I’m equally excited and terrified that you decided to do something about workspaces. Before I found some time to see what functional problems you have addressed, I want to bring this to your attention. This might seem trivial to you, but trust me, it’s not:
Look at the difference between V7 and V8 on padding & toolbar expansion arrows:
also floating toolbars got so fat, look what happens when I drop a toolbar on the screen, it fills with a gazillion square pixels all around, with title inside a title?
My first impression of the new UI was that it is more space consuming than V7.
I can’t, for instance, have a command bar squeezed to one line only. Something always is on the top of it:
It’s irritating to look at.
Thanks for pointing this out. Not that small, I didn’t want to go into the pixel-level feedback since it has obviously not been designed yet. Clearly a very rough prototype created by a non-visual programmer.
I just wanted to point out early all the out-of-bound behavior. V8 needs to be a visual improvement from V7 and this current work hints otherwise.
Another major regression with the new vertical-only tabs on panels: AFAIK they can only be places on the very far edge of the screen, right edge on this case, which adds some tremendously long commutes to my constant mouse travel. compared to having them on top, or even vertical, but letting put them on the left edge.
I just came to v8 WIP to check a couple of new features and I’m still shocked about this updated UI non-sense.
Any plans to slim down this new fat UI? There’s so much padding everywhere. I tried to use the WIP today at home on my laptop ( small 15" 4K display) and I have no room to work:
Also, this new scaling approach makes no sense, compared to the old one (video of new V8 WIP scaling vs V7):
One last thing: the vertical tabs: it’s a non-starter. Please bring back at least the option to have horizontal tabs. EDIT: I see now horizontal tabs are a right-click option, thanks!!
V8 is a massive port of UI stuff to Eto, as I have understood it, to make Rhino more crossplatforn identical. But so far I also dislike the looks of it and am worried that these prototypes eventually end up in the release version,because at some time McNeel will run out of time and need to get V8 out of the door. I’m sure the UI is not going to stop this, since Metal for Mac is the leading factor.
I wonder if Eto has enough graphical tools to be able to address all the issues. The ‘little issue’ pointed out by @PowerShape to me is a huge issue. Also the four dots on all toolbars are for me a huge distraction.
It would be reassuring if the visual aspects of the UI get addressed regularly in upcoming updates and not be considered minor while we move towards the point of a release candidate.
I understand that McNeel is not very sophisticated when it comes to visual design and UX, and I can live with that. I can live with ‘good enough’ when there are so many other reasons to use Rhino that make it worthwhile.
However, the regressions I’m seeing now in V8 are not something I can live with. And I’m not sure they realize how bad and serious this is for those of us who work extensively using their software. This worries me.
@gustojunk what resolution do you have running in your initial screenshot? You seem to have cut of left of the toolbar, I seem to have redundant padding instead:
as for the issues regarding UI: I will make sure to mix myself into the discussions internally, because I find this a very important aspect of the whole user experience.
I like the vertical tabs but there needs to be an option on which side to dock them. Having them forced to the outside of the viewport means there is extra mouse travel required to access them. In V7 I have the UI configured for minimal travel to access pretty much everything.