Keeping the axes/plane selector always nearby

[lure23]

Fusion 360 doesn't really have the concept of a global coordinate system. I think that is cool - coordinates should be relative to the component in question, or the parent component. The canvas should be limitless, without a certain point above the rest. Right?

However, there is this one point on the canvas that seems to be the global origin. 

I don't need it. In fact, I often try to avoid it s.a. here moving the sketch circle away from it. So - why should the 'origin' be marked, at all?

The only use for the origin I know of is axis / plane selection.

When you hover in the Browser over Origin > O X Y Z XY XZ YZ elements, you can pick the point, the axes or the coordinate planes.

If you click the bulb on 'Origin', you can always see the axes cube. 

You can even selectively click some of the bulbs to decide, which parts to be visible (here, axes have been hidden).

 

Cool. But why is this bad?

Most of the actual work, we're not rotating around the origin (which is the default pivot point) but around a self-selected point (shift + middle click). When we do this, selecting the coordinate axes / planes becomes difficult, since they often end up outside of the view window.

Suggestion A

- take away the concept of 'origin' (the point) completely

- move the axes/plane selection next to the view cube (away from the model and browser)

- allow still visibility of individual axes / planes to be selected, but from the display settings

This would make sure the axes / plane selector never gets out of view, when I need it. It also always keeps it in one place, instead of how it currently moves around with the origin.

Once I pick something from it, it should be applied to the current pivot point (origin by default, or the custom 'red dot' if I have picked one).

The benefits this change would bring:

- more consistent thinking in the tool (no global coordinate system)

- never needing to 'look up' the origin for selecting an axes / plane (i.e. no need to zoom out / pan around to please the program)

- getting 'origin' away from the browser

One down side I can see is that export of material may indeed need a certain point of origin (= other tools rely on global coords even if Fusion 360 doesn't). To please this, the 'Origin > O' entry could survive in the browser.

Suggestion B

Another approach to overcome the problems would be to simply move the axes / plane visualizations to where-ever the 'red dot' has been placed (i.e. normally in the center of action).

This would not cause changes in the browser, but would be a more scalable workflow compared to the origin-based one that I can only think works for very small designs.

What do you others think? 

Have you been frustrated, trying to find the axes / plane selector being outside of the view area? Or have you given up and started using the browser only?