Three Buttons for One Tool - Sections, Elevations + Int Elev

[Eduardo Rolon]

Three tools for the same procedure, might it have not been better to create a tag to choose from in the S/E tool panel?

I.E. group with:

• elevations
  sections
  interior elevations

____
Imagine how I will teach this 3 tools to my next group of students in their AC class.

Professor- For elevations you have to use this tool, For sections this one and For IntElev this one.

Student- But aren't these three things the same just with different settings, WHY are they different tools?

Professor- Because GS in their Infinite Wisdom decided that we needed special icons for each

Student- OOOOOOOOOKKKK…, If I make a mistake and I choose the wrong one (because of a copy) is there a button to change it to the other type?

Professor- No, you will need to erase the previous one and create a new one

Student- Why?

Professor- Because GS in their Infinite Wisdom decided that we needed special icons for each

Student- And in how did it work before? Weren't you able to create sections and Interior Elevations?

Professor- It was one tool were a section was called "SECTION", an elevation was called "ELEVATION" and an interior elevation was called "INTERIOR ELEVATION" each with its own marker.

Student- And that procedure does not work anymore?

Professor- Yes it still does

Student- Then, Why create separate icons for what is essentially the same tool?

Professor- Because GS in their Infinite Wisdom decided that we needed special icons for each

Student- Isn't Autodesk the only one that puts new icons for the same commands and calls it an UPGRADE?

Professor- Not anymore…

[TomWaltz]

I was originally against the idea of splitting them, but I like that you can more easily make their default values more logical for each use, create multiple interior views at the same time, and use Clones to logically organize them in the View Map.

It's not all that illogical since elevations, sections, and interior elevations all show different information in an architectural set of drawings. I think it's more illogical to create elevations and interior elevations with something called the "Section" tool. In teaching users (dozens of them, in fact) a lot of people found that strange.

Now Worksheets vs. Details....

[Eduardo Rolon]

The Section tool I always called the Section-Elevation tool.

I am not against having separate categories for each, I am proposing that one icon would still be best (more simple) and within that one tool you could choose which type of S/E/IE it will become, thus more flexible. This way a mistake not discovered until too late is easy to change.

I see the 3 icons as if GS decided that we needed one icon for Metal Windows, another for Wood/Plastic, another for Special window and another for Corner Windows

Keep It Simple S (I always forgert what the last S is for…)

[TomWaltz]

ejrolon wrote:
This way a mistake not discovered until too late is easy to change.

I agree with you there. It's important that related tools like that should allow you some method of converting one viewport to another type. (though if a user creates an elevation instead of a section, I'm not going to feel too bad about their carelessness)

[Eduardo Rolon]

Tom,

Then I can argue that you voted wrongly since having the ability to change from one to another then means that they are not different tools but different categories, for the same tool.

[TomWaltz]

Not at all. You can change lines to polylines and polylines to lines. They are different tools for different purposes, but have the ability to change in case the situation changes.

[Link]

Hey Eduardo

During the beta I pushed to keep them all as one tool pretty hard, but to no avail. Must be a trainer thing hey? I think the whole toolbar could do with a lot of streamlining, combining all line and dimension tools, removing the wall end tool etc. There is nothing here that favorites can't handle.

BTW the last S is for Stupid....

Cheers,
Link.

[Anonymous]

TomWaltz wrote:

Now Worksheets vs. Details....

agree!!

and maybe Drawing vs.Image ?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Funny (but realistic) post, Eduardo! 🙂

I agree. I believe that GS wanted a clear distinction between default states, and automatic categorization in the Navigator. IMHO, there is really no reason that a single button/tool cannot do this and allow for conversion between categories.

A single button/tool with subcategories/modes could still retain the defaults for each subcategory...and if the user changes a section to an elevation, I don't see why the nav item cannot be automatically moved to the proper place.

Similarly, all of the buttons for the different kinds of line tools annoy me. Why is a circular wall a wall geometry, but a circle is a tool?

My 2 cents,
Karl

[TomWaltz]

I'd also be happier if sections, Interior elevations, and elevations had different GDL Glob_context values so you could make objects that acted differently in each view (like windows that turned on a structural header construction in sections but not elevations)