dimension palette fiasco
February 11, 2010 15 Comments
The Story
This year I did an internal what’s new in SolidWorks 2010 rollout for the users at the company I work at. One of the features I was really excited to show off was the new dimension palette because I saw a ton of potential with this new addition. When I got around to the drawings portion of my “show” and the dimension palette popped up there was a room full of ooh’s and ahh’s. They all seemed to like it as well as I did, but then the wheels fell off…they started making drawings in production.
The Problem
It seemed as if the palette would appear in the exact locations that you would not want it to and it supposedly became more of an annoyance than what it was worth.
The Solution
Well, a co-worker of mine tipped me off on to a SolidWorks Forums thread that has a solution to turn off the dimension palette. So here is what you need to do (straight from Jim “Wilkie” Wilkinson of SolidWorks Corp.).
- Make sure SolidWorks is not running
- Double click the desired registry file (“off” to disable or “on” to enable)
- Click Yes and then OK to the messages to load the setting into the registry
- Start up SolidWorks
So here are the registry files you will need to do this process. Download them to your desktop in order to run them.
Take note that these registry files are straight from Wilkie, all that I did was download them and then upload them to my file sharing site. You can find the same files in the thread linked above.
My $0.02
I think this is a copt-out. As with many new features in the software, some time is required using it in order to see the full benefits of it. I heard similar rumblings before and after 6 months of use or so I hear comments like “I really like this feature now” or “I can’t believe how I worked before this was available”. I like the fact that SolidWorks is listening to its users and coming up with work-arounds for issues like this but WHERE do they stop once this door has been open?
In each release of the software will we expect every new feature to have a on/off switch? I ask this because for every new feature there is someone out there that doesn’t like change and is unwilling to “get used to it” and see the benefits. Now I can see possibly adding something to the following major release of the software if the dislike continues but somewhere a line needs to be drawn. Are you, as a user, willing to get bloated software because SolidWorks needs to write code for an on/off switch for everything. I, for one, am not.
RANT OVER!!!
I accept no responsibility for an problems you may occur when making changes to your registry. Use at your OWN risk!
Great post Jason.
1. They need to test their software better, prior to release.
2. Sometimes it seems like they just add new features just so they can mke the claim something is “new!”.
Devon
hey devon, i would agree on both of your points but this isn’t necessarily a crashing or testing problem, its a user preference problem and thats where i question where do you stop.
the ones that usually cause a stink are the ones that REFUSE to beta test and give feedback.
i like the thought behind this feature. less mouse movements to the property manager and you can stay close to your drawing view.
2011 beta will be out soon. You will be happy
ha ha. thanks rob!
Hey Jason-
RE:”It seemed as if the palette would appear in the exact locations that you would not want it to and it supposedly became more of an annoyance than what it was worth.”
In my opinion, proper testing would have eliminated this bug.
Devon
hey devon,
sorry it took me so long to respond back to you. i would agree with you but i would think that this testing would come from beta users, not necessarily solidworks testing. i think both may be to blame for this.
i heard rumors that this is going to be changing soon. we will see what happens!
hi jason. in general, i like all things which minimize mouse movement (so i only use the S shortcut for the whole GUI and deactivate all other icons) but the new dim palette makes me crazy. i´m not an end user, but make SWX demos, and i click too fast … everytime i select a dim just to highlight it or move it a little or so, the dim palette pops on and off and flickers around. unfortunately, your reg files to deactivate the dim palette don´t work at my machine. i´m still using SP0 (too less time to update) and maybe this reg settings work with a newer SP ??
hi ulrich,
the registry files will only work with sp2.1 i was told. sorry, i should have stated that in my original post.
Jason, didn’t know you covered this. I’m posting my take on this Monday. I agree with you on most of these points.
I replied to the post at fcsuper.com, so I should reply here as well.
First, let me say that those who say that we (SolidWorks) should have caught the problems with the Dimension Palette before it was released in SolidWorks 2010 are absolutely right. I’ll go further and say that, as Manager of User Experience Design at SolidWorks, I’m responsible. My team should have discovered the usability problems with the Dimension Palette, and we should have ensured that they were fixed before it was released. Our review and usability testing program let you, our users, down.
As has already pointed out, we have released a temporary registry workaround in the SolidWorks Forums (and available right here on Rocksolid Perspective too – look over there to the right for the .reg files!). This will completely disable the Dimension Palette. In addition, as Rob Rodriguez has alluded to in his comment, we have a longer term fix. I’m happy to say that the changes we have made to the Dimension Palette will be in the next service pack. These changes eliminate the problem of it popping up in your way all the time. The Dimension Palette becomes much more of an “on demand” tool rather than “always there.”
Finally, let me give a pitch for our usability testing program. In addition to the more traditional beta testing, we constantly run smaller, more focused usability tests on features under development. Typically, these take an hour or less, and they can be conducted right from your office – we use the phone, and web conferencing software. Often, we will run development builds of the software here on our local machines, but give you mouse and keyboard input so that you can have “hands on” experience, and tell us directly what you like, and what you don’t like. We run these sessions all year around. One of the best ways to ensure that nothing like the “dimension palette fiasco” (Jason’s words) ever happens again is YOUR PARTICIPATION. Do you have time to spend a half-hour or an hour, maybe once or twice a year, giving us direct feedback on features under development? Want to give us input even BEFORE beta? That’s the purpose of the usability testing program. If you go to http://www.solidworks.com/usability you will find a link to a short survey for signing up.
Tom Spine
Manager, User Experience Design
DS SolidWorks Corp.
Consider that the user already has a very fast solution to dimensioning and tolerancing and has no need for pallets or yellow and blue balloons popping up and getting in the way. I have spent most of the day waving my mouse and hitting the escape key attempting to detail drawings.
Maybe the settings in tools options are fine for all this user does. This user never needs to see this pallet at all. When programers add unnessary things (would not call this a feature) yes the software does get bloated. But if they do they must give the users the choice to turn it off. Especially when it interupts the users rutine, takes up screen space, and exicutes something that the user did not tell it to do when the command is issued to the software. Also in general people do not like to be forced or told what to do with no other option. This will make users very unhappy and drive customers away and to software that give them a choice.
“In each release of the software will we expect every new feature to have a on/off switch? I ask this because for every new feature there is someone out there that doesn’t like change and is unwilling to “get used to it” and see the benefits. Now I can see possibly adding something to the following major release of the software if the dislike continues but somewhere a line needs to be drawn.”
When anything interferes with drawings it is a bad idea and should have on and off options. I am willing to tolerate large installation files. Gigabytes are cheap. When software controls what must remain an engineer’s (or drafter’s) choice CAD software has failed. The new drawing “enhancements” in SW 2010 are terrible. We are forced on the mercy of what a software designer has assumed for us. While it made sense for marketing directors it makes zero sense to a drafter. Save the bells and whistles for the design environment. NOT the detailing environment. A clean uncluttered drawing demands clean and uncluttered work environments and that includes the SW drawing environment. If you treat the drawing like a manual hand drawn paper drawing just imagine everywhere you want to move your pencil someone has placed a stickynote where you want to draw your next line. Even when you take away one stickynote someone is behind you to place another one on your drawing. The solution is not to “get use to it” but to take away the pad of stickynotes.
They do need to test their software better. Is the beta release 100% compatible with the production release? If so I would have no problem testing it. I was always told in the past that it is not. The line needs to be drawn for sure when it is broken and this is broken. The sticky note analogy is a good one. If it is such a good idea why don’t they do the same thing with the measure command. Have the box follow your mouse around so that you can’t select anything to measure. I would also like to remind everyone most people have two hands. A good portion of the commands can be programed to the keyboard for one hand. This this means that the mouse is free to do what only the mouse can do. Select. Combinding the two is the fastest way to get work done.
Pingback: solidworks 2d editor…what you need to know « rocksolid perspective – jason raak
Pingback: dimension palette fiasco – update! « rocksolid perspective – jason raak