Funny thing, these 3D CAD user interfaces. I figured I’d spare you any 2008/09 SolidWorks interface opinions and show you what the other CAD companies are doing. It looks like some are getting a little inspiration from each other, but really it just the onslaught of Ribbon bar bliss brought about by Microsoft and their Office 2007 program interfaces.
Think about it, how much can you really do with a the top left corner of a CAD program? Here’s the three – SpaceClaim, Siemens SolidEdge and AutoDesk Inventor.
SpaceClaim has been out a while with this interface, SolidEdge got revamped with the Synchronous Technology (ST) version and AutoDesk is getting ready to bring forth the ribbon bar wrath with an Inventor 2009 update.
Microsoft Office 2007
SpaceClaim, SolidEdge, and Inventor
Update:
A ‘Cleaner’ SolidEdge Ribbon (Courtesy of Mark Burhop)
Mark Burhop, a developer for SolidEdge, seems to think the ribbon bar provides productivity. Ralph Grabowski of WorldCAD Access seems to think it provides confusion. I would tend to side with Ralph. I love new interfaces and seeing better ways to use programs, but I found it strange when I didn’t like, in Office 2007, how commands were grouped in the ribbon bar, how much space they took up and changing tabs.
What do you think? Is it good business practice to create a UI similar to a Microsoft product? SolidWorks kind of has a ribbon bar too, although it differs quite a bit from the Office 2007 layout, the concept is the same… I have it turned off. Why did the CAD companies decide to go this direction? I know I’m extremely glad Adobe and Firefox, the two other most frequent programs I use, have chosen not to imitate the form of programmatic interaction determined by Microsoft.
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Ribbon bar is horrible. whenever i can switch it off and go with the classic UI im all for it.
I agree the ribbon is disorganized and takes up too much space. Funny people are just now noticing this.
Unfortunately, software developers follow MS like a bunch of mindless lemmings. With the ribbon and Vista, MS has run off the cliff, and everyone has followed them.
At least SW had the sense not to implement the actual MS Ribbon, but to develop their own that they can tweak as needed. I can neither confirm nor deny that a future version which may or may not be in beta currently has enough options to be customizable enough to use. The Command Manager is a great idea, and the interface can be set up with the Command Manager to run efficiently. There are a couple of things I wish SW would implement, one being the ability to use dual Command Managers, one for features and one for tools. I always keep the sketch toolbar off the CM because I need to use it so frequently, it would cause too much tab switching.
SW2008 was a pain to use until I changed the S keyboard shortcut to Insert and mapped that to my spaceball.
Just wanted to point out that NX is on Linux now and I recall some discussion about CATIA doing this as well (Maybe one of the Dassault folks can say?)
Also, NX and CATIA went in a different way with their UI. NX is very customizable. Here is a link for NX5 although it may be a bit out-of-date since NX6 was released
http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/cam...
Since we have not upgraded to SW 2008 or 2009 yet, I cannot comment on the new interface yet. Seeing the screen shots of the new “Ribbon” interface adopted by the other vendors, it does seem to be trying to cram way more stuff into a small area than is desirable. I do like the suggestion of two (2) Command Managers.
Insane indeed… I hardly wait an article about this…
There are many other problems with different SP’s than installing. For example did you noticed that “Close” and “Help” buttons on “What’s wrong” window displayed after an unsuccessful rebuild are in a position on SW2005 and switched between them on SW2006 and later?
Regarding project management: of course I have to set paths and folders for each project with access rules for each user and user groups.
Good catch on my loss of thinking on 2009. Atter getting a couple of emails asking for beta testers you think I could remember that. I may have something to do with working 7 days a week for the last month and a half.
“…it is easier to scan a single row of related information.”
that pretty much sums it up Matt.
Tne new ribbon bar is the next step in the UI development and it is fantastic. Yes, I am an old time user and I was confused for a second, but when I saw Office 2007 for the first time, I wishes for new new interface for all of the applications and know it is happening. Thanks a lot.
_jaro is absolutely right. It is a few moments to get used to it, but than .. you never want to go back from the ribbon anymore. I absolutely love the ribbon
Hey no clues for why all CAD developers are moving to the ribbon bar system, but now as I am using all the latest versions, I feel less of confusion while working, but do get bored of watching the same UI. But for your IGES problem, I feel you should SpaceClaim. Try if it solves your problem, I am still evaluating it as I find it interesting having common enviroment for CAD and CAE. will surely wait for your reply, to know if you find any loop hole or drawbacks of any of these softwares
Hey no clues for why all CAD developers are moving to the ribbon bar system, but now as I am using all the latest versions, I feel less of confusion while working, but do get bored of watching the same UI. But for your IGES problem, I feel you should SpaceClaim. Try if it solves your problem, I am still evaluating it as I find it interesting having common enviroment for CAD and CAE. will surely wait for your reply, to know if you find any loop hole or drawbacks of any of these softwares
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