Primitives - easier primitive shape creation

[AliasJB]

In Alias there are several basic primitives such as spheres, cubes, cones etc.    There attributes are defined in a modal dialog box, and then a shape is created when the user clicks on the screen.  A transform manipulator is provided after creation to allow for scaling, rotation and position transformation.  

Other packages allow the user to click and drag to specify values such as length, width, height, and circumference, allowing the user to define these attributes as the shape is created rather than afterward.

Would it be useful to change the workflow for creating primitive shapes?

[forduser]

This could be a nice option. If you want to create a shape (dowel or peg) have a option window in the cylinder tool to enter the value and save it. I don't like to repeat this process every time I go back to the tool.

Example: Current Sphere is always a 100mm radius. I'll change to 10mm radius. If you open the information window we should have the ability to change to numeric value at anytime.

[nicolas.caquelin]

I did not use often the primitive tools, but I just some remarks regarding the Information window value.

When I teached these tools to my studient, the most difficult was:

1- They build one primitive.

2- They try to use the "locator" XYZ to manipulate and change the value directly on the screen...

3- Pick nothing! And from now it is impossible to show again this visual manipulator > they do not understand why (me too).

4- After that they transformed and changed the rotation / scale / npscale, sometime do zero transform for easier manipulation...

5- It is impossible for them now to know directly the size of their primitive now in the information window, the scale value does not show the correct value due to the zero transform of course! ! ! But do you think it could be nice to try to keep the L / W / H all the time until the shape stay as a primitive???