User Interface Ideas

[aaronrumple]

The Revit UI is one of the places where improvement is needed.

First it needs to look like a $4000 program. Inventor and Viz have graphically rich enviornments that improve workflow. Inventor on screen graphics are to die for. Revit needs new icons and a more polished look. I would hope that they would use Viz/Max as the model. It is the closest app in the adsk line to Revits 'feel'...

We all agree the Project navigator needs work. This needs tabs for Views/Sheets/Families <CorelDraw> We meed to be able to organize the sheets and folders in more meaningful ways.

I want my command bar over on the right. I'm right handed and it is simpler to relax the arm and pull than push to the left. Again Viz is the model here. Revit used the Outlook/Explorer shortcut bar as the model. However, these were both designed for ocassional use - not as the main UI.

I need one drop down to select a family for an object and another to select the type. My list of mixed families gets too long.

The isolate tool is just plain bad when compared to the Viz isolate tool, as is the filter tool. Reviit should folw Viz on the drop down filters and the ability to save combination filters. This is a heavily used tool in Viz and would be a perfect fit in Revit.

All of the on screen graphics need work. The blue locks are just plain hard to see and often off the screen during an operation. This shouldn't happen.

The rotation point in an object or group of objects should remain fixed after being repositioned. Much like the pivolt point in Viz. This could be used in the parametrics to assist relationships.

I prefer the Corel Right/Click+Drag to copy items. Ctrl+Drag is ok but my ideal CADD system would run with only a mouse. The center wheel mouse zoom needs to be more responsive. There should be a double click zoom extents like AutoCAD. Right/Click zoom selected would be nice.

I also would like a View->Plan for squaring up my screen with a sweep profile. I draw a lot of these at strange angles and it can be hard to see the exact relatioship of the sketch to the origin.

I also want in-project family editing. Double click on a item and it opens the editor or in a sketch mode for things like profiles/sweeps. Same with roofs, stairs, floors, wall elevations. Double click edit.

I could go on and on and on... Revit is cool - but could be killer cool.

[beegee]

The Revit UI is one of the places where improvement is needed.
>Snip
The rotation point in an object or group of objects should remain fixed after being repositioned. Much like the pivolt point in Viz. This could be used in the parametrics to assist relationships.
>Snip


The rotation point can certainly be a headache to use. Sometimes it doesn't want to snap where I want it. Its difficult to align to some existing linework, and like the lock icon, you often have to zoom back out to find it.
My 2c .... but hey, I agree the programe is way cool compared to anything else on the market.

beegee.

[PeterJ]

Aaron goes in with both guns blasting, but I reread his post and there is some stuff in there that its difficult to disagree with.

Maybe it is time for a more thorough review of some of the UI issues in Revit. A number of people are requesting improved multi-monitor support, or just multi-monitor support full stop and the two seem to go hand in hand. I have no idea how easy it is to implement a cosmetic switch to a program like Revit but maybe the next release but one will be able to address some of these topics as I suspect it is too late for R6. In 5.1 it does still feel like a program which has grown out of its own starting blocks without a thorough review (at least since 3.1 when I got in). Some real work is now needed to here:

[list:bd79c33c4c]floating tool bars
permanently dockable project browser located to user choice
improved project browser
component chooser so that furniture, power sockets, planting and so on are not all intermingled[/list:u:bd79c33c4c]

As has been said already, many of these requests are for items that Autodesk has shown itself able to implement elsewhere so maybe now it needs to share some of that skill with the Revit team.

Pete

[Phil Palmer]

Peter,

I agree that at some time the whole UI needs an overhaul.
BUT do we the users want Autodesk to devote MAJOR development time in producing a new interface ?
Take for example ADT2004 - Autodesk spent a huge amount of the development on purely providing the new UI. This meant that some 'functionality' requests were taken off the development of ADT2004.

I would MUCH prefer Revit to continue with providing us with the functionality first.

[Steve_Stafford]

Okay Aaron, now you're in "Dutch" with the "Wishlist"... :lol: No sooner do I ask for one post per and you gotta go on with a list of UI improvements! :D

Have to say that it's a pretty darn nice list of ideas though.

My "complaint" with the UI is the repeated calling of dialog boxes all day...if Revit saved me trips to the properties and Vis/Graph dialog boxes even only by half that's a lot of time.

For example, it would be very nice (to me) to adjust scale and view resolution right on the tool bar area. No need to load a dialog, just click on a pull down or click on a Res toggle that progressively cycles through Coarse/Medium/Fine.

I'll be moving your list of UI ideas to it's own thread later on...don't want it get to buried inside after another 20 posts pile up.

[PeterJ]

Q

You are spot on with the dialog box issue.

In the better written database programs (which at one level is all a drafting or a BIM package is) that I have seen it is possible to alter a property in a chooser window and have it update other windows. If this logic were applied to Revit then, for example, changing a wall surface pattern would not require you to define a new hatch pattern then go change the material, all while what you actually were thinking about was the wall definition, you could simply dart from chooser to chooser and make the changes with the focus changing with your mouse poition, rather than a dialog box firing up each time.

At present the status bar shows a variety of messages at left and then shows num lock etc at right. Could the centre part of this not be used to display selectable parameters about the current window, much in the way that the AutoCAD status bar allows you to toggle snaps, paper/modelspace etc by double clicking this area?

P

[hand471037]

While I totally agree that the Revit UI could use some work, I must disagree that it should be based upon VIZ/Max. While VIZ/Max has some wonderful selection/management/zooming tools, the UI itself is very confusing to most people I've met. I'd would much rather have Revit be done on a more photoshop model, or an Inventor model, whereas there are improvements to the UI, but they are done a very 'clean' and non-obtrusive way, with the same methodology that the software has always had. I could take someone that only knew Photoshop 2.5 and sit them down with Photoshop 7 and have them producing work an hour later (if that). That's a pwoerful thing that I think a lot of software people forget; that Photoshop, being easy to use, make is possible for me to take just about anyone and have them able to produce work. That has never held true for any AutoDesk product; the UI tends to change drasticly from version to version, or, in the case of VIZ/Max, be a kluge of several different 'generations' of UI versions combined into one big mess, in my opinion. If efficency is what we are after, making drastic changes to the UI to make it somehow 'better' like AutoCAD has done with every version is like me pulling the engine from my car every year to replace it with one that's only slightly faster. There's a lot of bitching in the ADT camp right now about the drastic UI change that happened with ADT 4; I hope that AutoDesk doesn't decide to re-invent Revit's UI every other version, but instead simply makes it better. Other than that I completely agree with your list!

[hand471037]

OH, one more thing: Truespace, a 3D software I use from time-to-time, has a *great* system for navigating in 3D space; all based upon the mouse. It works like this:

After selecting an object(s):
1. Scroll wheel does the typical zoom in/out.
2. Holding the Scroll wheel down and moving the mouse 'orbits' the selected items (simular to the shift-right-click in Revit, 'cept with whatever you have selected as your focal/orbit point).
3. Double clicking the Scroll Wheel centers the view on the selected object what zooming out enough to see the whole of the object (like a min-zoom extents, but object-based) without changing your viewing angle.
4. Holding down both the middle and right mouse buttons while moving the mouse 'rolls' the view to one side or the other.
5. Holding down both the middle and left mouse buttons while moving the mouse 'dollys' the view (pans the view w/o changing the viewing angle)
6. Holding down all three buttons and moving the mouse lifts/drops the view 'up' or 'down' (along the current view's screen 'Z-axis', if you know what I mean)

From these combos you can very quickly and easly navigate around 3D space without getting lost. The 'zoom to current object's extents' feature is really killer, for you can selecte something, double-click the middle mouse button, and start working on it instantly.

Truespace has a rather quirky UI that some people love and some people hate. Lotsa buttons and such. But these mouse features would do well in Revit too...

[Steve_Stafford]

eewee...all three buttons at once...I'm not that coordinated!! :(

[mlgatzke]

Steve,

What a great idea - creating a separate thread for a UI wishlist. This way, the users who are concerned with tools and operation can dedicate their ideas in a separate thread than those with interface concerns.

Good thinkin'. That's probably why you get the (moderator corrects mlgatzke...REALLY BIG BIG BUCKS, right Z?) big bucks. ;-)

[Steve_Stafford]

Moved the car thread to general...since we were getting off Revit UI :D

[hand471037]

Well, the mouse button combos can get confusing in Truespace, but you don't have to use them. They are just shortcuts. It's just that it's the best combo Iv'e seen yet; if Revit just added a simular 'object-selected-orbit' mode, and some kinda of 'zoom-extents' or 'zoom-to-selected-object's-extents' from double clicking the middle mouse button I would be a happy camper.

What I like about Truespace's approach is that the zoom/pan shortcuts change depending on if you have something selected. If you have something selected, then the zoom shortcuts are reletive to that object, if you have nothing selected, then they are 'global' (which is what Revit is like all the time, in that Panning/orbiting/zooming aren't reletive to anything but the 'world'). This makes navigating and working in 3D very easy; for example, in Truespace You will typically only have one large axon view open, since it's trivial to navigate and edit within this view. VIZ/AutoCAD requires to have multipule views (or to switch a lot) in order to navigate space. Truespace is a little more like Inventor in this way, in that it's faster, most of the time, to work in axon than in an orthagnal view...

[Richard McCarthy]

I must say I really don't like Corel draw... that tab thing is more akin to the DTP industry, and I think Revit has it just right.. or does it even better.. I mean.. each sheet is on your Project Browser for you to bring to screen to see. it is clear and concise, while if you USE the CorelDraw Tab system, you wouldn't make out head or tail which sheet is which (usually those tab are TINY with only very few words visible for the sheet name)

I think maybe a FOLDER option for the sheets at the Project browser so that you can even better organise those sheets is a good alternative.



We all agree the Project navigator needs work. This needs tabs for Views/Sheets/Families <CorelDraw> We meed to be able to organize the sheets and folders in more meaningful ways.


The tool bars and project browsers I think should be dockable like Rhino v3, so, it can canter for more user preference. Personally, I like Revit's main bar/project browser like the way it is now, and I don't like VIZ4's align-to-the-left interface. Another thing, if "dockable" interface is to be implemented, I suggest there is a command (either in preference setting) that let you LOCK those tool bars and project browser in place. It has happen to Rhino and other software that use Dockable-interface that is very irritating to accidentally drag the toolbar or minimise the window and screw up all the interface position again.

[skpark]

Even though it's been well over a year since Aaron Rumple posted his UI prefs, I still really wanted to say "Me too!, I agree, I agree!" Sure I guess I'd rather have the ability to show framing in walls and roofs with a few clicks, but a customizable and snazzy UI would be very nice. Someone here (another thread?) made the point that UI's sell the products.

And also, maybe even more important to revit sellability, what about the model graphics?! I have to say, as much as I love Revit and am super glad for having swapped, that I think the 3d model graphics are really very doggy. It looks cartoon-ish, and if you turn edges off, your work becomes hard to see. This is inconvenient as I prefer abstract (unrendered) images for 3d presentation, and am less often going for the photorealism. I'm investigating the SketchUp thing as others here have suggested (SketchUp model graphics verrry sexy), but Sketchup seems to chug down badly with all the revit data in it.

Another one of my UI wishes that no one else probably cares about: prehighlight on/ off modes. While I've gotten used to the prehighlight jumpiness when working (it was hard to get used to), It's nice to talk about design ideas with others straight inside revit, and the jumpiness distracts.

[barathd]

Who cares what the UI looks like - "just please fix it" - so it is more productive. I am just finishing up a 40 hour session without sleep my love for REVIT is waning. There's lots and lots to be fixed including the UI. Seems like nearly all the parts are there but they really need a lot more synchronization - big time - IMHO. The parametrics and collaboration are wonderful but when one spends hours tweaking some bug or oversight the program soon looses its charm.

Regards

Sleepy