bugs and 
needed features. Gathered through use and abuse by myself and those around me. Everything is visual and edited in place, lots of handles and sliders (with numbers nearby). No boxes or lists of figures are needed, but they are always available. Snaping sliders would be nice, being able to snap to visual elements, preset percentage points, grid units, etc. Redo! More undos and undos that don't disappear. Rather than undo and redo aow about a continuous history of what was done that can be scrolled through to aby point and then changes can be inserted, copied, pasted and new directions can be taken. Ability to abort any action that takes more than a millisecond. Something equivalent to Unix, CP/M and DOS's Ctrl-C or MacOS's Command-Period or VM's PA1. Priority items: Edit sketch (cancel sketching without making any changes). Changing to any of the hidden line view modes should be interuptable by clicking on another view type or hitting the abort key whatever that might be. Feature creation when something takes too long it would be nice to cancel and get to try a different setting. ALL windows should be resizable. NO modal dialogue windows-create a message/query queue window or toolbar that can be scrolled. Can't access custom views via the toolbar Standard keyboard shortcuts for ALL tool, features and functions. Entering a negative value should always automatically acts like the reverse direction check box. A way to reverse all types of dimension's direction's (distance, radius (of arcs)...). Perhaps allowing negative values and/or adding a reverse direction checkbox. Dimensions palette that holds numbers that can be reused throughout the project (example: a wall thickness entry could be dropped in whenever a dimension should match the wall thickness). Relative parametric modeling: Everything is relative to existing geometry or palette dimensions by percentages or ratios. Equations are too awkward and lack an intuitive/visual feel. Toggle button on tool bar for auto relations. Wireframe/Hidden Line/Shaded selectable by component. Quick wireframe mode (without generated visual edges). Viewpoints from inside an object. Right clicking on a sketch in the 3d window should always the option to hide the sketch. Right clicking on a component in the 3d window while editing another component in an assembly should have the option to hide the component. Assemblies should auto collapse their exploded views when saving, or all relations should be suspended while the exploded view is in effect or the relations should act as if they were taking place in the collapsed state of the assembly. Currently an assemble saved exploded can cause rebuild errors across multi-assembly projects and sometimes within the same assemble when it is reopened. Make part/assembly file relationships easier to manage. It is very confusing to try to reattach a file to an assembly or to rename an assembly. Recommendation: Be able to rename a file in the feature manager tree. Recommendation: Add a file relation manager thing that allows files interfile relationships to be seen and edited. Recommendation: Use an file system with file-ids so that renaming doesn't break the link to the file. Would like to be able to automatically put the name of the part file into the filename of the drawing file, either through copy/paste or an insert name button or as the default name that comes in the save box. Redo for previous view so you can travel forward and backward through a series of views. Delete should not clear the current tool. Make everything consistent; if it works one place, it should work everywhere else. When a sub-assembly contains configured components and is loaded lightweight; if the assembly is set to resolved, the configured components change to in-use rather than their set configuration. To get around this, the sub-assembly has to be set to resolved before the assembly is set to resolved. Need to be able to lock the palettes and the preferences. Primary/secondary unit selection box in the dimension entry box to allow quick temporary jumps to the alternate units. Hide all. Hide all sketches. Hide all planes... Show all. Show all sketches. Show all planes... When a window is resized to a small size and the toobars shift around to stay in the window; they should return to their original positions when the window is once again resized to a larger size. Or the tool bars should not scoot about when the window is resized, but then the toobars need to be accessed by scrolling them or something else, so the first option is preferred. Change a dimensions value by double clicking on it with the dimension tool. Create minimum and maximum arc dimensions with the dimension tool. Cancel edit sketch and return to state before the sketch began without rebuilding penalties. Create tangents to spline bodies, lines and endpoints. Choose what object a tangent arc is tangent to. Visual representation (like dimensions have) of all relations in sketches that allow manipulation and deletion. Perhaps they could be set to appear when the mouse rolls over the object (perhaps the dimensions could be set to do the same). Create an offset from elements within a sketch Need an option to automatically make dimensions driving when creating drawings or sketches without having to answer all those annoying modal dialogue boxes. Drawing an object, a tangent arc or a line, should show and relate to tangents for all lines/arcs from starting point, not just one. The temporary axii are often unpickable - WHY!?!?!?! Should be able to extend an arc into a full circle. Need a tool to project a 3d curve on to a plane by rotating it about an axis. Creation
Create loft end sections that the loft ends tangent too. This would allow lofts to have smooth ends. It could also be achieved with a dome tool with edge tangency, but this wouldn't be a complete replacement. (Can be done in some simple situations with a closed loft.)
Create loft end sections that have a set angle of approach. Normal to section allows for 90 degrees, but what about 45 degrees or 0 degrees or anything in between. Keep a specified line normal to a surface for a sweep on a projected curve.
Shell option to consume small features rather than fail, or be able to choose areas/surfaces not to shell. Fillet/round option to consume small features (~face blend is okay; it works sometimes). Fillet/round option to follow and edge but only maintain tangency to one surface.
Scale features command that changes the actual dimensions and shapes of all features in a part or assembly or parts. Cannot change flip side to cut with cut both directions checked in an open contour cut - to flip, uncheck the cut both directions, change the flip side to cut and then recheck the cut both directions. Up to surface from a sketch in one part to a surface in another part fails. Up to surface with a tightly curved surface often creates unpredicatable geometry. Checkbox in insert part new/from file to set the orgin to the assembly orgin. When creating a fillet it would be nice to be able to tell what the maximum/minimum radius can be rather than having to try over and over until it is found. See and reorder the real positions of sketches that have been incorporated into features. Perhaps there could be a flattened viewing mode of the feature tree or link lines that show the connection of features to sketches in their true order. Need to be able to reset the auto/hide show state after hide or show is choosen for absorbed steches; when deleting or editing a sketch in a feature, the sketches should automatically show. Icons need to indicate their hide/show state, similar to lightweight or suppressed features. Editable material palette to allow multiple parts to be easily colored similarly and changed quickly. Proper refraction through complex/hollow "glass" objects. Simpler light adjustments for position and direction. Perhaps little spheres with icons on them that are rotated by dragging on them. | © | Greg Mote |
| Chaos:Control |