Point and Click Enhancements

[DylanBryant]

This is going to be an ongoing list of improvements/changes/ideas I have for the point and click side of the modelling app.

Higher Priority (Not Industry Standard):

• [ ] "Snap to" other points/axis/lines/tangencies/etc. if you hover over them in a sketch.

  • By default, SolidWorks/CATIA/3DX and other CAD software snap to other sketch geometry. It requires a key press (shift, ctrl, or alt) to enable free movement.
  • Adjacent to this, those CAD software also have a key press that allows you to be locked into the constraint that you hovered over. For example, as you go to draw the 4th, 5th, etc. line in a sketch and end up hovering over a perpendicularity to your first line, you can press ctrl to hold onto that constraint and no matter where you take the curser, it will keep the line perpendicular, just changing in length.

• [ ] Sketches should not automatically close themselves

  • Sometimes you'll want to make an open sketch (Sweeps/cuts/construction geometry). Maybe even just to draw some reference geometry that you're going to delete later.
  • Once you close a profile in sketch mode, Modelling App currently blocks you from using the line command again unless you delete all sketch geometry.

• [ ] Linked with the previous idea: The user should be allowed to choose the start point of their sketch geometry.

  • Once a line is drawn in Zoo, you get locked into your next line beginning from the previous endpoint. Requires a lot of working around to draw like normal. CATIA has a separate command called "profile" that locks you into the previous endpoint when sketching continuous geometry.

• [ ] Right clicking any geometry/feature to show a list of options

  • When you right click a line it should show list of options like "delete", "construction geometry", "dimension", "constrain", "lock", etc. It helps users figure out what they can and can't do. Similar to the 3 dots that that are in modelling app right now, just expanding upon that.
  • Adjacent to this, CATIA has small prompts that display in the lower left of the screen whenever a command is initiated. For example, if you start a 3 point arc with endpoints it will prompt "Select first point or arc", after selecting that point it will prompt "select endpoint of arc", then it will prompt you to select the midpoint. Again, it's to help users figure out what to do.

Medium Priority (Also Not Industry Standard):

• [ ] Left click + drag to highlight sketch geometry within a box

  • Being able to multi-select geometry without having to ctrl + click is an important thing imo. Dragging from the top down to the bottom should select all items fully contained in the box. Dragging from the bottom to top should select all items the box contains or intersects. (If I remember right, that's how SolidWorks has it set up and I miss that in CATIA)
  • CATIA has an entire toolbar dedicated to different ways to multi select. One of them being a unique way where you drag and draw a path with your curser and everything you cross over gets selected (Not the go-to method for most but it allows a lot of freedom) Not the one I would rush to add, just for context.

• [ ] Click the delete key to remove sketch geometry

  • Rather than needing to right click or click 3 dots, this makes sketching much faster.

• [ ] Double click to edit any geometry

  • When in sketch mode, double clicking a dimension should allow you to input a new one.
  • With 3D geometry, double clicking should open the same dialogue box from when you first created the extrusion, revolve, loft, chamfer, draft, etc. so you can change it.

Other Decently Important Things:

• [ ] When opening a project, the default view should be an isometric view so that all 3 planes are visible.

  • Right now you have to rotate to start a sketch on the YZ plane.

• [ ] Grids at different scales should be nested within each other, rather than resetting when the scale changes.

  • Planes should probably just stay the same size on the screen regardless of zoom

• [ ] Click and drag a line to reposition it.

  • Currently, modelling app lets you click and drag to move the endpoint of a line (Changing orientation and length). Usually, CAD software let you click and drag the line to move both the start point and endpoint of an unconstrained line (Keeps the line's orientation and length). Separately, they let you click and drag the start or endpoints to move just those.

Lower Priority (Some are just my ideas)

• [ ] Hover the curser over an equation in the KCL Code and see the solution display.

  • Other CAD software have the reverse, where you first see the end value, but if you open the dialogue box it displays the equation used to find that number. I think Zoo has a cool opportunity to have the same functionality, but in a more unique way given the code-driven nature of the software.

• [ ] When sketching a profile, click and drag from the current line's start point to have it change the new line you are about to create to a tangent arc.

  • CATIA has this quick shortcut. It's nice and convenient.

• [ ] #4492

  • As much as I do think the KittyCAD controls are better, there will still be a lot of people who are used to clicking the scroll wheel to rotate, zoom, and pan from CATIA.

[DylanBryant]

Hope this helps! If any of these are duplicates or already in work, feel free to mark them off