Whenever a new version of Solid Edge is released, there is always a multitude of new/enhanced features and I’m usually asked by someone what my favorite one is. You cannot imagine how hard that is to answer when your looking at hundreds of potential favorites in a given release. Usually though, I find that it is the simple little things that seem to be my favorite.
In ST7, I would have to say my favorite new feature is the Quick View Cube.
This control sits in the lower right corner of the graphics area and will turn translucent when not in focus of the mouse, however when the mouse is in close proximity it will solidify and the individual control points will become visible. The Quick View Cubes purpose is to give the user quick access and transitional control to common orthographic and isometric views with a single click of the mouse. Now this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I have watched many a user rotate a model with either a 3D Connexion device or mouse and then invoke the Common Views control which would automatically set the model square to the world using the nearest orthographic view and then close the command. Now, they can either rotate the model with the Quick View Cube, or get it close and square it up with a single click. Other benefits is that it has the common views printed right on it’s faces and since it always oriented in relation to the model’s orientation, it’s easy to know what common view shortcut command you want to use rather than assuming your picking the right one and finding out after it rotates to the wrong face that you should have used another.
The Quick View Cube has a few setting that can control appearance attributes like whether it is shown at all, size, which corner it is in, color, opacity level, or triad display. These setting can be accessed by right mouse clicking on the control and selecting “Settings”.
So like I said, it’s the little simple things that I seem to be my favorite because they take something that is seemingly mature and add a new twist to it, which ends up yielding a huge user benefit.
In ST7, I would have to say my favorite new feature is the Quick View Cube.
This control sits in the lower right corner of the graphics area and will turn translucent when not in focus of the mouse, however when the mouse is in close proximity it will solidify and the individual control points will become visible. The Quick View Cubes purpose is to give the user quick access and transitional control to common orthographic and isometric views with a single click of the mouse. Now this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I have watched many a user rotate a model with either a 3D Connexion device or mouse and then invoke the Common Views control which would automatically set the model square to the world using the nearest orthographic view and then close the command. Now, they can either rotate the model with the Quick View Cube, or get it close and square it up with a single click. Other benefits is that it has the common views printed right on it’s faces and since it always oriented in relation to the model’s orientation, it’s easy to know what common view shortcut command you want to use rather than assuming your picking the right one and finding out after it rotates to the wrong face that you should have used another.
The Quick View Cube has a few setting that can control appearance attributes like whether it is shown at all, size, which corner it is in, color, opacity level, or triad display. These setting can be accessed by right mouse clicking on the control and selecting “Settings”.
So like I said, it’s the little simple things that I seem to be my favorite because they take something that is seemingly mature and add a new twist to it, which ends up yielding a huge user benefit.
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