No offense, but I haven’t seen any progress in this area at all, beyond updating icons which, frankly, is not a big task. I’m scheduled to talk to you for this survey, and I have a lot to talk about in this regard. Fact is, this community has talked about this for a very long time and it appears to be totally ignored. Until now?
2 Likes
Aside from seeing a hack posted here once that (if I recall correctly) could access one of the Trays/Panels for some limited stuff- yeah, not having access to the Trays/Panels leaves us with running scripts, toolbar buttons and prompts, and Html Dialogs. Html Dialogs can be made to work like Trays/Panels. But they don’t dock… which leads to Dialog Madness and other mental health disorders.
I try to work around this by creating resizable Html Dialogs that open on top of where I keep my trays. This helps with overcrowding. Here’s something that ‘ain’t’ nice but shows what I mean:
It would be even worse if I wanted/needed to see my usual Trays:
Some of this is self-inflicted clutter based on how I like to arrange toolbar buttons for extensions I’m trying to create (higher, finished, lower working on, left-right depending on what they do) and that I keep the Ruby Console enabled all the time. So - non-smooth transition to: it might be nice to have a ‘Development Tray’. Maybe this Development Tray could have ‘Panels’ that are like toolbar buttons? Even if it weren’t a ‘Development Tray’ I would use a Toolbar Button Tray to stuff some Toolbar buttons on if there were an option to do so. Then some of that toolbar button clutter in the images above would be contained in a Tray… and Trays can have tabs to easily switch between them… and then Marie Condo could write a book for SketchUp.
There is an extension ‘philosophy’ that says, ‘press the button and the extension just does what it does with no fuss, no muss’ (@TheOnlyAaron has shared this in some of his extension review videos). And minimal interfaces can… well, simplify things. And that’s good! The other side of that coin is the more plodding, manual UI. I like very explicit UI where I turn the handle, pull the lever, and press the buttons (i.e., use input fields, drop downs, enter numbers) because it helps show/understand what I’m doing. Some of the really nice extensions require a sort of ‘mental map’ of which button does what. And that’s why I can’t remember how to use them! I guess that’s part of why I started using a (Modus) info icon. It’s a way to have instructions close to where they are needed.
This brings me to simplification and standardization: if Modus is the design language of Trimble/SketchUp, why isn’t there a more explicit linkage to Modus -for SketchUp- ‘templates’? Do I need to sign up for Figma and join the Tiger Team (yes, I think that’s what they really call it! But it’s not posted here or any SU ‘Dev Central’ place, afaik). There are some really well-done extension ‘Brands’. But the flip side is that extensions are kind of a Wild West. Dan Rathbun has some extension templates that he has created and included in his Wiki. But it seems to me he did that because SketchUp did not. If SketchUp had a few ‘standard’ development templates (Hello World!), in an easy to find ‘central’ location, along with tutorials, newbies like myself could use those and come to the Forum with questions like they do for the SketchUp tutorials. And people would be a little more ‘on the same page’ with development like they are for other SU/LO ‘best practices’. If it didn’t matter due to some other ‘branding’ issue, I’d use an SU provided .css style sheet for SU Html dialogs. Ah, so I’m saying that if Trays and Panels are opened up to extension developers, new developers can begin building better integrated extension UI’s from the ground up. If development practices were streamlined (and by ‘streamlined’ I mean spoon feeding templates, tutorials, resources) you could get a more “unified, frictionless, experience” for users.
For good -or bad!?!- measure:
Those features look good on the horizon. I’ll like to try them on my computer ;^)! I made a little video, just because:
My brother is a programmer who lives near there. I may go.
I’m a brand new newbie. I would have to agree with Justin’s questions.
Perhaps the survey should have been addressed to people with a little more experience than what I have. I was scratching my head asking the same questions.
As a Technical Writer for a major corporation, I was taught not to assume a particular level of understanding for questions (or information) provided to a general audience. Instead, if the intended questions/information are given to a general audience, you have to define all of the terms that are used first.
Or, if a certain level of knowledge is required, it is worthwhile to put in a disclaimer, that the following question, or information, are for users of a particular level of understanding, and above.
Thank you,
Neal Lewis
A consideration should be for users that have large screens. (many do) I recently tried out the Curic pie menu. It has its pluses I dont use it constantly but sometimes its a fit. My hot key is programmed into a mouse button so its easy. The take I have from that would be to have trays docked but a tray could popup under the mouse pointer with a hotkey. On large monitors its slow to travel the mouse all the way across the screen to pick an option. Maybe a brilliant programmer will be inspired.
Any chance the Entity Info could show the Component Description between Definition and Volume. It should probably be greyed out like the Volume, but it would speed up checking this crucial attribute. You could move the Description and Volume to the Advanced Attributes section if it’s a problem for user screen space.
It would be useful to pick our own favourite Advanced Attributes to display on a Global basis e.g. Structural Function, Location, Phase, Work Trade, etc
I think something like this is missing from the visibility management…
Adding a persistent Search field to the Scenes tab would be appreciated. There is a search in the drop down list at the end of the scenes bar but the contents are removed as soon as the scene is picked.
Thank you, everyone, for sharing your comments and signing up for user interviews! We have filled our interview slots, but please continue to add your thoughts to this thread. We will keep monitoring your comments and use your insights in our research.
2 Likes
A further observation on the Advanced Attributes I mentioned in my earlier post… “Owner” and “Status” are applied by Instance, whereas “Price”, “Size” and “Url” are applied to the definition. Nothing wrong with that, but if we were allowed to assign our own Advanced Attribute names then the ability to differentiate their application between Definition & Instance is probably needed.
@kathy_davies +1 to making tray type configurations for Mac OS. Also it would be helpful if the colors/materials panel would 1)dock to the other trays 2) auto-stretch to match the width of the other trays it docks to 3)be collapsible
It’s strange to me that this is the only window that behaves differently from all the others (tags, scenes, styles, etc)
2 Likes
Hello Jacquee and Kathy,
I see your time slots have filled up. It would have been nice to discuss the panel functionality with you. In lieu of that, here is how I use the panels/trays in both SU and LO.
I find this configuration works very well for me. I work on a 45" 3440x1440 curved display. I like to work with LO and SU side by side with the main working spaces toward the center, thus SU’s trays are on the right while LO’s trays are on the Left.
I also group the trays into function groups that make sense for my workflow.
I don’t like to take time expanding/contracting panels, nor do I like to use the scroll bars to find what I’m looking for. I find keeping a few related panels fully expanded in 4 trays as a fairly fast way to work. This keeps items I’m looking for in around the same spot, versus having to scan up and down with the scroll or expanding panels.
I occasionally use the pin/unpin feature of the trays when I’m on a small laptop screen or doing a presentation, otherwise I rarely use that feature.
1 Like
Dark mode with control of text color in the tags(layers) window would mean a lot to me. I am getting snow blinded here and the fonts/color for grayed out layers is nearly invisible for my 64 y.o. eyes. display brightness and contrast can only do so much.
Rich
Imac mini m1
3 Likes
Here’s what I have on that. Maybe @kathy_davies will see it and pass it along.
2 Likes
The category tag associated with the post is SketchUp and I therefore assume that the request by Kathy is specifically about SketchUp and not Layout.
That said – I have some views about Layout trays which I would like the SketchUp team to address…
My 2 cents. I would like to see some polish on the Mac UI. Not new stuff or redesign just long standing bug fixes. EG tool tips disappear when the tool bar is horizontal on a mac and are then gone until the next session, for years.
The materials panel and materials handling generally on mac is… less than ideal, I mean there are a LOT of bugs where materials duplicate, disappear, or are painted on several objects but do not show up at all in the materials window.
The volume unit controls are weird too, I mean who measures in 1/64th of a cubic inch? Mostly cubic yards or meters in architecture but that’s not an option… The only volume units that make sense to me are the decimal units.
I suggest a Musk type approach and just go ground up and ask yourselves does this actually make sense, does this part of the interface actually work as intended?
Anyways any improvement is a win, nice you are asking the community for input.
3 Likes