123D vs TinkerCad: why such big differences and weird design choices?

[djstein]

I've been using TinkerCad heavily for a few months, and today I decided to give 123D Design a shot - specifically because the UI looks very similar to TinkerCad, just taken to the next level.

Having spent about ten minutes with 123D Design - so far, I like what I see. The app crashed once about five minutes in (er... is stability a significant problem?), so that's off-putting, but otherwise it was OK.

The biggest problem I'm seeing so far is that while 123D Design has all of TinkerCad's functionality, the UI is quite different. For example:

* In TinkerCad, mouse movement rotates the viewpoint, and Shift + mouse movement pans the camera. In 123D Design, holding down Shift does nothing; mouse movement still rotates the viewpoint.

* In TinkerCad, F is Focus: selecting a model and pressing F locks the viewpoint focus on the model, and rotating the camera orbits the model. In 123D Design, F is merely Fit: it zooms in on the model, but apparently doesn't lock the focal point. Very soon after focusing on an object, you're no longer focused on it; you're instead focused on some completely random point in space. Very frustrating.

* In TinkerCad, selecting a model immediately shows a bunch of handles that you can drag to move or resize it. In 123D Design, selecting a model simply selects the model - you then have to choose Scale from the pop-up toolbar, and use the UI of the tool to scale the model. I don't even know how it works yet, but it's very different, and more cumbersome, than TinkerCad's model.

* In TinkerCad, the right-side pane features a hierarchy of drawing primitives - not just basic primitives, but community-generated tools that enable parameterized shapes: not just a cylinder, but a cylinder with a top radius (x) and a bottom radius (y) and a radial segmentation of (z). Very useful! In 123D Design, the primitives are jammed into an option in the top toolbar, while the right-hand pane includes a whole bunch of highly specialized finished models and model parts: Battleship, Bicycle, "Gadget" which features custom-made cases for the Galaxy III and iPhone 5... what in the world?! Why would you choose to cram spheres and rectangles into a multi-click option at the top, and use the entire right-hand pane for a massive library of completed models? Is this a design tool or merely a front end for Thingiverse? Very weird design choices here.

* I designed a model in TinkerCad that's a simple set of geometric shapes. When I open it in 123D Design, I see the same shapes, but there are all kinds of haphazard sketch lines shown on it. I have no idea what they're called or what they're for, and I can't find any way to turn them off.

In short - I really want to take the next step from TinkerCad to 123D Design, and am even willing to pay for it - but the inexplicable discrepancies between these products, many of which make 123D Design a much *less* useful tool, compel me to stay on the free platform. Please fix this. Thank you.

[HughesTooling]

This is the Fusion 360 forum not 123d, I don't think there's a forum for 123d anymore.

Mark

[HughesTooling]

Just thought I'd add, if you are going to try learning a new cad system you can use Fusion 360 free if you're a student or for hobby use. It a lot more powerful and will let you learn a more professional cad system.

http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/try-buy

Mark

[djstein]

Well, that's a shame.

Fusion 360 is both way overdesigned for my needs, and it works in very strange and user-unfriendly ways. Just watching the tutorial video completely turned me off:

"In order to place a cylinder, I'm going to select 'Cylinder,' then select the bottom plane (huh?), then click on an origin (huh?) and drag out to the radius of the cylinder."

Very clumsy compared with TinkerCad, where you get a ghosted version of the cylinder that you can drop anywhere in the workspace and then modify at will.

So sad that Autodesk has made such a leap backwards in usability with Fusion 360. Guess I'll refrain from giving them any money, and stay with the free version of their software, until one of their competitors makes something better.

[Anonymous]

Hi David,

I agree with you, Tinkercad is easier to use, but the Fusion platform is the next step towards the Autodesk platform, which is what engineers use on the daily because of the ability to modify, label, etc. everything.   If you were to take a class on Autodesk and learn it in and out like engineers have to in college, you would understand and in turn be frustrated by the simpler versions.  That's how it is in my household anyways.....I use the simpler versions and get frustrated by the more complicated ones, while my wife, the engineer, uses Autodesk and gets frustrated by the simpler versions!  It just depends on what you need to do with it.  Cheers.

[Anonymous]

In response to Fusion 360 being too "confusing" vs Tinkercad.  You have to realize that a program like Tinkercad is designed for the total novice, my 14 year old son started using Tinkercad to make designs to 3D print on our printer.  There are MANY assumptions to the design itself that are made by an application like Tinkercad, while Fusion 360, or full blown AutoCAD give you significantly more control.  And the more control the user has in a program, the less intuitive the program itself is.  It's like the difference between flying a remote control model airplane, and flying a real airplane, most RC planes have 2 to 5 controls on the remote and the time and knowledge to fly it is relatively short, but the cockpit of an airplane has many more controls, gauges, and informative displays, and requires a lot of studying, training, and practice to learn how to fly safely.  A simpler example is driving a car with an automatic transmission vs driving one with a manual transmission.  There is more to learn, and takes longer to master.