Interface suggestions

Interface suggestions

Martin-

I'm using a 14" iBook and every time I start a new 'project' window it is too large for my screen. I'd like to see a preference for retaining my startup window size/position.

I seem to do a lot of positioning of objects by typing values into the x/y/z position text fields. When I switch to the next object the position 'triangle thingy' collapses and hides the 3 text fields and I have to reopen it. Can be a hassle if you're doing it a lot. I'd like it to stay open until I close it.

Thanks for a great program.
-Phil
 
I have one major suggestion on the UI front:

I don't believe that the Cheetah3D user interface makes good enough use of colour to distinguish between selection states, which is one of the very few things I don't like about the software. In a program that's been advancing as quickly as this, I don't really mind that much, but I think that the software would be much more intuitive and easy to use if it made better use of colour (because greys are so System 7).

Contrast these two images, as an example:

Original
one.png


RandyWang'd
two.png


The second one was a VERY fast photoshop to illustrate what I mean, and I believe it makes it easier by far to quickly see which objects in the timeline (for example) are selected. A blue hue could also be placed on one or two other interface elements, simply to highlight which ones are selected as quickly and unobstrusively as possible.

Another possible suggestion would be, since I'm on a 15" screen @ 1024x768, I find that the UI is extremely cluttered when I need to edit textures and so on - then, I have three regions of the screen that all demand a fair amount of space, and four if I have the timeline open. Now, I know I'm not on an optimal machine for this kind of work, but I would greatly appreciate the option to be able to edit materials in an entirely separate window (say, have a Material Editor, set up in a similar way to the Render Manager).

Thoughts? Am I just picky?
 
Re: Interface suggestions

Phil said:
I'm using a 14" iBook and every time I start a new 'project' window it is too large for my screen. I'd like to see a preference for retaining my startup window size/position.

I know that. It sounds strange but it looks like that this is the standard OS X bahaviour. I don't position the windows manually. Cocoa does that for me. :(

Phil said:
I seem to do a lot of positioning of objects by typing values into the x/y/z position text fields. When I switch to the next object the position 'triangle thingy' collapses and hides the 3 text fields and I have to reopen it. Can be a hassle if you're doing it a lot. I'd like it to stay open until I close it.

I'm also aware of that problem but until know I haven't decided how to solve it elegantly. Maybe I make something totally different. But you are right the manual expanding is annoying.


Now to RandyWang post:
I changed the highlight color in the key and F-curve editor views. Now they also fit to the object browser :wink: Thanks for the tip.

Sorry but the material editor will stay where it is. At least for the first. Later I plan to make all views detachable. But don't expect that in the near future.

By,
Martin
 
Hi Martin, In the 4-window view, would it be possible to choose which view would show in the full window. I believe Carrara does this. Whatever view is highlighted in the 4-way, would enlarge to the full window. This would help me for modeling as I could zoom into the other 3 views. Currently the full view window only gives the 3d perspective view. Thanks-Lonestar
 
Sorry but the material editor will stay where it is. At least for the first. Later I plan to make all views detachable. But don't expect that in the near future.

This is fine - I'm grateful that you have it planned. =)
 
Lonestar said:
Currently the full view window only gives the 3d perspective view.

Hi Lonestar,
you can already change that. The left most pull down menu in the camera bar offers the various 3D views. This pull down menu always effects the selected 3D view.

By,
Martin
 
Martin,

The pan/zoom/rotate/focus interface is great for a one-button mouse or a track pad . . . however, is there anyway to configure Cheetah to recognize the third mouse button (scroll wheel click) for 3D rotations, al la ProEngineer or Blender for example?

I've just downloaded the demo and absolutely love the program so far . . . keep up the great work!
 
Hi,

dxm113 said:
The pan/zoom/rotate/focus interface is great for a one-button mouse or a track pad . . . however, is there anyway to configure Cheetah to recognize the third mouse button (scroll wheel click) for 3D rotations, al la ProEngineer or Blender for example?

you can configure the mouse within the Cheetah3D prefernecs window. Cheetah3D offers three different camera controll mouse mappings.
I don't know how ProEngineer handles that but maybe the Mirai mouse mode does what you want.

And thanks that you like Cheetah3D. :wink:

By,
Martin
 
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