Not a ribbon hater, just a hater of PTC's 'half-fast' implementation of
it.
Biggest gripe is that the ribbon goes partially back to the
action-object model. Weren't we going down the object-action road?
In WF5, (in drawing) you can right-click an object (a view, a dimension,
the contents of a table) and the right-click menu comes with different
options depending on which ribbon-tab you have checked. For a newer
user to the interface (all of us) this is a disaster. After a while
(just like shock therapy) you learn to click the ribbon tab first before
you right click on an object in order to get the needed menu options
presented.
You also need to be in the right mode(tab) to be able to select certain
objects (but not all). You can select views and lock/unlock, and move
them while in Annotate mode(tab), but you cannot select dimensions in
Layout mode(tab), even just to move them.
You don't have these problems / issues in other 'ribbon' interface
applications. Most notably MS Office apps (PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook,
etc...). For example, the ribbon quite cleverly separates the functions
into general (task based) ribbon functions and immediate right click
functions.
When selecting an existing text box in a PowerPoint slide you are
immediately shown the 'handles' for manipulating the location and size
of the text box. If the current ribbon is 'Home' the values for text
font, size, and style, are indicated.
Right clicking on the box frame brings up options for the frame like
'bring to front' or 'send to back'. These options are also shown in the
'Format' tab, but you are NOT made to activate that tab before using
those options. Pretty good object-action implementation.
WF4 was pretty good at the object-action methodology. You could do
almost anything in drawing by using the right-click menus. If I
remember, there were problems with redefine being right before/after
delete, and the list order of options changing depending on conditions,
but OK overall.
The WF5 drawing ribbon interface will seem very uneven for anyone who
has experience with MS Office 'ribbon' apps. The rest of the software
(part, assembly, etc... modes) still make OK use of the right-click menu
and the object-action methodology.
There are some modeling improvements in WF 5 that are worth looking into
though.
Thank <insert deity=" here="> the whole interface isn't 'ribbonized' yet.
Christopher F. Gosnell
FPD Company
124 Hidden Valley Road
McMurray, PA 15317
