as well. Click on a view to manage hidden lines, change scale, insert or hide hole centers and callouts, or change the view type. Clicking on dimensions or figures lets you configure them on-the-fly by adjusting their values, tolerances, or layers. 
Modifying a dimension with a tolerance by adding ± .05 using the popup

The Explorer

Each 3D and 2D workspace has an Explorer. This is the heart of your design - the recipe for what you see on the screen. As you add new things to your design, they will show up in order here. You can roll back in time, edit anything with ease, and set important data.

The size and contents of the Explorer can be customized. Never use Redlines? Hide them. Having to squint to see things? Make the Explorer bigger to fit your 4K monitor.

Lots of Options

You can customize many aspects of the software if you want - from how big things are on the screen to colors to layouts and much more. Spending a little time making your favorite tweaks can make engineering tasks a dream.

Many options have image previews that give you a really good sense of what the option changes, instead of a huge sea of checkboxes.