Newly redesigned UI => Share your idea

[Carlosan]

Any input from users as to what sort of layout and UI elements they prefer will be considered...so, feel free to share that input here.

Any idea accompanied by a clear explanation, the reasoning behind it, and graphics is welcome... please don't just say "make it exactly like this app or that one"!

[Elemeno]

1 hour ago, Carlosan said:

Any input from users as to what sort of layout and UI elements they prefer will be considered...so, feel free to share that input here.

Any idea accompanied by a clear explanation, the reasoning behind it, and graphics is welcome... please don't just say "make it exactly like this app or that one"!

columns, match tools etc to columns that match , so baking not be on the top layout but along the panels and also include light,occlusion baking too 

[yangbin]

30分钟前，埃莱梅诺说：

将列、匹配工具等与匹配的列对齐，这样烘焙操作就不会出现在顶部布局中，而是沿着面板进行，并且还包括指示灯和实际烘焙。 

 

Edited September 11 by yangbin

[yangbin]

30 minutes ago, Elemeno said:

将列、匹配工具等与匹配的列对齐，这样烘焙操作就不会出现在顶部布局，而是沿着面板进行，并且还包括光照和遮挡烘焙。 

I think you could format it into an image and upload it to this post, so that developers can better understand the user's needs.

[AbnRanger]

50 minutes ago, Elemeno said:

columns, match tools etc to columns that match , so baking not be on the top layout but along the panels and also include light,occlusion baking too 

1) COLLAPSE/EXPAND Panels just like you see in Photoshop. I have been asking for this from Andrew for a few years now. The Activity Bar serves some of this functionality, because the panels are tucked away until you mouse over one of its icons in the bar. That's enough to keep it even in a new UI (as an option for users to pick in the PREFERENCES panel, but IMHO, it's not as good as the ability to quickly collapse a panel and expand it, when needed. For one thing, the Activity Bar is just for a quick, one-time selection of an Asset like a brush or shader. EXPANDING/COLLAPSING is more permanent. It stays open or closed until you click on the icon or collapse/expand widget. It also expands the panel to the inside of the column, which is way closer to your cursor, than having to reach all the way to the right side of the UI each time you want something.

When you expand You can even move the icon where you want it to stay in the viewport, and click to expand or collapse it as needed. Many times, I want one or two panels to remain open and closer to the center of the viewport...such as the Preset, Brush Alphas, Shaders, Smart Materials, etc. Lastly, the Activity Bar does not include many of the panels a person may want access to. It's only a basic collection of them. An example where COLLAPSE/EXPAND would be awesome and very much needed in 3DCoat is the usage of the UV Preview Panel and the 2D Texture Editor. Scale/Place it in the UI as needed and then collapse it until you are ready for it. Then, with just a quick LMB click, you can bring it back up again.

 

[NickTyler3d]

Yes, I agree with AbnRanger. Making panels expandable like in photoshop is great. But another problem is Coat now getting too much panels! With introduction of Nodes it is going crazy how many panels you need to manage in each room. There is a way to simplify that via making unified Object manager with tabs, that can replace up to 6 panels  (sculpt tree, polygon tree, curves tree, layers, surface materials, paint objects). I was thinking about it a lot, and I'm pretty sure at least 3 biggest of them (sculpt tree, polygon tree, curves tree) can be combined into one panel with tabs, because you never use all of them same time (maybe only during baking, but that's another story). When I sculpt - I work with sculpt tree only, when I work with curves I need to see curves tree (I would make curve editing a separate mode, overriding main shortcuts and tools. You need to work with curves - you activate curve editing mode with 1 hotkey and you get all tools and shortcuts for curves, you done - press the same hotkey to toggle it off and return to normal mode). When I poly model I work with polygon tree and sometimes need to hide/unhide something from sculpt or curves. Having one panel instead of many giving few advantages - simplifies UI, reducing number of panels, saves space, you can have 1 shared panel in all rooms (maybe with auto switching tabs when changing rooms). Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you really need them as separate panels on your screen same time? I can name few examples, but those are very exotic and rarely used.
    And another thing I would love is working drag and drop between panels/tabs for transferring models. I absolutely hate how import/export between rooms is organized now. I would suggest two simple and logical ways to make it: 1. drag and drop selected objects from panel to panel. Like I want to sent my Poly model to sculpt room. I'd love to just drag and drop from poly to sculpt tab, and get context menu with options. Instead of jumping to another room and search for Import tool or menu commands there. 2. another elegant way to organize transfer commands could be a unified mini panel with like 2-3 arrow buttons (send selected to, import from). One button + context menu is simple and easy too, and it can be shared across all rooms, instead of dozen different commands in different menus and tools.

[NickTyler3d]

and more UI related complaints. I did report it via mantis, but still...
1. Activity bar is not bad in general, but... New style (on right side) is often not visible on white background, so I stay with old style on top, where it is on constant solid gray background.
2. Activity bar still lacking tooltips! When you hover over those panels - there must be a name of that panel/button. New user can't even understand what that panel is just by icon.
3. For God's sake get rid of that badword auto hiding on panels! When I'm working with symmetry or UV editor I hate that I can't call them using a hotkey, because they keep auto hiding. I can see 2 logical ways on this. One is from old versions, when you can call a panel with hotkey and click on it's title to keep it on screen forever. Or another - toggle mode - I assign F5 for big texture editor, I use manually F5 to open/close it only when I need it. Simple and effective. As of now to make big UV editor appear and stay I need to do like 20 operations! That is very annoying.

[mizgo]

Hi, In my opinion, the 3DCoat GUI is highly functional. Everything you need is within easy reach, and it works very well for stylus use without being overly dependent on keyboard shortcuts. However, this also makes the UI very busy.

Combined with the very tight spacing between letters, words, and UI components, this can make the interface feel cluttered and somewhat unpolished, and it can be difficult for a new user to get into.

My experience was that I always admired 3DCoat, but for years I kept telling myself, "I don’t have time to learn it right now." When I finally decided to jump in, I found out that it actually isn’t that difficult to learn and is very user-friendly in many areas.
If other people have a similar first impression, it could hurt 3DCoat's ability to attract new users.

I think some relatively simple changes could improve this without compromising functionality. For example, increasing the spacing between lines and UI elements, making the font slightly smaller, or choosing and tuning the font differently could make a big difference. My suggestion is mainly to give the existing elements a bit more breathing room and improve visual hierarchy, contrast, typography, and spacing. This could help reduce the somewhat "technical" feel of 3DCoat for newcomers.

Just my two cents.

A simple example using only 3DCoat’s theming options:

[mizgo]

For easier comparison, you can switch between the images here:

[NickTyler3d]

Not sure this is related here, but I've been asked to add this message from our discord discussion here too.
 

Quote

sounds great. But there is one problem with UI/UX... Designers working in UI/UX have no clue about workflows in 3D sculpting/painting/unwrapping/poly modeling/CAD. I have a friend too who is doing professionally that kind of work, and working on simple UI's like smartphone apps, website interfaces, automotive touch interfaces, they usually start with schematics - making a list of commands/features, and planning how to distribute them logically so user can understand how to navigate in those menus and find what he needs. But 3D modeling is much more complex... To make it work as fast and efficient tool you need to plan not just commands, but specific tasks in the workflow: how you select verts/edges/polys/elements, how you quickly change selection modes, how you modify selections(add, subtract, intersect), how you convert them one into another, how you quickly access transforms and modifiers, how you perform alignments (snaps, guides, grids, coord.systems)... What I am trying to say is that to make it comfortable and fast to work with, we need not just fancy buttons and icons, but tools and hotkeys optimized from user point of view. We can give a lot of insight on how to improve specific functions and workflows, or at least tell what is bothering us. But to make it constructive we need to focus on certain workflows. Otherwise it's gonna be endless stream of complaints about everything. For example one thing that everyone hate is object management and transferring objects between rooms. This is very messy in Coat and can be simplified massively! First of all there is no clear explanation that there are 4 types of objects in Coat (poly, paint, sculpt, curves) and that they are managed via 6 different panels (sculpt tree, polygon tree, curves tree, layers, surface materials, paint objects). And transferring between them is done by dozen different commands spread in different menus and tools! That can be simplified to two buttons (send selected to...)

 

[Elemeno]

1 hour ago, NickTyler3d said:

Not sure this is related here, but I've been asked to add this message from our discord discussion here too.
 

 

this is the issue , the workflow in 3dcoat is easily the worst in any 3d software , things are all over the place .... its like when you buy something from the shop but dont know where to store it so youre like , ill leave this on the windows seal until i find a place but then it stays there forever.

[Bio]

It's not an UI but Navi matter.
I have asked to bring back the Shift+Z for years after the change to 2020+ change and I gave up. But I'll try again.
Bring back the zoom with the focus of brush size. I don't have a single clue why you dropped it like that but it's crazy and it doesn't make any sense. . It was one of the most iconic and very useful feature that was unique for 3d coat the same way is rotate around current pick point.
 

[NickTyler3d]

10 hours ago, Bio said:

It's not an UI but Navi matter.
I have asked to bring back the Shift+Z for years after the change to 2020+ change and I gave up. But I'll try again.
Bring back the zoom with the focus of brush size. I don't have a single clue why you dropped it like that but it's crazy and it doesn't make any sense. . It was one of the most iconic and very useful feature that was unique for 3d coat the same way is rotate around current pick point.
 

not sure what you mean... If you are talking about Focus on brush command - it is still there, in the activity bar. You can assign shift+z on it without any problems.

[Bio]

Thanks! 

[erisan]

Plz make the UI elements respond to touch gestures, so that we are able to smoothly scroll inside the panels/menus, with fingers.

Edited October 6 by erisan