I have been teaching Alias to new users since the mid-1990s, and I have a short wish list that I believe can be of great value to new users at no cost to developers. Here it is:
- A question appears when opening a file: Do you want to DELETE or KEEP all stages before opening new stage? Please change the word DELETE and use CLOSE instead, because first-time users always select KEEP because they fear deleting previous work already saved from their hard drive.
- Please add a hotkey for “toggle grid”; in the past it was not necessary because it was in the west direction of the right mouse button of the marking menu; now it is gone from marking menu but it is very convenient to have it as a hotkey (maybe Alt+G?).
- Turn off the continuity check in the Skin tool control window. This option is available in several tools, but only in Skin is on by default; first-time users usually start using Skin very soon when do not yet know how to remove locators.
- Around the View Cube, I'd like to find in different locations the "Look At" tool and the "Non Proportional Scale" (by the way, why not "Non Proportional View" as it is in the View menu of Palette?). For example, you could switch their positions, because it's very important and very useful to have "Look At" at your eyes, while "Non Proportional View" is an important tool but just for expert users. In the current locations, "Look At" is hidden (you have to open the extra menu to get it) while "Non Proportional View" is in a place where it's easy to click on it unintentionally getting a first time user confused.
- In the Control Window of Round tool, please change the Default setting for "Unequal Radius Corner" from "With Setback" to "Single surface": the "single surface" is the most used solution while currently, first time users create very often wrong models simply because they use the Default option.
So, this is my 2 cents. Hope it could be appreciated and supported by other Alias instructors.
