🚨Feature Enhancement Release🚨 - Simplified Interface in Facilities

[jessica_smith]

Release Notes

The Autodesk Tandem team is excited to announce a fresh UI for the Tandem facility experience as one of the first steps towards an easier interaction. Upon entering a facility, you will see a new header and footer and a viewer free from extra tools.  

• New header and footer navigation bars when within a facility
• Relocated viewing, section, and measure tools from in-viewer toolbar to dedicated menus in header, at top right
• New navigation shortcuts to interact with the viewer, easily visible in the menus
• Relocated data visualization tools (labels, heatmap, stream pins controls) from in-viewer toolbar to new footer bar, left
• Relocated Properties panel toggle to footer bar, right
• Viewer Settings relocated to User Profile modal
• Clicking on Tandem logo takes you back to Homepage 

Why does this matter? These updates are part of an initiative aiming to make interacting with twin data simple and more intuitive. Everyone, not just BIM experts, should be empowered with digital twins and the rich contextual data they provide. 

Stay tuned for more updates, such as improved saved views, suggested next-best actions in context, and simplified viewer settings. 

[Chad-Smith]

It looks like the change of functionality for the Level and Room labels is tied to this UI change.

In particular, the visibility of the Room labels that now only show after selecting the Level label.

My thoughts are:

1. For a single-level facility, selecting the Level just to see Rooms is a redundant operation.
2. There is an inconsistent relationship between the in-model labels, and the Label toggles in the UI.
   e.g. The label selection process in the model is sequential, and the UI toggles are parallel. They become out of sync.

Other than that, the UI redesign is great.

[brendillon]

There doesn't seem to be any explanation for where you put the tools that were moved to make room for the view controls.

Please bring these back, having to go back to the Tandem homepage to change facilities or get into Manage is frustrating.

These...

COuld go down here where there is tons of dead space...

[chauncey.fong632CE]

Hi Chad,

Thanks for the feedback! You're right, we've been updating the behavior of labels along with the UI updates. We'll investigate the syncing issue as we continue to refine these interactions.

[chauncey.fong632CE]

Thank you for the feedback. These updates are just the first step in a series of improvements to make twin building and interacting with operational data easier. Stay tuned for new capabilities that will fill in the "dead space" and new workflows for managing data within the context of the facility.

[Chad-Smith]

Thanks Chauncey.

Regarding @brendillon's comment about the Manage button, I kind of agree.

Not having it visible after a facility is fully configured is not such a big deal. But during the early configuration stage I can see that this could become a frustrating inconvenience.

Given that the Assets > Facility Template is closely related to the Manage settings, an alternative might be to add a Manage button on the Assets panel?

[brendillon]

From an owner's perspective, configuration never ends. With ~300 active projects and an evolving asset management program, we're in the manage tab regularly.

Especially since that's where all the usage numbers are.

[Chad-Smith]

The labelling logic still doesn't entirely make sense, especially when adding Filters to the process.

[Chad-Smith]

A couple of comments on the 'Show Heatmap' button on the lower UI.

Firstly, I do like that this is its own dedicated button. However:

• If Rooms are hidden (i.e. turned off in Filters), and I select a heatmap parameter, please turn the Rooms visibility back on. This will save having to go to the Filters and hunt for the parameter.
• Turning the heatmap off is now not so obvious. The natural reaction is to go back to the 'Show Heatmap' button to use some kind of 'Turn Off' or 'Disable' option. Instead you have to go to the 'Data Visualisation' button and uncheck 'Heatmap'. Having two buttons within close proximity feels a little weird, as though one of the options was forgotten to be removed for production.

To be honest, I really don't like the 'Data Visualisation' button. At all.

The Heatmap and Stream Pins are two of the most important and frequently used UI tools. They should not be bundled into a UI menu.

Instead, I would prefer to see the 'Stream Pins' be promoted to the lower UI as it's own fly-out button, right next to the 'Show Heatmap' button. These features behave practically the same way, and should be treated as equals on the UI.

EDIT: The 'Show Heatmap' button has now disappeared from my UI.

Did I temporarily glimpse something that is in development? If I did, then please keep going with it for the reasons I listed above.

[jessica_smith]

@Chad-Smith,  the "Level 19" label is blue because it is likely selected in the filter panel in the levels section. I can't see that part in your screenshot, so i would check and confirm this on your end.

[iriacarreira]

Hi Chad,
Thanks for the feedback on the new UI.
The Show Heatmap should appear automatically when you go on a level view (from filters) and there are stream data in that level. Then Show Heatmap should contextually appear automatically.

[Chad-Smith]

Thank you both.

I've got to be honest. Now that I've been using it for a while, this new UI is more confusing than the old one. There are more dependencies and some duplications of functionality. Looks like I keep getting tripped on the need to select the Level, something which as a single level facility shouldn't be needed.

Now that I understand how it's intended to work, coming back to my previous comment on the Show Heatmap button I still feel that this should always be shown.

Given that you can show the heatmap without selecting a Level, the Show Heatmap button should be visible as a means to change the attribute.