Trays in SketchUp

[DanRathbun]

@eneroth3

Most users wont change the default settings for their user interface. It’s just not going to happen. Some prefer it to be pristine, some want to stick to the default for consistency between machines and some just don’t bother. Only a handful of people will organize their own trays.

Totally disagree. In fact, I monitored John Bacus’ “Show Us how you use SketchUp” topic thread here in these forums, and witnessed the myriad ways users customize the SU interface to suit their own needs.

@eneroth3

If the interface is designed according to the assumption that you modify it, it is badly designed.

Total disagree again. The “U” in GUI means “user”. Users have differing needs and desires, just as they have differing opinions. “One size” does not “fit all”, nor does “one interface work for all”.

ADD: I find it strange that you “Liked” what I wrote here last June …

@DanRathbun

@sketchuparchive

I suggest to add the Scenes window in a separate Tray as default to all Templates

The GUI window setup and positions are not linked to a specific model, so are not saved within the SKP file (template or not.)

Secondly if you start forcing options upon users, they will fight back.

Thirdly, the “Default Tray” is not intended to ever be the way that users use the GUI. It is expected that they’ll customize their GUI layout, by making more trays, etc.

I myself have already set up the trays the way I like them, with a tabbed array and the Layers and Scenes panels on a “Organize” tray.

This thread is about giving users more options, not forcing your choice upon them !

If a application does not have customizable interface, users will move on and find a product that does.

@eneroth3

It can allow customization but not demand it.

This is not really the fault of Microsoft and it’s MFC, although they “recommended” (on MSDN) that all panels be opened initially in one “Default” tray.

The SketchUp Dev team could have rejected this idea, and left them all closed as the did when all the inspectors were independent tool windows.

… OR, … they could have adopted a better “initial” layout similar to how I proposed in another “tray” thread circa version 2016, … which BTW, mentions this thread as just another thread of us all repeating the same opinions over and over.

We are not getting anywhere by restating the same old opinions again and again, nor are we convincing each other in the slightest way. We will just have to accept that we think differently and are never likely to reach consensus on this topic.

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So, in closing, I have a total opposite belief then Christina and I have always felt from before 2016 was released, that the “default” tray setup should have been all closed or setup similar to how I posted in that other thread post, viz :

Re, the images Christina has shown, … the “Default” tray was never meant to continue to be the way the panels were used. It’s just the way that MS suggested that all panels be shown when an application was first installed.

The user is expected to adjust them, create their own trays, sets of tabbed trays, others floating, others auto-hidden etc.

I have my panels divided into a tabbed set of 4 trays docked on the right:

They are slightly different now, ie, detail name lists (instead of thumbnails) and the panel heights are adjusted so the tray scroll bar is suppressed. (And the auto-hidden trays are now docked to the left margin.)