Fusion Electronics - UX/UI improvement

[oleksandr_velihorskyi]

Dear Fusion team, I have found the UX and UI in many cases inconvenient and strange. Just some examples.

1. There are no "underlined" menu commands in Fusion. In some other software, you can press TOC for Menu command Tools » Component Placement » Reposition Selected Components. It is very fast way to do some routine operations without extra movement  and clicking by mouse buttons. In Fusion looks like it is not possible, because all commands are in ribbons, or can be started from command line. 

2. It is not possible (or I just do not know how to do this) to assign the shortcuts for switching to Panels. E.g., I want to group change some components' parameters. I need to do it via Inspector. I need to select only components - panel "Selection components" (keyboard shortcut???), Click only on Component, then - selecting components,  then panel Inspector (keyboard shortcut???), change there what I want. Then go to panel "Selection components" (keyboard shortcut???), Click on Airwire, click with Shift on Wire... Why Ctrl+A is not used here, or at least some button like "select all types"??? All these sub-tasks can't be performed via keyboard only. It is annoying...

3. Very poor functionalities in crucial modes. Let's discuss routing, or component placement. During routing I can only use Left-Click, double-click, ctrl+right click, space, 4 and enter commands. How can I change the wire width - only by routing panel! In this case, I need to drag my mouse pointer (and trace!) to the right corner of the screen, depending on "push violations" even with pushing by my trace other traces, where I can select required trace width... No any way to select pre-defined width from shortcuts or right-click menu. It looks like context menu is not existing at all in Fusion Electronics!

4. Limitations to assign a keyboard shortcuts for some commands/modes. It was already discussed here.

I suspect, some of these limitations are from "breeding of Eagle with other software", but anyway, now it is not on the level of competitors. Sure, MCAD-ECAD binding is very promising, but current realization is not far away from Beta-version. And how many years already passed after the first release - 10 years or more, I suspect? From my personal point of view, the UX is crucial, because if the user found the using of software not so efficient, he will try to use alternatives (except cases when he/she needs to use Electronics part only in very-very simple cases). 

Dear users, are you also struggling from UX? Can you share your experience, may be I just have missed some hidden gems, and it looks much better than I have described above?

The question to Fusion Team is following. Can we expect, or, more general, is it possible to see in near future some improvements on UX/UI for Fusion Electronics, or "it is not possible because of limitation of the integration possibilities of Eagle with our Fusion engine"?

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @oleksandr_velihorskyi ,

I hope you're doing well. I'll try to comment on your concerns in order if I miss anything let me know.

1. You are correct there are no underlines, this is a general Fusion pattern so above the purview of the Electronics team. I would recommend posting this particular point on the main Fusion forum since the Electronics team on it's own won't be able to change it.

2. So the selection filter can be controlled through the CLI which means it can be controlled through shortcuts. See the help for the SET command here to control the Selection filter.
https://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=ECD-CLI-S#set
I'll find out if there are any commands for switching between panels.

3. The ROUTE command has a ton of shortcuts and modifiers. You can see the full list here:
https://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=ECD-CLI-R#route
The ROUTE command can now be set to use the preferred or minimum width as defined in the rules, so that option will minimize the need to switch widths. While routing you can activate the CLI by pressing the / key and then typing in the width you want to use followed by enter. Again this command has a ton of options that will allow you to change widths without having to go to the panel.

4. Nothing to add here

Just want to clarify that Fusion Electronics was released in early 2020 so it's only been about 5 years since the initial release. The team is always looking at ways to improve the UX so these suggestions are always welcome.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[oleksandr_velihorskyi]

Dear jorge_garcia,

thank you very much for the quick reply! You are right, Fusion Electronics provides improvements, step by step, with every new release. But, you can compare the UX in "MCAD" part of Fusion (with pop-up RB menu with some tools, which can be used, depending on the current mode), and very poor options in ECAD mode.

Sure, in some cases (as you have mentioned for ROUTE tool), something can be found in the official documentation, and thanks for the hidden gems, like "While routing you can activate the CLI by pressing the / key and then typing in the width you want to use followed by enter"! It is useful, and in this special case, easy! But, in my point of view, CLI commands are only one option, but mostly users will prefer to use something easier and more convenient, like the context menu and mode-relying hotkeys. It should be also mentioned, that "hard-defined" hotkeys, which have predefined or assigned by user functions, are also not the best way. Let's imagine, in route mode you have selected multiple-route. You want to change the space between traces in this mode during the routing. Sure, you can read the documentation "Controlling the Wire Spacing - When ROUTEMULTI first starts routing, the spacing between the wires matches the spacing between the start objects. The command line spacing keywords listed above allow you to control the wire spacing while you route. These spacing commands can be typed into the command line or assigned to shortcut keys using the ASSIGN command", and then use the described approach and define some Hotkey (let's say, Ctrl+"+"). But this Hotkey will be hard-coded only for this mode, right? What you can see in some alternative software: "Use the B (Shift+B) shortcut to decrease (increase) bus spacing in increments of the current grid. Press C to converge bus spacing to the minimum allowed by the applicable routing rules". It means that B (or Shift+B) is not hard-assigned, it is a mode-dependent hotkey, and in other modes B can also be used (but means something other). As for me, such an approach is much clearer and convenient for the PCB designer.

I hope my feedback will be useful for the next plans of Fusion Team.

Update: I have found, that in Multiple Route I can decrease and increase the space between traces during the routing by keyboard 1 (decrease), keyboard 2 (increase) and 3 (min spacing)! So, it is as I mentioned in my initial post and already implemented in Fusion!

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @oleksandr_velihorskyi ,

I don't think I'm fully clear on what your recommendation is here.

So we have CLI and we have shortcuts that you can assign commands to. They are currently not reusable (for the most part), maybe that's what you are asking for? To be able to use the same shortcut for different things in multiple places. Is that correct? If it is I'll make a ticket for it.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,