[Closed] Feedback request: Object visibility control and overrides

[tyler_henderson]

We're looking at how we can improve visibility control of objects in the Fusion model tree/browser.  There are two main topics we're focusing on:

1.) Improving Folder/Group visibility control works?  (Toggling the visibility of a folder/group versus toggling the visibility of the individual objects contained in the folder/group).  In the example below, "Construction" is the folder/group, and "Plane1", "Plane3", and "Plane4" are the individual objects.

Currently, the folder/group visibility state overrides that of all the objects in that folder/group.  Meaning, regardless of the visibility toggle state of the objects, if the folder/group is toggled Off, then all of the objects become invisible, even if their individual toggle is On.  However, you can still change the toggle of the individual objects while the folder/group is Off, but it won't be noticeable until the folder/group is toggled back On. 

Feedback request:

• Do you like this behavior?
• Is it useful to change the visibility toggles of the objects while the folder/group is turned Off?
  • If not, does it cause confusion?
  • Would it be better to disable toggling visibility of the objects until the folder/group is turned back On?

2.) Enabling the ability to toggle the visibility of objects (Bodies, Sketches, Construction Geometry, etc.) in external components while in the context of an assembly.

Currently, you can toggle the visibility of external components and their child components, but you cannot toggle visibility of objects within those components.  In the above example, I can toggle the visibility of Side Plate, but I cannot toggle the visibility of the XY Origin Plane or any of the other objects inside Side Plate.

When I toggle the visibility of Side Plate, that is considered an override in Ultimaker 3.  When I save Ultimaker 3, it will keep that visibility state of Side Plate even if you open Enclosure and change the visibility of Side Plate there and save it.  The visibility override of Side Plate is kept in Ultimaker 3 until you toggle it to a state that matches the way it is saved in Enclosure.  That is, if Enclosure is saved with Side Plate turned Off, I can have an override in Ultimaker 3 with Side Plate turned On.  But as soon as I toggle Side Plate Off in Ultimaker 3, then the override is removed, and the visibility of Side Plate in Ultimaker 3 will now follow however it is saved in Enclosure.

Our plan is to make object (Bodies, Sketches, Construction) visibility control work the same as Components.  So we want to know what you think of the current Component visibility behaviors.

Feedback request:

• Are you aware of the current behavior? 
  • If you are or are not, have you found it confusing or does it work just fine for your needs?
• Is it ok that we don't have a visual indication when a component has a visibility override?
• Have you found a situation where visibility did not behave the way you expected?
  • If yes, what could help the situation?
• Is there a need for an explicit way to remove a visibility override or to make it match the way it is saved in the Component?
• Is there a need to explicitly remove all visibility overrides in an assembly?
  • How would you want to do that?

We appreciate your feedback to help us make the experience of this feature the best we can!

[DavidManivelle]

Hi there, it is a bit late for this survey, but, my experience with visibity was not great when I started working with F360. I felt like I always had to dig in the tree to show or hide what I was expecting to work on.

A few ideas I had about it :

• Turn the eye grey (or whatever else) instead of black when its content is partially hidden (light grey, when evrerything is hidden)
• Use a combination when clicking the eye icon to show/hide whole content instead of just container (like Shift + LMB or RMB)
• Use another combination around the eye to isolate an object (like Alt+LMB)

These manipulations would be a bit tricky for a beginner, but they are just shorcuts and users who really use the software and need this degree of ergnomy are experts and not afraid with shortcuts.

 Thanks for reading.

[Henrik_Horlin]

Having a hierarchy for objects and their behavior is very good. i.e. if the top domain (construction, bodies or whatever) is toggled, everything under it should follow that behavior. However, making exceptions for the current state is very useful, so the icons should not represent a relationship of absolutes (top always controlling lower instances) but more like a shortcut of "do this for all below now", and any exception should also be honored but as a secondary filter.

Practically; If i toggle top domain to hide all instances below/underneath should switch to this behavior. If I want all to be invisible but a small selection, I could toggle all off (by using the top domain toggle) and then turn on the ones I want to see back on again with their visibility icon. The top domain icon can/should have three states: All on, All off & partially visible.

 I think it works well as it does now but having a "partially visible" state could make it slightly better.

Another thing that would be VERY helpful is applying the "Component color cycling" (Shift+n) to bodies. Make the bodies different colors when pressing Shift+b would be very nice!

[Intuos5]

1. Having the folder visibility toggle is a must, especially when there are so many objects contained within, that should be kept. What I find helpful in Photoshop is that if you toggle a layer on/off within a group that is locked the eye icon blinks in the reverse state. For example, a layer is off, I click to turn it on, but since the group is locked the icon then goes back to being hidden. This small visual clue could be used to indicate that you cannot change visibility of objects unless the group is visible. That would prevent accidental clicks to show/ hide certain objects when you are accidentally navigating in the wrong folder.

Also I think that using dedicated hotkeys for show/hide/isolate object and show/hide/isolate folder would be a huge help as opposed to toggles. That way, you can always assure that the things you show or hide are actually shown or hidden. In Blender, the outliner (sortof the equivalent of the model tree) is treated as a dedicated context for keyboard shortcuts, so you could opt to use different keys than you would in the 3d view. This enables more refined control at the press of single buttons. In certain scenarios selecting a few objects and using "hide unselected" can be quicker than isolating many objects.

Have any collapse/ expand folders made its way into Fusion yet? For visibility, two more things to keep in mind are being able to select a body and have the folder structure expand automatically to show the current selection (there could be an option whether the folder should be closed after selection). That way, you can always see which object you edit and where it resides in the model tree, without needing to expand/ collapse folders manually. In addition, a toggle to collapse and expand all folders, collapse/ expand a particular folder and its nested contents and, finally, only nested folders (i.e. collapse/ expand children) would also be welcome.

[DavidManivelle]

"For visibility, two more things to keep in mind are being able to select a body and have the folder structure expand automatically to show the current selection"
To save space, ther could be a kind address bar display on a single line the path of the selected object in the structure.

[Intuos5]

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@Intuos5  wrote:
For visibility, two more things to keep in mind are being able to select a body and have the folder structure expand automatically to show the current selection

@DavidManivelle wrote:
To save space, there could be a kind address bar display on a single line the path of the selected object in the structure.

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That defeats the purpose of getting direct access to the objects within the browser. But in case the browser were to expand, it could, (depending on user preferences) also collapse back to the user's state afterwards (so prior to the automatic expansion and object highlight). Your suggestion would be an alternative option that does not have to do with collapsing/ expanding the browser at all.

[tyler_henderson]

Some good suggestions here.  A couple of things to note:

-Fusion has "groups" for Bodies.  They are essentially custom folders you can create for Bodies.  we're looking into adding them for other objects like Sketches and Construction objects.

-You can right-click on an object in the canvas then choose "Find in browser".  That will expand the browser to the object you selected.  But it doesn't automatically collapse the browser after you unselect it.  Something we'll consider.

-"Isolate" works when multiple objects are selected.

Thanks for the input.  We've actually implemented some new behaviors related to visibility of objects inside external referenced components and folder/group visibility.  Try it out in the latest release.

[Intuos5]

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@tyler_henderson wrote:

-Fusion has "groups" for Bodies.  They are essentially custom folders you can create for Bodies.  we're looking into adding them for other objects like Sketches and Construction objects.

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Yes, I use these folders a lot, so that would be a great addition!

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@tyler_henderson wrote:

-You can right-click on an object in the canvas then choose "Find in browser".  That will expand the browser to the object you selected. 

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This is definitely also something that needs to be hotkeyable, F3/ Ctrl+F come to mind here. Ideally, user configurable, but unfortunately keyboard shortcuts aren't Fusion's strong suite.

[tyler_henderson]

Folks,

Thank you all for your valuable inputs to this topic.  We have implemented several new behaviors related to visibility:

• We enabled visibility control of Bodies, Sketches, Construction objects, and Joints within external components that are inserted in assemblies.  These visibility changes are overrides in the assembly and do not cause changes to the component/design itself.
• We now use a different visibility icon and tooltip when an object's visibility is On, but the folder that contains the object is Off.  The tooltip tells you the object visibility is overridden by the folder visibility.
• We now have a "Show All" command in the right-click menu of Folders so you can quickly toggle On the visibility of all objects in a particular folder.
• On Origin and Construction folders, we added right-click menu commands to show/hide all of a particular type of object in that folder.  for example, you can right-click on a Construction folder and hide all planes.
• We've improved the overall contrast of the visibility icons in the browser

We appreciate all of the feedback from you that has helped guide us in these improvements.  We are closing this particular feedback request, but we will continue to make related improvements as they become prioritized.  As always, please continue to provide your feedback and requests for improvements in the Fusion 360 Feedback Hub.