How to improve user experience greatly
jetboy started this discussion in Suggestions and Ideas

Hi!
First of all, great piece of software. I!m impressed how smoothly it works, and amount of polish. kudos!

However after spending some time with the product i see lots of ways how user interface can be improved, let me typee it here.

  1. first of all remove delete comfirmation box. It is annoying and unneeded. Deleting is one of very used functions, and since undo is already implemented it does not need confirmation.
  2. keybinding need to be changed. Preferably in configurable manner, so anyone can setup as one likes. Once that is done i could share my configuration. I would recommend setting it up the way it can be worked without moving ones hand. The most critical features that need to be close are Duplication and Rotation/Movement toggle. Those keys should be next to each other. Third one would be group ungroup selection. Hide/unhide.
  3. Would it be possible to use ctrl+c/ctrl+v for copy/paste?

Not as critical but also helpful would be.
4. possibility of increasing/decreasing part palette number of rows.
5. optional my palette section, where you could put some bricks for quick access.

Minor thing
6. you could change model sale while exporting so it does not have to be rescalled manually after import to blender. Or change the setup blender scene, so model does not have to be rescalled after import. I would do the later one myself, but blender is so user unfriendly i cannot grasp it, despite being fluent in Maya, Lightwave and 3dMax.

Btw. is it possible to add lxf export?

17 replies Β· Page 1 of 1
Avatar of Scrubs
Administrator

Hello and welcome,
Thank you for your input.

Custom key mapping may come at some stage. This is not easy but not undoable either however it requires a lot of testing and coding on my side. This is not on the top of the priority list for now though.

I never really thought about the delete box. It has been here for a while and before the undo/redo tool was added. It may be worth asking to other users what they think about it. Disabling it would be pretty easy.

Number of rows in the part library section has been discussed before. This is something I'd be happy to add. Not a priority but a nice to have for sure along with a part bucket like you mentioned.

Both scripts (Advanced and Lite) shall be used without re scaling now. Units are set to mm to fit real life.
Advanced script doesn't support scaling at all. It will break all the procedural textures. Lite script could as long as you do everything before hitting the "Run script" button but it is not advised.

Blender UI is special but I love it now. You shall have a chat with renderbricks. I think they mainly used Modo in the company he owns and was hating Blender UI with a passion πŸ˜› It looks like that nowadays he is not so reluctant to use it as he was experimenting a lot with it lately.

LXF support is not planned yet. It doesn't bring much to Mecabricks, would not be complete (no flex pieces or decorations) and parts from the last couple of years available in Mecabricks could not be found in LDD as it is not really updated any more.

If the delete button was to go, I'd be fine with that. And if it's staying, maybe make it so the okay button appears underneath the cursor. Like in Blender, so it's faster to delete something, and you don't accidentally move the mouse off it and have to hit delete again. πŸ˜‰

Avatar of Scrubs
Administrator

For the delete button, I generally don't use the mouse. Press DEL key + ENTER.

I didn't know that was possible... Thanks!

Thank you for quick reply and explanations.
I do not expect any changes to come quickly or ever πŸ˜ƒ

As for using DEL key + ENTER it is faster than clicking, but still it is one extra step that is not needed anymore. It used to be when there were no undo and deletion was potentially dangerous action where you could delete great chunk of your work accidentally. Now it is safe as you can undo it. I bet all users will love it when they try working with it. When asking users do remember that people are reluctant to change πŸ˜ƒ

I also agree that removing the delete action confirmation is beneficial for the workflow.

I apologize for hijacking but I take the chance to ask (again) for collapsible panels in the Workshop environment. At work I have two 23'' screens but at home the laptops either have low resolution or small screen (12'') and the parts bottom and right hand-side panels take too much real estate.
tx

If deletion can be undone, removing the confirmation requester should be fine, I think.

Do you really want to format your hard disk?

		Yes 			No

😝

I agree about the delete confirmation, not needed anymore!

Avatar of Scrubs
Administrator

I already disabled it in my dev. version.

Avatar of Scrubs
Administrator

Change with confirm button disable is now live.

Thanks!
It will speed up the work for me greatly πŸ˜ƒ

RIP delete button...you shall be missed...
---EULOGY---
"In times of doubt and poor hand coordination, it was our friend. In times of glaring mistakes and terrible MOC-work, it served as our greatest ally. The Delete-Confirmation Button (born April, 2012, died May, 2017) gave us hope in our darkest times, those times when we had accidentally imported part 3039 instead of 43892. But then as a new power arose, that power that went by the mysterious alias of 'command-z', we began to neglect Delete-Confirmation Button, relying instead on 'command-z' to do its work for us, and regarding the red button that popped up as we tried to delete as a tyrannical menace, an enemy to freedom and democracy. So now, join me as we spend a quiet moment of reflection to pay our respects to our dear departed friend...Delete-Confirmation Key."
---END OF EULOGY---
πŸ˜„

πŸ˜‚ Still got that reflex of pressing Enter to confirm deletion... πŸ”¨ Will unlearn it soon.

Avatar of Scrubs
Administrator

@Qwerty. It almost made me 😒

But look at what we can still find in the code of the workshop page:

<div id="delete-tooltip">
    <div class="button">OK</div>Delete ?
</div>

This guy is ready to come up any time!

@Qwerty, that's funny and sad at the same time.

@Scrubs, so, so... The Delete-Confirmation Button is a, you mean, undead? πŸ”«πŸ˜³ Good idea, we might need Mr. DCB in the future... ;):P

Working with workshop for some itme now, i got used to it (lerning some shortcuts and watching some tutorial videos). After delete confirmation removal it is pretty nice to work with. Sure it could still be improved, but i'm quite comfortable with the tool. Thanks!

Optional my palette section is a great idea! Maybe as a tab next to materials?

I often find myself knolling and creating a default model that has the most common parts placed on the design surface. Guess if feels natural as that's how I build in real life πŸ˜ƒ This would help to clear design surface.

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