Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations waross on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Solidworks usability 2

Status
Not open for further replies.
Dec 26, 2006
20
0
0
NL
Being a long time Solidworks user since 95 I have
come to dislike the userinterface more and
more every release.
The reason is the forced use of property managers
for almost every command which was not necessairy
in older releases. The problem is that with the
property managers the userinterface area is restricted
to the window size. This makes you scroll and windows
maximize all the time only to see your commands when
working with multiple windows. Useless to say that
most commands need in this case additional steps.
Only Solidworks has this problem I found so far. It is
dissappointing to see Solidworks who was about the first Windows cad modeller now has a userinterface that is so
inefficient when working with multiple windows, something
Windows was designed for. Only Solidworks needs all these
additional steps like scroll or windows maximize only to see
your command. That's why I think Solidworks has gradually
changed into scrollworks. In older release I had shortkey programs like Aimkeys that did most of the commands in one or two keystrokes where I now need the propertymanagers, scrollwork and windows maximize/minimize to do the same in about 2-5 times more mouseclicks and about 10 times more mousemovements.
The property managers are useless when trying automate with programs like Aimkeys. The property managers just force you all the time to go into the tree area which causes unnecessairy mousemovements by design.
I want all my commands and input boxes on the place where my mouse is just to prevent unnecessairy interaction. I am now on SW2005, tried 2006 but found that a lot of propertymanager pickboxes are now 2x2 mm on 1600x1200 where in 2005 you could pick in much bigger (>5 times)
areas to activate the command. Small pick areas cause precise mousemovements and Solidworks has a lot of unnecessairy precise mousemovements like SW2006 in
the propertymanager but also especially when selecting and object relation snap which never has really improved in the last 10 years. Especially on higher resolution Solidworks doesn't have tools to change the accuracy in selection and object relation snap which other cad programs have.
Precise mousemovements can cause RSI problems.
Another thing is that often used commands in the property manager trees are lower in the window causing more scrolling and windows maximize/minimize.
I have come to the conclusion that Solidworks is just getting harder to use every release and harder to optimize every release.

I wonder if Pro/E Wildfire3 doesn't use propertymanagers and doesn't have the limitations I find in Solidworks when working with multiple windows. Does anybody know if it is easy to customize Wildfire 3 with shortcuts? In general I read positive comments on large assembly performance in Pro/E. We design machines for foodindustries with a lot of sheetmetal, laser cutting parts, tubes, shafts and standard machine parts with assemblies from 500-10000 parts. Thanks for your comments.

Richard
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Richard,
I am sorry you feel so sad about SolidWorks. I have been using SolidWorks since 1998 and enjoy it more with each new release. Sure SolidWorks has issues, but so does Pro-E. Once I get used to the new changes in SolidWorks I am OK again. Let us know how much you enjoy Pro-E an how much your Pro-E seat cost you and have a happy new year.


Bradley
SolidWorks 2007 SP2.0
 
I'm sorry you feel that way regarding Solidworks......trying being a long time user of Pro/E then PTC release WildFire and claims it's the best release of Pro/e yet! They're on WF 3 and are just now sorting things out.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 2.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

(In reference to David Beckham) "He can't kick with his left foot, he can't tackle, he can't head the ball and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that, he'
 
I'm a longtime hold out on Pro/E 2001 the last real version of Pro/E. Pro/E uses Map Keys as a way to customize commands....which I believe was born out of Pro/E cascading menu structure of years past. I'm not a Wildfire user....I've used a demo copy for a while and desided I will wait for PTC to sort things out before I jump on the band wagon. IMO, PTC really didn't improve the UI with WF 1 or WF 2. I hear WF 3 is a lot better. By far SolidWorks UI is much better then WF 1 or WF 2. Then add to the mix that SWx Corp actually listens to its user base whereas, PTC's executives sit in there ivory towers.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 2.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

(In reference to David Beckham) "He can't kick with his left foot, he can't tackle, he can't head the ball and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that, he'
 
Well I too am sorry you don't like SW's newer version. I to have been using SW since 95 and love it!!! Its gotten easier and on top of that it has provided many more new enhancements.

Some of the things I see people complain about are the fact they are not using the software to what they need it for. If you don't need an icon, then remove it, or customize the menu to your needs. Then you will only get what you need and will probably help keep you from scrolling to much. Also using the Command manager has helped tremendously in gaining toolbar space back for the graphics area and still having enough room to see what I want to use. One thing I have seen with users is they leave their descriptions on. That alone wiil take up far to much room and the users will have to do more scrolling.

Its the little techniques people are used that they don't update to or decide use the new functionality and that is why most users are scrolling more.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP [pc2]
faq731-376
 
Also after reading your reply in another thread thread559-172788 What is it that you are seeing... try posting a screen shot of what you are seeing so we can better understand what you are complaining about.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP [pc2]
faq731-376
 
I saw Pro WF II and wasn't really impressed.
SW is much better and needs far less mouseclicks.
But SW can be optimized too by avoiding the trees/propertymanagers/scrollwork and have as many as possible pop up menus and shortcuts.
Not like the dialog boxes but just like the mate
popup menu in assembly mode, which don't depend
on the size of the window so you will always see them
and mousemovement is as less as possible. I have always been trying to get the most out of Solidworks with the fewest possible mouseinteraction. The propertymanagers
can't be automated well by macrorecorders. That's
why I try to use small popup programs to make these
myself. I saved a lot of time and mouseclickcs with these optimizations. It was much easier to automate with the old user interface with a macrorecorder than now
with API. I hope this makes clear why I don't like
the propertymanagers, there are simply better ways that
take less interaction and it really makes a difference,
I saved thousands of mouse interactions a day.
For example to change the scale of a drawing view,
I select the view and invoke a shortcut, after that the
cursor is in a very small popup menu on the place of
the mouse and I can type in a new scale immediately without
the need to move to the tree and back to the geometry.
I know most user don't mind to move or click a bit more
but since I got minor RSI problems after the extensive use of propertymanagers for me it sure makes sense and I have
been able to do a lot more work a day.
Concerning multiple views and the propertymanager, if the view is too small you cannot see your commands anymore.
If there is one static tree which is as high as the height of the screen which updates according to the type of document, (parts, assembly, drawing) then you also wouldn't need to view maximize to see your commands with multiple windows open. I have seen users voting for this option
in the Solidworks user forum.
Thanks for your comments, I guess I am one of the few
strugling with the Solidworks userinterface.
Richard

 
Hey Richard,

We appreciate your input and concerns. I do share some of your views especially with the mate popup menu it's annoying to say the least. But being a current Pro/E user on some projects I truely appreciate SWx and their desire to listen to the user base. I do not get stired up over the little things because when I'm using Pro/E 85% of the time I'm wishing I were using SWx. I would suggest sending your concerns to SWx corporate in a form of an enhancement request.

One thing that does bother me about SWx Corporate is their constant catering to ACAD users who have converted to SWx. This is evident right on there website.....it's almost like special ed for 3D MCAD users....come along little ACAD user. That's just wrong...what about the users that do get it? Okay, enough of my rant.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 2.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

(In reference to David Beckham) "He can't kick with his left foot, he can't tackle, he can't head the ball and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that, he'
 
I know Pro/E Wild Fire and am now using SW 2007.

The 2007 version appears to have reduced clicks, far more than Pro/E WF. I found the mapkeys in Pro/E wild Fire to be quirky, sometimes they did not even work.

I have found, through my experience, that any program is worth getting used to. I'm not sure how pull downs and automated windows can slow you down. I find it all faster.

Through them all I find SW 2007 the best for what I do.

I've used Personal Designer, Design CAD, DeskTop Pro, Solid Edge, AutoCAD 2007, Pro/E WF, and Solid Works 2007.

Oh yeah, and the Pencil and paper.



Charlie
 
richardfoodindustrie,

I am new to SWx and have used Pro/E for the past 7 years at a very advanced level. Before you dump your seat of SolidWorks for Pro/E consider this. Pro/E is a very powerful solid modeling package. In fact it is the most powerful system I have ever used and there are few systems that I haven't used. The problem with Pro/E is that they do not have the front end user interface to compliment this great system. There are too many areas in Pro/E where you have to learn Pro/E's programming language and type in command strings to make your model or drawing do what you want it to do. That may have been ok 15 years ago when solid modeling was new and Pro/E was the bully on the block. However, PTC has rested on their laurels for too many years and neglected to update the Pro/E user interface to keep up with the times. Meanwhile their competition has spent the past 15 years improving and redeveloping their software and making it easier to use with true windows interfaces. If you just can't stand SWx the way it is maybe you want to consider writing some simple macros to help reduce the number of clicks you have to make.

Dblcrona

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top