The new UI. Why ?

[TrippyLighting]

I made a comment on another online presence and below I am quoting the response from

Kevin Schneider @schneik-adsk .

That explanation makes a lot of sense and should have been part of the "What's new" blog post.

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there is a lot of things in this update that are not obvious. 1st there is the tabbed toolbar which scales as we grow better than the old workspace and toolbar. Along with the new tabs is a new simplified workspace switcher which will lays a foundation for changes coming as we make improvements to pdm tools. The toolbar is also not floating which addresses one of the sources of fusion grabbing focus on launch. Next are the icons. These are consistent with the rest of the company. But that is only one reason. These icons use svg as their source. While the current icons in fusion still are png raster images, generating them from new source files all in svg was a big step towards fixing hi dpi issues on windows. We can now switch incrementally to vector icons without another massive cosmetic change. We, and especial I, pushed for the icon changes to be done along with the toolbar. This allows us to change to tabs and change the icon look in one drop. As everyone creates new video and training they will be able to do that with the new ui. As we phase in svg icons videos and screenshots won’t have to be redone because the icons should simply look crisper. Svg icons will mean better resolution independence and eventually a dark mode. All things users have asked for. The svg icons are more efficient in the deployment eventually resulting in a smaller client footprint. So there is a lot of thought in easier learning and better underlying technical
Infrastructure that directly addresses user requests driving these changes. I hope this adds some context for these changes. 

---- quote end ----

[kb9ydn]

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@TrippyLighting wrote:

I made a comment on another online presence and below I am quoting the response from

Kevin Schneider @schneik-adsk .

That explanation makes a lot of sense and should have been part of the "What's new" blog post.

---- quote begin ----

there is a lot of things in this update that are not obvious. 1st there is the tabbed toolbar which scales as we grow better than the old workspace and toolbar. Along with the new tabs is a new simplified workspace switcher which will lays a foundation for changes coming as we make improvements to pdm tools. The toolbar is also not floating which addresses one of the sources of fusion grabbing focus on launch. Next are the icons. These are consistent with the rest of the company. But that is only one reason. These icons use svg as their source. While the current icons in fusion still are png raster images, generating them from new source files all in svg was a big step towards fixing hi dpi issues on windows.

---- quote end ----

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I personally think tabbed interfaces are great, but I REALLY wish Fusion would make it more obvious that the toolbar is actually tabbed.  If you look at any other tabbed interface there are visual separators between the tabs, so that you can tell they are actually tabs.  But Fusion instead has text floating over a single color background with zero indication that you can click on that text to change the menu.  There isn't even any highlighting or color change when you mouse over the text to hint that maybe it does something.  Granted once you know about it you can click on that text to change the menu.  But without any sort of visual cues to help guide you, it just feels uncomfortable somehow.

Anyway, the thing about changing the icons to vector graphics is interesting.  Solidworks went through the same thing about 3 years, and OMG did people throw a fit!  Mostly the complaining was because they changed icon colors and style a bit at the same time.  The new colors were more washed out looking and the icons were harder to make out, although it didn't really seem as bad as people made it out to be.  But man, you would have thought the world was coming to an end with how much griping there was!

C|

[sniger7700]

i cant find TEXT options ?. Even extrude options is pain is the ass for me now.. is there anyway to fix this ?

[TrippyLighting]

Fix what ?

I have no idea what you are talking about. None of what you don't seem to able to find has changed with the new UI update!

[HughesTooling]

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@TrippyLighting wrote:

Fix what ?

I have no idea what you are talking about. None of what you don't seem to able to find has changed with the new UI update!

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There is a slight difference, the sketch menu is hidden until you start a sketch. You can no longer start a new sketch using the text option directly from the sketch menu, think that might be what @sniger7700  is talking about.

Mark

[TrippyLighting]

@HughesTooling I'd have never noticed. Thanks!

I rarely use the tool bar and do 90%+ through the S-key menu.

[Beyondforce]

I understand your concern guys, but I'm like @TrippyLighting , I don't mind the change and I also understand why product designers changed it this way.

From someone who worked with Change Management for many years, I know that a change can be frustrating sometimes when you develop a certain routine/workflow. But changes are inevitable in any software development's journey!

The key to avoiding frustration when change happens is to stay open to the possibility that things would change at some point, to be open-minded for it and to give the new change a chance - even if it requires routine changes.

But let's see if it's something that bothers most people, they might change it back 🙂

Cheers / Ben.

[Intuos5]

I welcome change, even if it takes some time to get used to, as long as it's for the better. With the current state of the icons, I don't see many improvements besides a couple of icons and the SVG format of course. Sorry to be blunt here, but to me it seems like these icons (in terms of design and colours) were not discussed between multiple team members, because I have lots of remarks as to why certain icons look the way they do. Almost to the point where an icon does not resemble what it needs to be. 

Take a look at this toolbar for instance:

If you either take a distance or close your eyes for a little, can you tell the icons apart? I argue that the quad ball and cylinder are too similar as well as the plane and face command. The shading is too subtle to properly define the shapes, they look flat (even though that's a trend in UI design, readability comes first), the edge lines are nigh indiscernible. Oh and did I mention there is a s-key toolbox with even smaller tools!? Not sure how well those work now. I do think that the added graphics to the modify icons are a big improvement in terms of clarity, the problem is mostly the purple in conjunction with the shading and edge line colours to me. Also take into account that most users do not have properly calibrated displays, it shouldn't matter what display I use, though I find my 4k screen much better compared to my 1080p one, which has a greyer tint to it (lesser colour accuracy!).

Also who thought it is pleasant to see different shades of green across the toolbar? 

It goes from green, to bluish green to yellowish green (check the RGB values). To me it looks more like a box of children's crayons due to these inconsistencies. I would prefer the icons in the construct panel to have the same colours as either the finish form icon or plus sign, I can forgive the curvature map analysis looking this way since it transitions in a rainbow fashion.

The same is true for the blues (again, all in one toolbar).

I know colours are hard to get right, but to me this is part of the basics, choosing a consistent set of colours and use them throughout. Not all of them have to be the same, but I would use the same colour for the lighter blue in insert as the one used in inspect. From the Autodesk portfolio, I'm sure Revit and 3ds Max do not (currently) use this colour scheme.

Can't these be the same? 

Also is appearance just colour...? 😉

Overall, I find this toolbar just too vivid in the blues. I argue that the design is what needs to pop, rather than having the focus on the icons, which was what the old icons had over these ones. When I moved to Fusion, I liked to show it to people, simply because of the clean interface, but that's just gone now. 

Also, boundary fill should have the same orange as construct imo. 

Same inconsistencies in colours throughout, these are colour HARMonies. I believe this is the default tools toolbar? 

Thing is, tools can be rearranged freely by the user, so they absolutely HAVE to work together regardless of configuration. Moreover, saturated and non-saturated colours are used inter-changeably. Please revamp the draft analysis colours to begin with. 

And the plane on path does not resemble a plane on path, I'd change that one as well to resemble the function.

I really do hope that these icon colours will be given a second look, because of clarity and also because this piece of software deserves good icons!

E: Forgot to include this one for inconsistent shading:

[Beyondforce]

I agree with you, I prefer the previous icons as well.
I have used Fusion 360 for so long, so I'm working a lot with shortcuts. But, for the sake of those who are not used to work with shortcuts, I hope they will improve the icons, they don't look good!

[TrippyLighting]

While the UI is obviously the most visible part of Fusion 360 , for me it's has become one of the most irrelevant parts of Fusion 360. For experienced users it was a regression in terms of functionality because some of the context sensitivity of the S-key menu was lost.

Other things are vastly more important IMHO, so let's not waste more time on the UI.

[cekuhnen]

@TrippyLighting  @Intuos5 

I use the tabbed menu to open a file but other wise I do everything via the S menu.

It is so much faster.

@TrippyLighting  What is not working in the S menu now? you kinda scaring me

[TrippyLighting]

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@cekuhnen wrote:

@TrippyLighting  What is not working in the S menu now? you kinda scaring me

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It's still works but int quite as context sensitive as it's been before. But the F360 team has asked an received for feedback on the EE forum a while ago for future improvements.

E.g.a separator so its easier sort these things into "compartments". Not too big of a deal really.

[Intuos5]

@cekuhnen I prefer using keyboard shortcuts over the S key menu, since that's what I use in other programs that I'm using more than Fusion. Since not all keys are mapable (read reserved) and not all functions can be mapped, I am holding off the final customisation for when this is addressed. At first I needed to get acquainted with Fusion before customising shortcuts the way I've done now. So I used the toolbar for a bit first and the commands which I can't map the way I would like to, have been parked there ever since. 

Besides I noticed on two laptops that the S key menu settings were reset, at least two times on one so I also didn't want to go through that process again of adding all buttons. And I find myself staring at the icons for too long, but this probably boils down to investing time to get into the habit of icon nr.# equals command X. 

Once I get all the shortcuts sorted out, I'll probably add them to my 3D mouse and will be using its radial menus over the S key menu anyways. 

On a side note: could someone confirm whether they can map buttons like: Ctrl + Alt + Letter key, other than F,G,H,J,K, X,V,B? Ctrl + Shift + Alt is also not picking up all key combos on the left hand side of the keyboard, despite none of them being mentioned as reserved. Given the Alt combinations are almost exhausted, this severely hinders getting the hotkeys the way I have them in other programs. 

[chrisplyler · Accepted solution]

@TrippyLighting 

You go tell Keven Schneider that all those concerns are fine things to be working on...

...AFTER JOINT FUNCTIONALITY IS FINISHED!

No doughnuts for Autodesk.

[TrippyLighting]

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@chrisplyler wrote:

@TrippyLighting 

You go tell Keven Schneider that all those concerns are fine things to be working on...

...AFTER JOINT FUNCTIONALITY IS FINISHED!

No doughnuts for Autodesk.

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Period! End of story!

Let's move on to more relevant things.

[chrisplyler]

Well, on Saturday I went to watch a bikini contest.

Oh, wait, things more relevant to what?

[excitive]

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@chrisplyler wrote:

@TrippyLighting 

You go tell Keven Schneider that all those concerns are fine things to be working on...

...AFTER JOINT FUNCTIONALITY IS FINISHED!

No doughnuts for Autodesk.

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Well in that case, keep some donuts ready in few months. 😉

[chrisplyler]

If you're planning to make the Joint symbols orange instead of green, that's not really what I'm talking about.

But I'm not worried. As a show of confidence, I'm going to start holding my breath.

Riiiiiiiiight...NOW!

No, wait...NOW!

Okay for real this time...NOW!

[Moose408]

Thanks for pointing out there there are now tabs. It was NOT at all obvious and I had been searching the web for 20 mins trying to find the Make option when I came across your response.