NX9 Toolbars 8

[TomMtz]

Hi friends
I have a few hours using NX9, the enviroment is awesome, but I need to ordenate my tool bars, Some one of you knows how can I add a new tool bars?
Thanks a lot for your comments.

Tom

NX 9.0 WINDOWS 8 ENTERPRISE

 

[JohnRBaker]

Simon, have you tried the new 'Minimize Ribbon' option (the '^' icon next to the Full Screen icon)? Granted, this does not free-up as much screen real estate as does the 'Full Screen' mode but it does make it easier to get at the various Ribbon and Resource Bar tools while still gaining additional graphic window space.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[capnhook]

Why was there an assumption that only one screen would ever be used, or am I assuming it was ever assumed.....

New interface looks like a big miss, even to an uneducated user.....

Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..

[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green]

 

[JohnRBaker]

Not sure what you mean when you state that there was an "assumption that only one screen would ever be used". How is it that you can't use NX with multiple screens? What exactly can you NOT do that you would like to do?

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[CAD2015]

How could I get rid of the text under the Toolbar feature labels?

MZ7DYJ

 

[JohnRBaker]

As has been explained before, the large icons found on the NX 9.0 ribbon bar itself will always include text. The NX ribbon is ONE large icon high so even if you COULD toggle OFF the text, there would not be sufficient space there for anything else, so we might as well leave the text on as it does help with 'discoverability', something for which modern User Interfaces are now being rated with respect to. Note that Small icons seen on the Ribbon itself can have text or not, but large icons will always have text. Of course, you could always replace the large icons w/text with a 'Gallery' which can have either small, medium or large icons, with or WITHOUT text. In that way you could still sort of "Have Your Cake (large icons) and Eat It Too (no added text)" as shown below:

A normal ribbon layout showing large icons w/text on the ribbon itself:

The same arrangement of icons only now as part of 'Gallery' created using the Customization tools where large icons can be sans text:

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[CAD2015]

Thanks!

MZ7DYJ

 

[moog2]

I think the assumption he's talking about, is the fact that for dual monitor set-ups, the ribbon bar is a major backward step, since screen real estate is not an issue, therefore quick access (old style) toolbars are much better and faster.

 

[capnhook]

Thanks for helping me clarify what I agree is a major backwards step, moog2.

The mantra at Siemens seems to be "Chaos is cash."


Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..

[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green]

 

[frankbe]

The ugly NX globe logo is going away...

Now some aesthetic cleanup of all the logo's wouldn't be a bad idea either. Look at all the different angled views, perspective, finishing and color use... What a mess from time to time. Take Apple as an example; they pixelpeep every icon they use. It will benefit for the everyday joy of use.

2x NX8.5.3.3 Mach Design
on win7 64bit
NX Beta Tester
1x Solid Edge ST2

 

[SiW979]

Hi John

I have found that, but it's the loss of the function of the ALT button to bring the menu to my cursor whilst being able to see each tab so I can quickly zip through with my scroll wheel that I find disapointing. There is plenty of screen space for me in normal mode, I have 2 giant monitors. I just find that I have lost efficiency and simplicity/clarity with the new interface. I even sent a presention to your team in Cypress upon request of Adrian Fraser because I had pounded his ears after copious amounts of red wine detailing how I would have like to see the interface develop, I have attached it here, think Apple scroll wheels.

Cheers

Si

Best regards

Simon NX 7.5.4.4 MP8 and NX 8.5 (native) - TC 8 www.jcb.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

First a general comment and then some new ideas that you can try today.

First off, our User Interface people have been following this and other threads on the various help sites, looking at the PR's/ER's coming in, as well as digesting what we learned during beta testing. That being said, I just spent some time looking at what's being done for NX 10.0 and it would appear that a large number of the issues that have recently been raised with respect to both the Ribbon interface in general and such things as improved access to functions when working in full-screen mode, are being addressed. This was what we had expected would happen, that it would take some real-world usage and feedback before we would learn what we needed to look at when our first real chance to make significant changes came around, which in this case will be NX 10.0, which will be available about this time next year.

Now during this session today I did learn a couple of things that may help when working with this new 'Minimized Ribbon' mode now in NX 9.0. For one thing, when I first suggested using the 'Minimize Ribbon' option it was pointed out to me that this was still not optimal, but I think I can help with that. While it is true that when the ribbon was visible and had focus, you could use the left/right arrows to move from ribbon tab to ribbon tab, and once a ribbon was open you could use the up/down arrows to move from function to function within the ribbon then selecting 'Enter' to launch that operation, meaning that you can get to most all of your ribbon functions without having to move your cursor at all, there was still the PROBLEM that you HAD to use your cursor to get the ribbon to expand and get focus in the frist place to where you COULD use the arrow keys to change ribbon tabs or select functions. Well, one of the things I learned today was that pressing the 'Alt' key (as long as the cursor was not being moved) will give focus to the current ribbon. When working in the normal mode, the current ribbon will simply be given focus and then you can use the arrow keys to navigate. And if you're in the 'Minimize Ribbon' mode, pressing 'Alt' will cause the ribbon to BOTH expand AND get focus. Again, this means that you don't really need to use your cursor to open and/or change ribbons, or for that matter, select functions. Also, when a ribbon has focus, either in node mode or when the ribbon has been minimized, you can also use the 'Mouse Wheel' to move from ribbon tab to ribbon tab. Again, this should speed up navigating through the functions without having to move your cursor, and as I've mentioned, there are other things planned for NX 10.0 so the exchange here on this thread has actually been very helpful going forward.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[loki3000]

has the efficiency of the modelling ui improved with the new version? compared to SE (or especially SW) i've found NX (and catia for that matter too) to be very cumbersome - more user unfriendly then swx for example and slow(er) to pick up usability changes...

 

[codigo3d]

I prefer old style, is much better and fast.

 

[SDETERS]

I have made a habit (from the Autocad days for me) of learning most of the commands VIA keyboard inputs. The commands do not change to much. This way it takes all of the clicking thru many different icons etc. out of the workflow. Most of the repetitvie commands "c" for constraints or "d" for infer dimensions I use all the time. My point is that I do not really notice if the user interface changes, all I care is that the commands get mapped to my shortcut keys from new NX release to new NX release. For new users the UI is what they see and use. So they will not know any thing but the new interface. Sometimes letting go of the same click click click habit, sequence, routines to do a task is a struggle for some users that use this software day in day out.

 

[helperug]

@loki3000,
catia + nx have a larger toolset to use - you might look for in sw + se
combersome still is switching master model in nx between 3d + drawing almost 2 more extra clicks each time.
Over the years ug is removed nx has gotten extremly powerfull



sorry new in NX
regards
Erwin

 

[loki3000]

true about the toolset (and stability with large models etc), but (imho) both NX and Catia still carry some baggage from previous versions, that solidworks (and se) do not.
that's just most obvious in the UI usability department.
at work i had swx 2008 and at home i had 2013 and the latter was leaps and bounds ahead from the former. i realize that that's more difficult when you have such a vast system as nx, but still...

 

[JohnRBaker]

...but (imho) both NX and Catia still carry some baggage from previous versions, that solidworks (and se) do not.

That's because UG/NX and Catia actually has "baggage" to carry as both products have been around, in one form or another, for better than twice as long as has either SolidWorks or Solid Edge even existed (I've personally been using UG/NX for over 36 years). And don't forget that SolidWorks and Solid Edge have ONLY ever had to run on Windows-based systems while both UG/NX and Catia have evolved over the years first from proprietary mainframe-based systems to UNIX to Windows and at least in the case of NX, still supports LINUX. And with that "baggage" comes responsibilities and customer obligations. For example, I carry with me a part file, complete with a J-size Drawing sheet, which was last saved in UG V9.1 back in 1993, years before SolidWorks or Solid Edge was even a wild idea in someone's mind and yet I can open that part file, without any sort of explicit conversion operation, in the latest version of NX (I just now tested this in NX 9.0.1.3 and it opened in seconds and all the data is still there as valid and accurate as it was 20 years ago). I've hung onto this file just to make that point if and when someone asks how far back does NX support legacy part files.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[helperug]

well maybe 9.01 changing something, btw something I don't like is the stagging of the tabs, should have a line feed-> look attached image.
regards

sorry new in NX
regards
Erwin

 

[JohnRBaker]

Exactly what screen resolution are you running or how small have you sized the NX window? It looks like you've scrunched the NX window so small that everything is being pushed together more than anyone assumed users would be running NX. I've done lots of demos on 1280 x 1024 displays (the max resolution of most projection systems), which is considered by many people to be the minimum acceptable display resolution, and I've never seen my tabs jammed together that tight.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[helperug]

it is not the screen resolution (1920x1200) it is when you resize the nx window to smaller size, or if have turned on many registers in the ribbon bar

sorry new in NX
regards
Erwin