Interface Redesign

[Sean MacIsaac]

This is the start of what will become the improved interface for 3D Coat. And to make this happen, we need your input.

My name is Sean MacIsaac -- I have been in 3D since 2004. I have also been designing interfaces for longer. I picked up 3D Coat and thought to myself, this is a great program but it has a big problem for me--the interface could be steamlined, simplified and more efficient. So--I took 2 days and did a design. And I emailed that to Andrew, Andrew said "It's good, but why does it look so much like modo?" -- and through some back and forth Andrew agreed that he needed to hire me to design the interface--but make it look like 3D Coat ;-).

He also told me that he greatly valued the input of the users on the boards and I told him I totally agreed. So, here is the beginning of our story, we need and want your input through this whole process--and now together, let's start.

1. Read this entire thread before commenting--this will reduce overlap.

2. Keep your replies as short and clear as possible as I will try to reply to all of them--and see rule #1.

3. Be constructive

4. Negativity and fear won't build a great interface--co-operation and working together will.

These are mock ups for the design process, and therefore change is easy and encouraged. I want to know what you guys think.

1. Rearranging Interface hierarchy

In the current UI, the menu bar is the child of the mode panel (Sculpt Mode, Voxel Mode, UV Mode etc). The menu bar is currently placed underneath it's children--the parent is the child. So the first change is to visually present the interface hierarchy of the interface.

2. Changing UI style and spinners, making the icons a bit more polished.

Reason for changing the spinners / sliders: It is logical to directly manipulate the number and not the text.

Added quad view layout button, and full screen button.

Rooms can be closed and added by clicking on the [+].

This *may* change due to current limitation of pages not being able to be put into the header.

3. Removing and Adding Rooms

Context Sensitivity (Greying out of Menu-Entries and Icons which make no sense (are not available) with the currently

chosen tool)

More telling progress bars

Rethinking, simplifying widgets for object creation and transforms.

Sparse cursor "decorations" which indicate the current workmode.

Clearer Visual indicators (eg: if a Brush allows for Alphas or not)

Key-remapping options (every action could be remapped)

UI and Command Transparency: Every command should be available clearly in the interface

Ability to create custom rooms. So that you can have access to all commands in one window and create a fully customizable interface.

============================================================================

Due to the confusion I have removed the past mockup.

[philnolan3d]

Actually I think it looks more like XSI. I'm kinda happy with the UI the way it is. I feel like changing it too many times might confuse people. I guess as long as it's not covered in hieroglyphics like some other apps I'll consider it.

In your third pic you discuss subdivision levels. 3DC does not have subdivision levels. In the 4th image I hope you don't intend the layers palette to be there permanently, I really like having my layers open on the lower right all the time, like Photoshop. Scratch that, I just saw Image 7. Overall I really don't like the "capsule" buttons and curves on every corner. It feels like grouped items are more like individual trees instead of a forest if you get my meaning.

Hope you don't mind constructive criticism.

[lc8b105]

Wow this is really good news. We need a modern UI: rounded corner, transparency, reflection, shadow, and the interactive UI elements, etc. Less is more, the UI should also keep as simple/clean as possible.

Keep on your great work Sean!

[haikalle]

Sean. I like your ideas. That interface looks really nice. Maybe in the future we can see updates.

There is one thing that I would like to see it fixed. Right now you don't see any sliders even if there is one. Maybe this could

be improved a little bit. See the picture.

[philnolan3d]

Sean. I like your ideas. That interface looks really nice. Maybe in the future we can see updates.

There is one thing that I would like to see it fixed. Right now you don't see any sliders even if there is one. Maybe this could

be improved a little bit. See the picture.

That used to have a slider but it was removed, now you slide on the text, that's why it has the two little arrow triangles around it. However one spot where it is a problem I've reported a couple of times and I believe it's still there. In the Edit Shaders area the text has the two arrows, but it's acts as if the old slider is still there even though it isn't.

[Klaus Nordby]

Hi Sean, welcome! This can only be Good News for 3DC! I'm the designer of 3DC's PDF manual, so I'm not wholly ignorant, I like to think, of user interfaces myself.

I have only one axiom to plead: do not impose a hard-coded color scheme/theme on us in *any* UI element, let us choose this ourselves. I absolutely HATE it when an UI imposes blue-shades or green-shades or pink-shades on me -- for I want nothing but acres and acres of neutral, gray-white-black colors in my UIs, which won't interfere with my color vision.

But hey, let the visual morons who want to ruin their color vision with a Hulk-green UI have their way, too, if possible. In other words: please make a color-flexible UI.

[Tony Nemo]

A good start.

[philnolan3d]

I just looked at the modo interface again. I'm not a fan of the program, but one thing is has going with the curved corners is that it only curves at the corner of the group, not each button.

[Sean MacIsaac]

Actually I think it looks more like XSI. I'm kinda happy with the UI the way it is. I feel like changing it too many times might confuse people. I guess as long as it's not covered in hieroglyphics like some other apps I'll consider it.

In your third pic you discuss subdivision levels. 3DC does not have subdivision levels. In the 4th image I hope you don't intend the layers palette to be there permanently, I really like having my layers open on the lower right all the time, like Photoshop. Scratch that, I just saw Image 7. Overall I really don't like the "capsule" buttons and curves on every corner. It feels like grouped items are more like individual trees instead of a forest if you get my meaning.

Hope you don't mind constructive criticism.

If the criticism is constructive I don't mind.

Everything gets approved by you guys.

So if you have a better idea, talk about it. Don't like something--talk about it.

Wow this is really good news. We need a modern UI: rounded corner, transparency, reflection, shadow, and the interactive UI elements, etc. Less is more, the UI should also keep as simple/clean as possible.

Keep on your great work Sean!

Simple and clean is the goal--we need to do everything the best possible way!

Sean. I like your ideas. That interface looks really nice. Maybe in the future we can see updates.

There is one thing that I would like to see it fixed. Right now you don't see any sliders even if there is one. Maybe this could

be improved a little bit. See the picture.

Yeah, the sliders I am going to change, I agree on them being an issue and in my first series of mockups I changed them.

Hi Sean, welcome! This can only be Good News for 3DC! I'm the designer of 3DC's PDF manual, so I'm not wholly ignorant, I like to think, of user interfaces myself.

I have only one axiom to plead: do not impose a hard-coded color scheme/theme on us in *any* UI element, let us choose this ourselves. I absolutely HATE it when an UI imposes blue-shades or green-shades or pink-shades on me -- for I want nothing but acres and acres of neutral, gray-white-black colors in my UIs, which won't interfere with my color vision.

But hey, let the visual morons who want to ruin their color vision with a Hulk-green UI have their way, too, if possible. In other words: please make a color-flexible UI.

I don't think forcing UI colours is a good idea--however, I think we should remove the option to chose between the flat and 3d buttons and just pick a single one which would be a mash up of the two.

I just looked at the modo interface again. I'm not a fan of the program, but one thing is has going with the curved corners is that it only curves at the corner of the group, not each button.

And as for the modo look--don't worry about it. The way the UI is going, it will look like 3D coat, just better.

[wailingmonkey]

two things:

- not sure the point of pulling the 'rooms' above the menu bar...this breaks the

commonly accepted style of having your 'File', 'Edit', etc. at the uppermost area

of the software. In my mind it's changing a standard of software for no real benefit.

- as much as I applaud the clean quality look of your first proposed mockup (the

second image with flat greys) it appears that the importance of the interface 'look'

has taken over what is arguably the most important aspect, namely, work space real estate.

(the whitespace after each button name appears to have increased and encroached into the work area)

I'd like to see solutions that keep as their priority the ability to have the most screen

real estate dedicated to actually working on the object.

All in all, I appreciate the effort...these are just my concerns.

[polyxo]

Hello Sean,

very good to see that a dedicated person responsable for the GUI has been hired!

While I consider the GUI which has been introduced just recently a huge

improvement over the old one I still see ernormous potential for improvement.

I believe designing the interface of such a complex package is a very

challenging task, especially as Andrew keeps on adding new features or

complete groups of functionalities at Lightning Speed. Whatever gets

done with the UI - it has to scale well...

While I personally see clear weaknesses in the Graphics of the current UI

I far more have my problems with the logical structure of this program.

Currently one can track many different generations of tools and their respective

UI implementation being in use that time...

No program I use comes with such an enormous amount of different widgets;

non-comparable functions sit next to each other in one toolbar and on the

other hand very related tools can be spread over three or four different places...

It is cool to see how much Andrew is actually willing to experiment in order

to find optimal solutions but one can clearly see and feel that in the end

time is missing to clean up. Streamlining functionalities, appearance and behaviours

would therefor be very welcome from my side.

Good also that a native English speaker has been found for this job!

There's still areas in which the nomenclature could need quite a bit of polish:

I have to admit that after considerable time of use there's still some tools inside 3DC

which fail to tell me their exact job by their name and even the tooltip/help file can help

me out... While it is fantastic that so many (mostly non native English speaking) volunteers

have contributed it would be very helpful (especially to non native speakers like me)

to see the first GUI in proper English.

Appart from the mentioned issues my personal preferences concerning developments of UI were

(in no particular order):

Snappier, more well behaved UI elements.

On my machine everything still feels a bit quirky and needs some time for rearrangement.

Maybe QT could help here? I just had a look at a pre-release version of Blender 2.5 and I

(who always found this app mostly unusable) was actually very impressed by the the touch and feel

of their GUI. One gets the prereleases here: http://www.graphicall.org/builds

While I am at it - one word on your first UI-Draft:

I find it very professional looking of course, very clear and with good logical improvement already.

Maybe it got even a bit too fashionable a bit too bubbly and rounded - I'm afraid one can not stand that

look any more in some years...

Further wishes:

Full Dual monitor support.

Quad Viewport-Layout - instant Maximizing of the currently active viewport.

Consequent Context Sensitivity of tool behaviours and hotkeys. Ideal was when e.g. Ctrl+D issues

one command in the paint-room but can do something completely different inside the Voxel-Room.

More telling progress bars. Its great that 3DC has them at all! However one should also understand

that it is process 1 of 3 which is now at 97%...

Rethinking, simplifying widgets for object creation and transforms.

Sparse cursor "decorations" which indicate the current workmode.

Icons: Visual indicators should tell if a Brush allows for Alphas or not.

Consequent Key-remapping options:

I realize that this is not stricly UI but it has to do with the logical structure....

Good that we can remap most keyboard-shortcuts also for navigation, however several hard-coded modifier-keys

limit the success of such actions. It was cool if basically every action could be remapped.

Menu-Additions: Functions should not be available by hotkey alone, there's still quite a lot of those:

If one e.g. wants to hide the pen-cursor there's only the CapsLock-Key which allows us to do so.

Such should appear inside the menus too.

At last a big one: Greying out of Menu-Entries and Icons which make no sense (are not available) with the currently

chosen tool. SolidWorks does that very nicely - such would certainly help learners a lot.

Thanks for reading all this!

Holger

[haikalle]

I didn't see the Zip file first but now I checked that too and it all looks beatiful to me. I'm excited about this.

One thing. Do we need render room?? Someone already talked about this and I have to agree. Maybe just render button that shows in every

room and if you press right button it brings settings.

Quad Viewport-Layout - instant Maximizing of the currently active viewport.

+1

[Amber]

What 3DC needs is complete and full customization of UI not some specific UI you can't really tweak.

The biggest highlight of Blender 2.5 is new UI you can completly customize to your needs.You examples look nice but I wouldn't like the rounded buttons like in XSI,I also don't like the space between File Edit View ... not my style,so if 3DC would be fully customizable I could create my own buttons,colors and my own layout. Why buttons have written keyshortcuts on them ? Cool for beginners but for other users will be too much visual noise.The rounded line around not selected room - again, not needed, too much visual noise.

Everybody likes something other won't like(or will hate) and it would create constant wars about UI ,customization should be a main feature.

I don't want somebody design and think for me because it may look right but for my or some other people needs it will be not good (color,layout,style etc)

[VolumesculptR]

Great start! I love the greyish one (reminds me new Blender 2.5 which is great! never worked with XSI)

And IMHO some menu's elements should be reworked (put in "right place") too.

I guess "old-pro users" probably would complain, but that's just IMHO as I wrote.

For example, baking or export options are almost for every mode they differs

(for newbies it's hard to find at first, I know, actually, many things hard to find @first ).

At this moment I don't know how to make them well-ordered (as I'm also 'kinda newbie'), but

sometimes the question "why it is here, not there?" was arisen. The only explanation was - the program is constantly developing...

Or may be - universal thing about REAL FULL CUSTOMIZATION (with Menus Items order, and everything)

could solve ALL disagreement between users?

sorry my English

Anyway, good start with it!

[Sean MacIsaac]

two things:

- not sure the point of pulling the 'rooms' above the menu bar...this breaks the

commonly accepted style of having your 'File', 'Edit', etc. at the uppermost area

of the software. In my mind it's changing a standard of software for no real benefit.

- as much as I applaud the clean quality look of your first proposed mockup (the

second image with flat greys) it appears that the importance of the interface 'look'

has taken over what is arguably the most important aspect, namely, work space real estate.

(the whitespace after each button name appears to have increased and encroached into the work area)

I'd like to see solutions that keep as their priority the ability to have the most screen

real estate dedicated to actually working on the object.

All in all, I appreciate the effort...these are just my concerns.

We are going to start from the basis of 3D coat, and slowly build on ideas in this thread with your comments. Your concerns important to me, because with your points of view it is how we will build this. We will be starting from scratch as the launching point being re-organization of the UI hierarchy.

two things:

- not sure the point of pulling the 'rooms' above the menu bar...this breaks the

commonly accepted style of having your 'File', 'Edit', etc. at the uppermost area

of the software. In my mind it's changing a standard of software for no real benefit.

- as much as I applaud the clean quality look of your first proposed mockup (the

second image with flat greys) it appears that the importance of the interface 'look'

has taken over what is arguably the most important aspect, namely, work space real estate.

(the whitespace after each button name appears to have increased and encroached into the work area)

I'd like to see solutions that keep as their priority the ability to have the most screen

real estate dedicated to actually working on the object.

All in all, I appreciate the effort...these are just my concerns.

We are going to start from the basis of 3D coat, and slowly build on ideas in this thread with your comments. Your concerns important to me, because with your points of view it is how we will build this. We will be starting from scratch as the launching point being re-organization of the UI hierarchy.

Hello Sean,

very good to see that a dedicated person responsable for the GUI has been hired!

While I consider the GUI which has been introduced just recently a huge

improvement over the old one I still see ernormous potential for improvement.

I believe designing the interface of such a complex package is a very

challenging task, especially as Andrew keeps on adding new features or

complete groups of functionalities at Lightning Speed. Whatever gets

done with the UI - it has to scale well...

While I personally see clear weaknesses in the Graphics of the current UI

I far more have my problems with the logical structure of this program.

Currently one can track many different generations of tools and their respective

UI implementation being in use that time...

No program I use comes with such an enormous amount of different widgets;

non-comparable functions sit next to each other in one toolbar and on the

other hand very related tools can be spread over three or four different places...

It is cool to see how much Andrew is actually willing to experiment in order

to find optimal solutions but one can clearly see and feel that in the end

time is missing to clean up. Streamlining functionalities, appearance and behaviours

would therefor be very welcome from my side.

Good also that a native English speaker has been found for this job!

There's still areas in which the nomenclature could need quite a bit of polish:

I have to admit that after considerable time of use there's still some tools inside 3DC

which fail to tell me their exact job by their name and even the tooltip/help file can help

me out... While it is fantastic that so many (mostly non native English speaking) volunteers

have contributed it would be very helpful (especially to non native speakers like me)

to see the first GUI in proper English.

Appart from the mentioned issues my personal preferences concerning developments of UI were

(in no particular order):

Snappier, more well behaved UI elements.

On my machine everything still feels a bit quirky and needs some time for rearrangement.

Maybe QT could help here? I just had a look at a pre-release version of Blender 2.5 and I

(who always found this app mostly unusable) was actually very impressed by the the touch and feel

of their GUI. One gets the prereleases here: http://www.graphicall.org/builds

While I am at it - one word on your first UI-Draft:

I find it very professional looking of course, very clear and with good logical improvement already.

Maybe it got even a bit too fashionable a bit too bubbly and rounded - I'm afraid one can not stand that

look any more in some years...

Further wishes:

Full Dual monitor support.

Quad Viewport-Layout - instant Maximizing of the currently active viewport.

Consequent Context Sensitivity of tool behaviours and hotkeys. Ideal was when e.g. Ctrl+D issues

one command in the paint-room but can do something completely different inside the Voxel-Room.

More telling progress bars. Its great that 3DC has them at all! However one should also understand

that it is process 1 of 3 which is now at 97%...

Rethinking, simplifying widgets for object creation and transforms.

Sparse cursor "decorations" which indicate the current workmode.

Icons: Visual indicators should tell if a Brush allows for Alphas or not.

Consequent Key-remapping options:

I realize that this is not stricly UI but it has to do with the logical structure....

Good that we can remap most keyboard-shortcuts also for navigation, however several hard-coded modifier-keys

limit the success of such actions. It was cool if basically every action could be remapped.

Menu-Additions: Functions should not be available by hotkey alone, there's still quite a lot of those:

If one e.g. wants to hide the pen-cursor there's only the CapsLock-Key which allows us to do so.

Such should appear inside the menus too.

At last a big one: Greying out of Menu-Entries and Icons which make no sense (are not available) with the currently

chosen tool. SolidWorks does that very nicely - such would certainly help learners a lot.

Thanks for reading all this!

Holger

I am going to add these to the first post, these request are very logical and I support them.

What 3DC needs is complete and full customization of UI not some specific UI you can't really tweak.

The biggest highlight of Blender 2.5 is new UI you can completly customize to your needs.You examples look nice but I wouldn't like the rounded buttons like in XSI,I also don't like the space between File Edit View ... not my style,so if 3DC would be fully customizable I could create my own buttons,colors and my own layout. Why buttons have written keyshortcuts on them ? Cool for beginners but for other users will be too much visual noise.The rounded line around not selected room - again, not needed, too much visual noise.

Everybody likes something other won't like(or will hate) and it would create constant wars about UI ,customization should be a main feature.

I don't want somebody design and think for me because it may look right but for my or some other people needs it will be not good (color,layout,style etc)

Personally, for myself and we are going to need a consensus for this, I want the power to customize my workspace and it needs to be simple and easy. We need to find a right balance of customization options. And we will.

[Javis]

Interesting! Welcome Sean. It is great to see a dedicated designer for the UI.

I, like comrade Klaus, would really like to be able to customize the colors. I like what you have presented thus far of course.

The ability to dock everything in logical positions is a must.

I like the new sliders.

I like the XSI feel of it.

Please don't clutter it with icons - I find them dreadful. If you do - Please make them optional! Text makes much more sense.

Do you plan to keep the spacebar pop up panel? I rather like it and use it much.

Please if possible, organize some of the tools into logical places. For instance... The quadrangulation tool only appears in the RMB menu of the VoxTree. I'd also like to see it in the Retopo tab.

[lc8b105]

Hi Sean, one thing: I see in your design the "button" is bigger now(of course it's much beautiful), but in "Voxel" room there are so many buttons. Even in current small size they can't all show up in my 1440x900 screen, and sometimes I found contract/expand those buttons are a little boring. How do you plan to re-organise them?

[Ghostdog]

Some excellent commemts and thoughts from everyone here. I have nothing to add constructively other than my appreciation for others ideas.

I have to admit I have actually studied UI & Interface design as part of Uni studies 10 years ago. Our Uni borrowed an expert lecturer from Singapore whose real job was Military cockpit & systems interface designs. An absolutely fascinating and interesting man (and the concepts will always interest me)

I can say about 3D Coat with no doubt - that I am just too "close" to it to be able to think outside the box and objectively.

This may be hard to appreciate, but I only have the use of one-arm, I suffer chronic pain most of the time but I do hold down a full time job & relationship, and for me Sculpting, playing or just having fun in 3D is actually a way of therapy for me. As such it is actually quite difficult to think of ways of improving it. I can read others suggestions, and comment on them - but in a strange way have a small amount of guilt at not contributing more especially in these such discussions.

[polyxo]

Hi Sean, one thing: I see in your design the "button" is bigger now(of course it's much beautiful), but in "Voxel" room there are so many buttons. Even in current small size they can't all show up in my 1440x900 screen, and sometimes I found contract/expand those buttons are a little boring. How do you plan to re-organise them?

This is a very good point!

The UI drafts made by Sean were made for a Monitor-Aspect Ratio which is no more available for Desktop-Monitors above 19°.

4:3 panels like seen in his illustrations are no longer in industrial production - anywhere - worldwide, at least not for Monitors

larger than 19°. So Desktop monitor makers don't even have a choice.

But also many Laptop-Producers have changed their Screen-Layouts to 16:10 (like in your case) or even 16:9.

Any GUI development should therefor reflect that most users work with very broad screens, meaning that any vertical screen estate

gets precious.

I am actually puzzled that many Software producers introduced the Ribbon (which consumes a lot of vertical space) at

a time when one no longer can afford having large Top- or Bottom docked GUI-Elements...

[polyxo]

The sliders are similar to that of Combustion, Toxik, Flame, Houdini, etc...instead of having to place your cursor on a tiny knob or arrows, you can place it anywhere within the box and drag your cursor left or right to adjust the values, or double-click to type the value in numerically.

Yes I too prefer sliders to work this way.

They actually do exactly this in 3DC currently. I hope the underlying functionality will not change - whatever they'll look like in the end.

[cakeller]

Here's a few cents worth...

PLEASE don't make the ui bulky! Clean and easily legible is great! but... not at the expense of view-port real estate.

I'd really like to see a non ROOM based interface.... like maya, or whatever. Where you could have multiple views of the entire scene.

The biggest problem, I see with 3DC is that it is segregated into these modules of functionality, which is confusing as to what is available to reference and where.

really there is so much overlap now, that you don't need to have all these separate rooms, but rather one 3D workspace, and a UV editor.

the layer tree, should have ALL the current file's objects listed, not just the current task.

it's ok if you separate them into separate root categories if necessary, but all should be visibly accessible in one place.

This would GREATLY aid in understanding and determining what is "referenceable' in a particular operation. for example,

in voxel sculpting referencing a mesh, becomes easier if you have access to the mesh layers and can just click a toggle switch.

Another issue I have is with the right-click context menus. these should be limited to ALL FUNCTIONS available for the object you are right clicking on. e.g. right click on an object or layer, should bring up export object, but not SCENE.

Inrease resolution, is only available on the commands of voxel, and clone with degrade is only by context menu of the voxel layers... both should be available in the same places.

Regarding the viewports, I would love to have a multi-viewport possible. I like to work in more than one view at a time, and sometimes with 3DC it can be frustrating to have to re-position each time after rotating, changing to ortho, changing view to top, reposition, changing to side, reposition, change to top...etc.

DONT MAKE THE LAYERS A DROP DOWN EVER!!! it must be able to have an "always on" mode so you can quickly turn a layer on or off. I HATE using some of photoshop's features when they are docked up top (e.g. the layers) because it slows me down A LOT!

on the other hand, if each of those objects can be docked up top, or down either side, then that allows the user to customize their interface to their taste.

I DEFINITELY like when I can streamline MY interface for MY tastes... culling out the features I don't use ever, and organizing the ones I do use by MY logic. Because I rarely use software the way the author intended - and the more flexible it is, the faster I can be with it... with a caveat to that, there are a few packages that are literally a waste of time to customize, because the UI is already perfect as-is. few and far between, and usually not very complex. and if the UI isn't customizeable... I muddle through with whatever has been given, and find the best ways to work around it. So... just do your best, keep it as customizeable as possible, and don't force anything that slows us down, or impinges on the actual work-space. -- pretty please

Good Luck! and thanks for including the users in this venture.

[Javis]

Yes I too prefer sliders to work this way.

They actually do exactly this in 3DC currently. I hope the underlying functionality will not change - whatever they'll look like in the end.

Absolutely agree. I hope this does not change.

Also, as Don pointed out & upon further reflection... The rounded buttons are a little annoying. I had forgotten all about that since I don't use XSI anymore, but it did annoy me quite a bit. I prefer much more rectangular buttons, or slightly less rounded corners (as in Don's Mockup that is posted above).

[polyxo]

Sean,

one more comment on your draft if I may:

I saw that you created a preview-window for Symmetry. While it looks pretty I wonder if such is really necessary -

even for those who don't realize that they are actually working inside a 3D coordinates-system.

I personally consider such a preview not needed as switching on Symmetry is completely nondestructive - one can not mess up an existing

model with the wrong choice. Also I find the current system very telling already. Within seconds everybody should find the right plane.

One even doesn't have to Undo something to correct a wrong choice.

[polyxo]

Fwiw - here is an older Interface-Discussion.

http://www.3d-coat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1651&st=0

[polyxo]

I'd really like to see a non ROOM based interface.... like maya, or whatever.

I too auricularly dreamed that these separate rooms disappeared again at given time.

Having all workmodes available inside a common workspace should be the most flexible solution by far.

It's probably only Lightwave users who are used to such a rigid system

However I see it as a enormous challenge to get this done in a way which doesn't intimidate new

users. That is why I am still happy to have 3DC's functionality somewhat organized inside rooms.

[Taros]

Interesting to see a new gui development (again).

But don't forget: The last one was introduced with version 3.0 and it is not very old. But why don't think about improvements? That's ok.

I know that redesigning a gui can be a lot of fun. But before you do that, you should examine the program itself for the technical part first. Look where sliders, buttons and so on are used and how they work. Look which kind of interface parts are needed especially for 3D Coat, 3D Coat have some own individual gui details. Collect them all, without looking on the current gui design, collect just the functionality parts. After this you can begin to improve or develop new, maybe better examples.

And don't forget, too: 3D Coat is a multilingual tool and have to work in different languages! Be aware with symbols and similar things. And don't forget, that a lot of english words are much shorter than in other languages, like german or french. Your buttons should be flexible and scaleable.

I am very interested in the developement here.

Thanx for reading

Chris

[Digital777]

I like the idea of a re-design. I like the top tabs idea and also the idea to show icons, for me with icons i find it much faster to use programs as once im used to what they mean i can locate what i need faster than just text, these could be turned off/on via a menu and on by default.

Another thing that would be good is to have this new default layout but allow users to make custom ones and switch between them because i have seen a few programs do this like silo and there has been some very nice layouts made by other users so you would customize things like icons, buttons and colors and be able to share a zip of the folder and just drop it in the main layouts folder and it shows on a list or available styles.

One other thing that could be done is different customization presets so you you have the top tabs if you wanted that or place them at the bottom or as buttons instead etc. Maybe if the above idea was allowing to re-position parts or have a code .txt etc as well as the images you could do this simply by editing the code.

Another thing which would be nice is folder views for things like brushes or the option to use it like that so you just have a list of organized folders maybe with sub folders and can click to go in then you see all the brushes and go back up etc with a icon at the top. For me this would be faster than the dropdown system but you could also have that still anyway and just make it optional to use it like that.

[philnolan3d]

I too auricularly dreamed that these separate rooms disappeared again at given time.

Having all workmodes available inside a common workspace should be the most flexible solution by far.

It's probably only Lightwave users who are used to such a rigid system

I'm not sure why you would say this when LightWave has no rooms at all, while maya on the other hand does, only in the forum of a drop-down box instead of tabs. I love LightWave, but I also like the tabs 3DC has.

I do agree with Taros that Sean should really get to know 3DC pretty well to know what sort of workflows would work best.

Someone else mentioned Qt, I mentioned Qt during the last UI design, but Andrew said he could do all of the same stuff with the current tool he uses. It looks like much of the same stuff was accomplished but it doesn't feel really solid like the stuff I've seen done with Qt. Speaking of LightWave, the new version CORE's interface is made with Qt. I may be wrong, but I think Unity also uses it, the Unity interface feels really solid to me. Here's a list of other applications made with it.

[Amber]

The proposed mockup is not good.It's just bad.

Working in 3D and making some UI doesn't make Sean good UI designer.I see bunch of bad ideas,

very average UI which could be baked by anyone in 30 minutes, author showed some Subdivision Levels

popup which doesn't exist and most probably never will.Looks like we will have to come to this thread and fix UI designer imaginations.I'm sorry if it sounds negative but you must be ready people will come and challenge what you think is good.Until I see some really impressive work and brilliant solutions I won't be impressed by some random mockups and poor UI ideas.If it ain't broken don't try to fix it.

What does it mean we will approve ? Five more people come to this thread and says they like rounded XSI wanna buttons we get them in next 3DC ? Five more people come and say they want quad view and we get quad view ?

-ugly rounded,XSI like buttons

-shortcut on the them not needed

-sculpt Tools button and subbuttons idea not good,just a lot of buttons,not much better what we have now

-rounded line around not chosen rooms not needed

-subdivision levels popup ? pointless

-whole pens panel with subpanels confusing,doesn't look like it belong to Pens

-layers in bad place, I don't want it be harddocked

-big orange option tick in Brush spacing tab confusing,should be in the tab not in a tabbar

-what for + stands for in panel tabs ?

-I don't like the idea of semi transparent tab with camers etc, at the bottom,should be option to toggle it off or move it to other place

-too much space between File View Edit in top menus .... etc.

Quad Viewport-Layout - instant Maximizing of the currently active viewport. <--- I like this idea.

What do you mean ? Like in 3DS Max quad view ?

UI design is a thing of past,good application let's the user design the UI,enforcing UI will make some happy some unhappy,which is already clear looks at this thread.3DC doesn't need UI design it needs to be customizable as much as possible so we can choose what we want and what's good for our work.

[lc8b105]

Hi Amber, I'm not very understand, what's your point of view here?