We’ve recently added the ability to search for tools and commands in SketchUp for Web. This is a new capability, aimed at helping beginners find tools when they don’t know how SketchUp works, and at helping all SketchUp users call-up and activate commands as quickly as possible.
I like the search function, I do not fully grasp the results, though. There is some underlying logic or randomness, which is actually great to explore ‘unknown’ commands, I guess.
A few notes:
Did you consider the panel to pop up at the location of the cursor? Or merely at the side of the screen were the cursor is? (When exploring the toolbar on the left, or the panels on the right, for instance)
I recognise the Trimble UI with the (Small) blue ribbon on the left, I would like to see those improvements while hoovering over the results in the AMP, as well! (The blue ribbon being slightly thicker and the highlighting of the whole row, instead of the bold font)
Highligtning of the set shortkeys would improve to see and remember them, maybe?
The search results do not display the assigned Hotkeys, yet.
I very much like the option to Toggle in the search results directly (FR for Desktop)
The choise of SHIFT +/ does not seem intuitive, I use Ctrl+F a lot on webpages (F=Find)
Thanks for the feedback, Jack! Really helpful, as some of your points are under consideration already as improvements, including:
– Making the search box moveable.
– Abbreviating concept based search results. This search does not only fuzzy / partial query matching, but it also matches for concepts. For instance, if you search for raise, you get the Move tool. For some queries this leads to long lists of results that might not make much sense. We think we can abbreviate the results that have low relevance, when there are a few highly relevant results.
– FYI, Shift +/ is “?” on many Qwerty layout keyboards. You can also use Shift + S to trigger the results.
– We’re still investigating the best way to do custom hot-keys. We’d like for people not have to set hotkeys twice for desktop and web. But, there are some complications as some web browser keyboard shortcuts will make hotkey combinations unavailable in SketchUp for Web. Work to do here, but one goal of this search is to help users learn about the availability of shortcuts, so I like your highlighting idea.
– FR for desktop? Absolutely, we are launching this in the Web version to start and learn about the subjective upsides and downsides. We are also working out the details for translating this functionality.
– @g.h.hubers: Thanks for weighing in, as well. You’ll notice that not every SketchUp command is available in search. For more specific things like shadow settings, we just have to figure out how to include them without lowering the quality of the concept search.
Looking forward to more input from others on this thread!
Disabling shadow on ground isn’t mentioned in search. I wasn’t expecting it to be. My point was that it isn’t even available in the free web version. In some cases it can be a pain that this option is lacking. (once it becomes a new option in the free web version it could/should somehow be included in search as a togle slider like with X-ray)
See this thread: Casting shadows through objects - #8 by g.h.hubers
I think both @whiterabbitdesigncompany an I have a good point about shadows on ground plane.
As it is now with the free version, one needs a (huge) face with receive shadow disabled to mimice what is possible in the desktop version. That face blocks shadows on the ground plane.
I can’t disagree with @whiterabbitdesigncompany’s example.
But my first post there is about when you do not wish to see shadows “inside” a partly opened building. (see OP’s screenshot in first post)
I can’t search for search (or find) so I can’t see its shortcut. (or if it even has one) I like how it displays shortcuts for other commands though.
If it doesn’t have a shortcut I’d propose Ctrl+Space. Space is the biggest key used for the most used tool, while Ctrl is a modifier for slightly less used commands.
Hey Christina: for the time being, there are two shortcuts to activate the search: Shift + / and Shift + S. Here’s some more info about how to operate the search (beyond what I hope is obvious to people who might not read a help article before searching!). I’ll add this link to the top of the thread, I think.
Per my comment to Jack above, we do plan to let people customize shortcuts in SU for Web, so CTRL + Space sounds good to me!
Hi. Is there a way to add favorites in the Search window? At this point, I’m using the same one over and over, and if I could click a button or icon, it would be lots easier.
Hi Wendy. The answer is ‘not yet,’ meaning that this suggestion is something we are working on. Out of curiosity, do you use keyboard shortcuts? One way we are considering addressing an idea like this is to let you assign a keyboard shortcut to tools or commands you use often.
In the spirit of ‘if it ain’t broke’… Please restore at least the OPTION for standard menus. The Search for command is a very poor substitute to having absolutely every function/option organized in logical and intuitive menus. I can search for and trigger ‘wireframe’ but ‘surfaces’ and other keywords to get out of ‘wireframe’ return nothing. Moreover, if I search for ‘wireframe’ and wireframe is currently enabled, it should provide the option to toggle back to ‘non-wireframe’.
Every version of sketchup and the keystroke shortcuts change or dissappear alltogether.
Appreciate this feedback, @Puddleglum. We’re adding surfaces as a concept keyword for shaded and shaded textures (two face settings that will get you out of wireframe). You may not see this new concept result right away, but it will be in our next update to the search index.
As for the best way to organize a whole bunch of commands so that people remember where they are, this is a new idea we’re trying out. For people learning SketchUp, the distribution commands into menus may not be all that intuitive. Some people prefer to remember where tool icons and menu listings are: others prefer remembering and triggering workflows by keyboard shortcuts. Everyone is a little bit different, so we are genuinely curious about how to make SketchUp more learnable for everybody.
As for that shortcut thing, we’re working on this too. Stay tuned.
@Mark, the style option to color edges: by material would be very helpful in SketchUp for Web.
It only shows in ‘Entity Info’ that someting has been done to edges.
A toggle switch through search maybe?
1- Having to use the search function to find things that used to be in the menu bar is ridiculous.
Things like hide and unhide and others.
2- On a Mac the zoom is crazy fast for the track pad.
3- When switching tools with shortcut keys the old tool stays as the icon.
4- The fact you can’t turn off the help topics in the right side tool bar is horrible UI. It is in the way. Having to scroll through all that stuff to get what you want is bad UI.
5- Why move so many things and use new icons? Now it’s just a guessing game. Bad UX!
6- No way to upload to 3D warehouse anymore. If there is a way you have hidden it very deep. Maybe under a new Icon?
7- No sharing option for the finished file.
This is only a few minutes of using I am sure at this rate I will find more.
I think it feels quite awkward to have search in the toolbar when it isn’t a modeling tool but more like a meta input thingy, especially having it at the top where it is more prominent than Select.
Maybe it could be at the bottom of the toolbar, or even better, in the statusbar.
Thanks for the feedback @onecarwood. I agree we should have some zoom sensitivity controls for users. From what I have experienced, trackpads are extremely variable in performance across devices.
We’ve seen the switching tools bug on-and-off, but we haven’t exactly found a way to reproduce the issue reliabily. If you are experiencing this continually, will you please reply to the thread.
To turn off the Instructor (help topics), click the X or the right arrow in the upper right of the screen, at the top of the panel. To upload to 3D Warehouse, use the Hamburger menu in the upper left of the app. Obviously, we have a few more commands and resources to add to Search still, so that you can find more of what you need when searching.
With respect to your preference for the menu bar, we find that many people have a hard time finding things in SketchUp both before and after they learn where tools are in a menu or toolbar. Certainly, we don’t think we’re done improving the UX of this version of SketchUp, so I appreciate all the feedback.
We’re still tinkering with where and how people discover search and measuring how well people discover the search. We recently moved the Search trigger out of the toolbar itself, as we received a lot of feedback along these lines. All of your suggestions are good ones!
you’re not going to switch to yearly releases and make each one of them a big event so I notice and don’t post feedback on things that have already changed?
