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Stop Forcing Me To Use Object Action!!!!!

mjcole_ptc

New member
Object Action severely blows when you are forced to use it!
smiley7.gif


It used to be nice to either create a round by activating the Round command and selecting references or selecting some Edges and Right Clicking to Round Edges.

Now PTC is forcing us to use it. It's like living in a dictatorship. I can't Select the intersect tool and then be prompted for my references. Now you have to try several different ways of selecting references and then check to see if the icon or feature becomes available.

This is total BS!

Not to mention Reroute, Suppress, Resume. These were so easy with the Menu Manager it's almost sickening how that usability has been blown off by some way "Outside of the Box" or "Deep Inside a Black Hole" Wildfire thinking.
Edit > Resume > By Layer
Don't make me make my own pull down menu options for previously existing functionality.

You want to do a feature operation?
Thinking of or using a work around to get things done is inefficient.

Michael


Edited by: mjcole_ptc
 
I have frequently referred to Pro/E as 'software with Nazi boots' and 'user-hostile software written by anal retentives'. The key to SW's success has been the initial fundamental decision by the development team to make their product user-friendly, context-sensitive and easy to learn. Yes, the vast majority of the team were PTC ex-patriates who wrote the Pro/E software. PTC has been very slow to come around to the concept of user-friendliness andflexibility in function use.
 
I agree 100%. I thought with WF we were going to get more freedom to use O->A or A->O. I love that idea, but there are a ton of areas where I end up growling at my PC (my coworkers are starting to wonder) because I can't get the magic combination of references to make the command highlight.


Allow me to pick 2 quilts and then clickmerge, but why not let meclick merge first and then limit my selection to quilts? Would be much easier, actually. Now I have to:

  1. <LI>click a surface feature</LI>
    <LI>then move my mouse</LI>
    <LI>highlight a part of the surface feature</LI>
    <LI>RMB through the possible selections until the quilt highlight</LI>
    <LI>select the quilt (Yes, I can simplify that my setting the smart filter to quilts) </LI>
    <LI>hold control</LI>
    <LI>select another surface feature</LI>
    <LI>highlight a part of the surface feature</LI>
    <LI>RMB through the possible selections until the quilt highlight</LI>
    <LI>select the quilt</LI>
    <LI>If I did 1-9 right, the merge command magically is available and I can click it. If not, it's back to step 1.</LI>
    <LI>Done and now I have a merge!</LI>


What's wrong with:

  1. <LI>Click merge</LI>
    <LI>select quilt 1 (The filter is autmatically set to quilts, since that's allthat works with the merge command)</LI>
    <LI>select quilt 2</LI>
    <LI>Done</LI>


Argh.
 
Mindripper said:
PTC has been very slow to come around to the concept of user-friendliness andflexibility in function use.


I'd say that they understand, now, that it's important. They still don't have a clue on how to make it happen. For every large scale improvement in usability in WF, there are half a dozen tiny annoyances that all but cancel the improvement out. The topic here is a great example.
 
I had a similar problem when I wanted to modify the line display a drawing table. It took so many right mouse left mouse clicks to get, first the table, then the context sensitive options I was nearly pulling my hair out.

My solution; fire up a copy of 2001 and create a mapkey from the menu manager selections. It works perfectly in WF2. The next step would be to create a custom icon to activate the mapkey.


DB
 
On some functions, you must pre-select the elements before starting the function. On others (most functions), you cannot pre-select the elements. On others (very few functions), you can do both. Please be consistent, PTC! There is another CAD package I dearly love which is very good about this, but I will not mention it's name: I do not seek to offend the readers of this column. This unnamed software is also very good about not being picky about the sequence of selection of the elements: it can deal with variations in the sequence of selection of lines and centerlines, for example.


On some functions,Pro/E allows you to select inappropriate elements. On some functions, it refuses to allow the selection of appropriate elements. Again, consistency is imperative.


Moving functions from one menu to anotherfrom pre-WF toWF almost cost me my sanity on several occasions. This seems unnecessary, and is confusing. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think so. Is this change for the sake of change?
 

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