Alias unintuitive inefficient UI

[MuhammadKhan1]

Subject: User Feedback on Autodesk Alias User Interface

Dear Autodesk Team,

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to share some user feedback regarding the user interface and functionality of Autodesk Alias, particularly in comparison to Autodesk Maya. As a user who interacts with these tools regularly, I've noticed several aspects that I believe could significantly enhance the user experience in Alias.

1. Selection and Transformation Tools:

Alias:

Step 1. Initiating Selection Mode:

• Press Ctrl + Shift + Middle Mouse Button.

Step 2. Navigating Through Menu:

• A menu will appear, requiring you to select the move button.

Maya:

1. Simple Selection:
• Press the "W" key.

Final Note: Alias has too many steps and causes eye/brain strain in searching for the option. These tools are used thousands of time. Keeping a default like Maya will make Alias more user friendly and speedup the process.

__________________________________________________________________________________

1. Unselecting Objects:

Alias:

Step 1. Unselecting Objects:

• Press Ctrl + Shift + Left Mouse Button.

Step 2. Navigating Through Menu:

• A menu will appear, requiring you to select the “Pick Nothing”.

Maya:

1. Effortless Unselect:
• A single click in an empty space automatically unselects the currently chosen object.

Final Note: Alias has too many steps and causes eye/brain strain in searching for the option. These tools are used thousands of time. Keeping a default like Maya will make Alias more user friendly and speedup the process.

__________________________________________________________________________________

1. Camera Focus:

Alias:

• Press Alt + L to focus the parts on screen. (Please note Alt and L are far apart on keyboard)

Maya

• Press the "F" key to focus on a specific part.

Final Note: In Alias, Alt and L are too far apart making it difficult.

__________________________________________________________________________________

1. Pivot Adjustment:

Alias:

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Middle Mouse Button for menu to appear,
2. Select Move Pivot
3. Press Ctrl + Alt + middle mouse button
4. Hover on the curve/vertex

Maya:

1. Effortless Pivot Adjustment:
   • Press "D" for pivot movement or press "V" to snap to a vertex, "C" to snap to a curve.

__________________________________________________________________________________

1. Exiting Tools:

Alias:

1. Exiting Transformation Tools:
• No specific button; each click continues moving/rotating/scaling the part or continues to create sphere/cube etc.

Maya:

1. Tool Exit:
• Press the "Q" key to exit any tool.

__________________________________________________________________________________

1. Manipulator and Axis Controls:

Alias:

1. Axis Controls:
• Remember to use the Left button for X-axis, Right button for Y-axis, and Middle button for Z-axis.

Maya:

1. Intuitive Manipulator:
• Click on any axis for translation.

Additional Controls in Maya:

1. Advanced Translation Lock:
• Press the middle mouse button and shift while moving the mouse to lock translation to a specific axis. Repeat for different axes.

In each case, the steps in Alias appear more intricate, involving multiple actions compared to the more streamlined processes in Maya.

__________________________________________________________________________________

1. Selection-Multiselection

Alias:

 Always on multi-selection mode, if You need to deselect, each time you need to re-click the same part and click on the other part. No way to switch off multi-selection.

Maya:

Multi-selection

Designer can simply press shift and do multiselect, or will be in default mode of single selection.




Thanks

Muhammad Khan

[crankenstein3d]

I understand your your frustration, however once I got used to Alias I then started changing my other software to behave more similarly to Alias as much as is reasonable/possible. I recommend making a few custom tools with your personal hotkeys and you will feel better about it.

Regarding transformation; Alias has many ways to do this. If you don't like Alias move tool you could set a few keybinds for Transform tool. 

Regarding picking, you can set whatever keybinds you want

As for exiting tools, most tools can be backed out of by simply selecting nothing, in my case it's Alt+A

Double click the tool to see more options. You can save tools inside a shelf; tools inside a shelf can have their own keybinds.

Find the generally useful functions inside hotkey editor:

This function is very important; whenever you have a tool selected, or after you used Query Edit; you can back out of a tool by selecting Undo All.

You can also bind viewcube hotkeys if you like

If you build your own hotkey set it will be intuitive and maybe even fast. Ultimately though polygonal modelling will always be simpler and faster than NURBS because it is not constrained by maths.
It is important to note that you shouldn't force alias Alias to conform to polygon modelling workflows too much because Alias is too different. You could also try the SubD workflow, there are many guides online.