UI Feedback requested :D

[stepalibre]

- Double clicking on an existing Sketch should open the Sketch Editor, instead of having to use a context menu and choose Edit.

- Double clicking any feature should invoke the feature editor instead of using a context menu to choose Edit. Again, this is time consuming.

With feature or face selection filters enabled double clicking a feature in the viewport will open the feature edit dialog or edit sketch:





Double clicking a feature in the feature tree moves the history up to that feature. This is important for my workflow especially in complex models where I need to quickly move the history.
Here's an example:

Design at last feature:



Design after double clicking the "column_cut_group_1" feature in the tree:



Hitting F5 (regen all) will move the history back to the last feature.

 

[J.M.]

You're correct, I had long forgotten about Selection Filters. Time to re-add them to my toolbar.

However, double clicking a consumed sketch in the Explorer should still open the sketch for editing, unless there is another way to influence the current behavior that eludes me.

 

[stepalibre]

However, double clicking a consumed sketch in the Explorer should still open the sketch for editing, unless there is another way to influence the current behavior that eludes me.

Control + double click should also work.

 

[J.M.]

Yes, that works! Too many options and shortcuts to keep track of. Come to think of it, perhaps that is more of a problem for the UI than anything else; too much choice. Perhaps a good suggestion for the UI is to allow the user to define the 'Default' mouse click functionality for their own tastes/experiences.

Just as an example; I could alter the default behavior of a double click on a Sketch to edit it or a single click on the name of a feature/sketch/whatever to rename it, where you could retain what you are accustomed to. To a large extent, we can accomplish a lot of that kind of customization today with customized shortcuts, but we are limited to a 'fixed' behavior with regards to mouse click operations. Of course, that would open up a whole series of issues of 'Why doesn't it do that when I click on it?' problems being raised in the forums to say the least.

Sometimes, too much flexibility is as bad or worse than too little.

There are published 'Standards' to which all windows driven UI's (any platform) are supposed to adhere, and I have been exposed to far too many different applications in other fields that feel the need to 'redefine the standard' for their own benefit because of the 'workflow' or 'UI interaction' envisioned by the developers. The result is a huge learning curve for what should be an intuitive interaction with the application. With 42 years of application development now behind me, and striving daily to adhere to those standards, those type of applications drive me bananas. In some ways, for me personally, Alibre has always bordered on that. Let's hope we can reign it in.

 

[HaroldL]

@Max, here's another comment if you are still gathering I feedback. Instead of having the Sketching In-Place Editing tool bar either On or OFF, why not add an option to allow it to be activated by the space bar as in now is, only don't have it pop up by clicking on the workspace. Similar to how the S-key operates in SolidWorks. As much as I rely on, and use it, having it pop up every time I LMB or MMB click is a bit annoying. But hitting the space bar only for those times I need it is more in line with my workflow.

 

[AlbinoPanther]

I posted a separate topic in the feedback section of the forum (and I don't know if it's considered to be directly UI related), but when entering in an input box (such as entering the dimension while sketching a line), if you hit a hotkey for a different function, it will cancel the current operation and start the operation tied to the hotkey that was pressed. I would really like to use L as a shortcut for a line in the sketch environment, but then if I have to type in a parameter that contains the letter L into a dimension, it cancels the operation and starts sketching a line. I suggest that when an input box is active, all hotkeys should be disabled until the current operation is cancelled. Alibre is the only CAD package I have used that suffers from this problem.

 

[Cator]

I posted a separate topic in the feedback section of the forum (and I don't know if it's considered to be directly UI related), but when entering in an input box (such as entering the dimension while sketching a line), if you hit a hotkey for a different function, it will cancel the current operation and start the operation tied to the hotkey that was pressed. I would really like to use L as a shortcut for a line in the sketch environment, but then if I have to type in a parameter that contains the letter L into a dimension, it cancels the operation and starts sketching a line. I suggest that when an input box is active, all hotkeys should be disabled until the current operation is cancelled. Alibre is the only CAD package I have used that suffers from this problem.

Hi, I also encountered the problem and reported it through my dealer. I hope this is addressed because as you said this severely limits the speed and quality of direct sketch editing when pressing the tab key.