New Ribbon interface, what do you think?

Hi people.

Was talking about the Connect interface with and old work mate from previous office.
Looks like both agree. Ribbon interface is a catastrophic decision.

Personally, I've really felt disconnected with Bentley's vision on how MS should evolve, I love MS, SS3 is like a Ferrari tunned for race so don´t think I'm here for Autodesk fanboyism.


I got into MS after Acad swtiched to Ribbon. I loved Bentley systems because its unique approach to engineering soft with supper serious and practical interfaces, super powerfull design environment, great 3d modelling tool, the keyboard shorcuts that allow you to super quickly change tools etc...


I could not believe Bentley would EVER switch to  Ribbon. I'm so dissapointed. What do you people think? you like it?.

Parents
  • Hi Everyone,

    Just jumping in to see if I can help explain the thinking behind our Ribbon implementation.

    The primary reason to adopt a Ribbon is that it's a familiar design pattern to standardize on.
    If we made 1 application, it would be a different situation, but when you look at a suite of products used together with a mix of Ribbon, Task, and Toolbox approaches - we needed to take a step to increase the common ground.

    A while back I emphasized that we didn't just "do a Ribbon". We added key enhancements which will only be defended once they prove themselves in production workflows.

    In fact, there's a key question I can ask to lead our discussion to explore this deeper...

    "Do you use shift+right click to access view tools?"
    (and yes I realize common view operations are directly mapped to the mouse)

    Best regards,

    Gino



  • Gino,

    I don't use shift+right click to access view tools but will start using it from now on! I'm not quite sure what KEN-T is on about when talking about the shortcut: Press Shift (1st action), right click (2nd), click Window Area tool (3rd) VS Press ESC button/home focus(1st action) press 4 - View tools(2nd), press 4 Window Area tool (3rd). Or am I missing something? 

    I would have to say that the CE ribbon is larger than other ribbons I'm used to, and does slightly take up more screen real-estate, but my main issue is it's responsiveness. It always seems to take a second between my clicks to access the tool and actually opening the tool.

    Best regards,

    Liam

    P.S microstation has been in need of an interface update for years but you're never going to please the anti ribbon clan, 

  • Element Selection default tool, individual and New options.
    1. click on something for a selection
    2. V8i: Hold down right mouse button and Isolate
    CE: Same thing but called DisplaySet Set or shift+RB and DisplaySet Set(D), conveniently close to the cursor, but requiring you to hold down the shift key.
    3. Doubleclik the mousewheel to fit view
    4. V8i: Hold down right mouse button and Isolate Clear
    CE: Same thing but called DisplaySet Clear (like Shift-RB in V8i) or shift+RB and DisplaySet Clear(C), conveniently close to the cursor as well, but again extra shift key.
    5. click on nothing to clear the selection

    I'd call it break even, and that's as good as "the Ribbon" gets, and that's a popup not the Ribbon itself.
  • Liam,

    Apologies, I was referring to the quantity of key action actions that Gino described in order to achieve window area for example instead of having the window area tool to hand, let's face it the window area tool is used day in day out, I note that you have described the same quantity of key strokes as Gino.

    I'm not anti ribbon, I am anti ribbon tab, anti hidden tools and anti tool icons spread horizontal, okay I must be anti-ribbon!! Some day I will get used to it but for now on a wide screen I get eye strain casting my eyes left and right to pick tools, picking the appropriate tab, switching from drawing mode to modelling, Task pane was highly concentrated in a compact area, with all modes close by, you could also park tool settings or properties below the Task pane .

    Yes and you are right the ribbon won't satisfy the anti-ribbon clan, but now that we have it, I for one don't like it.

    Regards

    Ken
  • Ken,
    I have to say I like this reply and respect your opinion! To be honest with you I think for a lot of long term MicroStation users, the only way to fix the ribbon is to get rid of it. There are also general issues with the ribbon that is stopping people like me from recommending this product to any of my clients. Mainly why I would like Bentley to focus on fixing the actual issues with the ribbon, rather than appease the anti-ribbon clan :)

    Best regards,
    Liam
  • Gino,
    1 make a selecton
    2 Click an icon that has "set displayset on;selview 1;displayset set selection;fit all;point ab;displayset clear;update view extended"

    done.

    Ivo Blaauw
    = = = = = = = = = = = = =
    Look what the CAD dragged in...

  • Thanks Koert (and others if you are following along :) ).

    Give the following sequence a try:

    1. Start the selection tool (I use QQ, but you could use any method) and click on a few elements
    2. Shift+Right Click
    3. D
    4. Shift+Right Click
    5. V
    6. Shift+Right Click
    7. C
    8. Reset, and click in an empty space to clear the selection set

    Note that the shortcut keys for anything in a ribbon group popup are shown in the tooltip. This allows people to either click on something, or look up the keystroke if its something they do often.

    Best regards,

    Gino



Reply
  • Thanks Koert (and others if you are following along :) ).

    Give the following sequence a try:

    1. Start the selection tool (I use QQ, but you could use any method) and click on a few elements
    2. Shift+Right Click
    3. D
    4. Shift+Right Click
    5. V
    6. Shift+Right Click
    7. C
    8. Reset, and click in an empty space to clear the selection set

    Note that the shortcut keys for anything in a ribbon group popup are shown in the tooltip. This allows people to either click on something, or look up the keystroke if its something they do often.

    Best regards,

    Gino



Children
  • I think I'm going to stay put with my two click solution from our customized GUI.

    Ivo Blaauw
    = = = = = = = = = = = = =
    Look what the CAD dragged in...

  • To me that's not an option for me, call me old fashioned, I remember the days when you had a good interface, good quality icons and you picked the tool and used it, with the focus on design and draughting. I note with Connect edition a new term was introduced called 'Discoverable', as a draughtsman I don't want to happen upon a tool or do some arthritic keyboard combo, I want it in front of my face, I'm a designer not Rick Wakeman.

    Another thing while I'm having a rant, We have large icons (mostly fixed), we have small icons with a text descriptor which is considered medium and small icons, Since we are stuck with the ribbon, a lot more flexibility in the layout is required, I would like to see proper legible medium sized icon as the small icons are just eye strain if you are using a high res. monitor (2560 X 1440).

    Regards Ken
  • Gino,

    I tried it and found it quite "against my hand" if that means anything.
    1. QQ is QA for me on AZERTY, maybe that will be fixed in update 1. I could change it manually as well.
    2. press and hold down shift and right click
    3. press d
    4. press and hold down shift and right click
    5. press v
    6. press and hold down shift and right click
    7. press c
    8. deselect

    If you have your hands set to do just that sequence, you can do that quite fast.
    If you have to look at your keyboard, then the screen to see what key to tap, then the keyboard again and so on it's really not worth it. I'm not in the habit of using the keyboard for view controls anyway (I hide those in PM) and clicking the button that's within half an inch of your cursor was just easier than going back and forth from screen to keyboard.

    With PM in panel mode, I just look at the panel on the screen and see the keys I have to tap 74, Q3, whatever. Then keyboard and I'm in the command.
    With these popups I'm looking back in forth from screen to keyboard, screen again, keyboard again.
    PM Panel mode is also a lot easier to read, vertical, horizontal, 1, 2.
    Popups are zig-zag, hard to read and the popups themselves are quite unresponsive at times.

    With my solution I look for the shift key once, and the rest is on the screen. If I practiced that sequence I'd get faster, then again if I needed to do that a lot Ivo's solution would be the way to go with an additional ";choose none" because I'm just that lazy at times.

  • As you all probably know I don't like the ribbon as it is just not productive. Could never use it is a production environment. Tasks and PM work just fine and are a lot quicker and allow you to access tools a lot easier.

    Also as noted above the icon sizes are just plain weird. Too big and too small. I noticed this at EAP stage, along with a number of others, which was obviously ignored!!
  • I agree on the ribbon icons. In EAP 3 Gino posted this "Advanced Ribbon".
    communities.bentley.com/.../319769

    I really think this should be the standard ribbon instead of the current one with the different sized icons.

    Rod Wing
    Senior Systems Analyst