Weekly problem log #1
Thanks for letting us know! It might be helpful to have more concentrated forum posts instead of putting everything into one post. It can get confusing if there are too many topics being discussed in a single thread. I'll take a swing at it though...
I'm wondering if any of the issues are related to graphics.
Can you paste a copy of the graphic diagnostics into this post?
A couple of quick suggestions related to graphics that I would be curious to see if they have any impact on the behavior:
-Try checking the Limit Effects to Optimize Performance in the Graphics Diagnostics dialog.
-Another tip may be to switch from Auto-select to OpenGL for the graphics driver setting
-Try enabling the Open in Low Resolution option in the below link:
Now one by one or by grouping:
Nathan Chandler
Principal Specialist
Thanks @innovatenate, great set of responses, just a couple of clarifications:
In general, in Fusion, you almost always have to left click first to select the item, then right click to get the context menu. Most likely this is what is happening in your case: You don't actually have the feature selected.
Yes, this is by design. The reason is that Fusion needs to prevent you from being able to select faces which are part of the preview of the feature. The preferred method of selecting additional items in Press/Pull or any other command is to hold down the CTRL key (CMD on Mac). This will suspend the preview and allow you to select other items in any command. Since CTRL/CMD is a common method for adding to selection in any computer applications, it seemed like a good way to allow you to add things in Fusion commands as well.
Jeff
Jeff Strater
Engineering Director
@jeff_strater wrote:
Thanks @innovatenate, great set of responses, just a couple of clarifications:
- right click on timeline, get popup menu, “edit feature” not selectable. Dismiss menu, do it again, “edit feature” is now selectable. This happens a LOT.
In general, in Fusion, you almost always have to left click first to select the item, then right click to get the context menu. Most likely this is what is happening in your case: You don't actually have the feature selected.
Jeff
Here's an example where Edit Feature is greyed out but other options like Rename and Delete are available. I admit I tend to just right click rather than the left then right click but surely if right clicking alone doesn't make the selection the menu should not pop up at all.
Mark
Edit here's another one with a sketch.
Mark Hughes
Owner, Hughes Tooling
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I really hesitate to wade into religious topics on a Friday afternoon, especially without a beer in hand... But, I'm apparently going to do it anyway. I don't expect to convince anyone of anything, and most likely we will end up changing this in the future. But, I thought I'd offer some history, just for perspective, and to prove that we really have given serious thought to this, over a long period of time, and it's not just a snap decision made by one developer. These types of decisions produce very long and sometimes heated discussions. This one, in particular, we have been arguing about for years, no exaggeration.
The factors that went into this decision include:
- No clear common behavior across computer applications. We looked at a very wide variety of tools, from a wide variety of software suppliers, inside and outside of Autodesk. There really is not as much consistency as you might first think in this area. When you factor in everything, such as behavior when one item is selected, when multiple items are selected, when the cursor is over something that is selected and other things are selected, how shift and ctrl modifiers affect selection, etc., you get a huge variety of behaviors. Try it. Some applications deselect all selections if you right click over something else. Some applications leave the current selection intact, and perform the context menu action on the item your right clicked over, and do not apply it to the selection. Some add the item to the selection, and apply the action to the selection + the new item. And so on.
- Right click in Fusion is different than in many applications. It is the way to invoke, not just a normal context menu, but the marking menu, of which the context menu is just a part of it. The marking menu was (at least at one time) seen as the primary UI for accessing all commands. Originally, Fusion was designed to run without a toolbar at all. (those days are, of course, long past - Fusion was a much simpler application at that time). So, we wanted to avoid surprising behavior such as right click clearing the selection, if all you were trying to do was find the Press/Pull command. Add in the fact that you can use the marking menu to do OK and Cancel, if you are in a command (and undo/redo if not), and we had to be very careful with how right click affects selection. Another small bit of trivia: At one time (before any public availability), the marking menu in Fusion was not invoked with right click. We used the "~" key instead. Part of that was to get around this right-click problem. A lot of people (myself included) hated this. I use the marking menu a lot. I use it for OK/Cancel, and I use it for repeat last command very frequently. So, having to use a non-mouse key for me is very inefficient.
- In a CAD application, you often work zoomed into your model, so that it fills the entire screen. That is, there is no blank space, your cursor is always over a selectable piece of geometry. If, every time you right clicked, we selected the thing under the cursor, you would continually be selecting geometry that you might not have intended to select, just to do things like OK, or to repeat a command.
I do realize that the above was really designed around interaction in the graphics area, and the particular frustration here is over right click in the timeline (no marking menu there), but hopefully you can see that, having one behavior in the graphics area and another in the timeline might be confusing, so we decided to enforce consistency across the entire application.
Anyway, that's part of the reasons why this is the way it is. I certainly understand the frustration, but the answer is not quite as obvious as it might seem at first glance.
Have a great weekend!
Jeff
Jeff Strater
Engineering Director
I agree, @kb9ydn, sometimes better behavior should override consistency. And, this is probably a good example. In the timeline and in the browser, right click should do something different than today. But, I'm interested in people's thoughts on what should happen in a few scenarios:
- Nothing is selected. (OK, this one is obvious - just adding it for completeness - right click should select the thing under the cursor, and apply the command to it)
- One item is selected, right click over another item. Should right click:
a) de-select the currently selected item, select the item under the cursor, and apply the command chosen only to the item under the cursor
b) add the item under the cursor to the one item that is selected, and apply the command to both
c) apply the command only to the item under the cursor, without selecting it, and leave the other selected item as the one selected item - multiple items are selected, right click over an item that is already selected. Should right click:
a) apply the command to everything selected
b) apply the command only to the item under the cursor, leaving other items selected - multiple items are selected, right click over an item that is not already selected. Should right click:
a) de-select the currently selected items, select the item under the cursor, and apply the command chosen only to the item under the cursor
b) add the item under the cursor to the other items that are selected, and apply any commands to the entire set
c) apply any commands only to the item under the cursor, without selecting it, and leave the other selected items selected
And, what should Shift/Ctrl do in these cases (let's leave that for now, but I bring it up only to show that there is more to consider)
For now, I'll withhold my opinions, to see what feedback we get.
thanks,
Jeff
Jeff Strater
Engineering Director
"
- Nothing is selected. (OK, this one is obvious - just adding it for completeness - right click should select the thing under the cursor, and apply the command to it)
- One item is selected, right click over another item. Should right click:
a) de-select the currently selected item, select the item under the cursor, and apply the command chosen only to the item under the cursor
b) add the item under the cursor to the one item that is selected, and apply the command to both
c) apply the command only to the item under the cursor, without selecting it, and leave the other selected item as the one selected item - multiple items are selected, right click over an item that is already selected. Should right click:
a) apply the command to everything selected
b) apply the command only to the item under the cursor, leaving other items selected - multiple items are selected, right click over an item that is not already selected. Should right click:
a) de-select the currently selected items, select the item under the cursor, and apply the command chosen only to the item under the cursor
b) add the item under the cursor to the other items that are selected, and apply any commands to the entire set
c) apply any commands only to the item under the cursor, without selecting it, and leave the other selected items selected
And, what should Shift/Ctrl do in these cases (let's leave that for now, but I bring it up only to show that there is more to consider)"
1. Agree
2. I would say (a) unless your holding control or shift then apply selected action to all selected objects
3. refer to 2.
4. I would say (c) unless your holding control or shift and (a) if your not
Phil Procario Jr.
Owner, Laser & CNC Creations
Thanks for all the great input. OK, it is now time for me to be embarrassed. It turns out that the project to fix right click behavior in the browser and the timeline was actually implemented way back in February!! I had somehow lost track of that, and was explaining behavior that no longer exists. I tried it, and it seemed to work for me. So, if problems still exist for this, they are bugs, and we need to fix those. If you can show a good workflow that shows right click not working correctly, please share it here.
BTW, for the record we do:
1
2a
3a
4a
screencast:
Jeff Strater
Engineering Director
To reproduce the grayed out edit bug is actually quite simple.
1. Open a design with a timeline
2. With no items already selected; hover the mouse over an item in the timeline for 3-4 seconds and then right click it.
I discovered this the other day and was going to post about it, but apparently I got sidetracked. 
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