Allow the status bar to be moved to the top of the Creo Parametric window

[dhermosillo]

The ribbon is bad enough, but (sorry, that was a personal judgement) now I have to go searching the screen for notifications too?!

Notifications are important to working efficiently, especially when models can fail to save.  Currently, the only place such errors show up is in the status bar.

Please allow the status bar to be moved to the top of the window like in earlier WF versions.

[kerzen]

Please alov it to the top. I don't know who at PTC Is responsible for ergonomics. Probably he is not frequent user of creo parametric! When you work a lot it is importand that notification is near to command that you don't need to look over the whole screen. Did you guys noticed that before we had 4:3 monitors they put falling menues at right side of screen so working area was small. Now we have 16:9 or 16 :10 monitors they put the ribbon on the top and we have small screen again. Maybe the god idea is to alov the ribbon to be on left or right side to have bigger or let say more useful workin area. And smart selection bar should be at the top too. And one thing i noticed i we installed counter for mouse clicks and there is 12% more clicks at creo than wildfire 5.

Best Regards

Klemen

[KenL.Nunn]

I skipped Creo 1 & installed Creo 2, so coming from WF5/Creo. To ensure I did not "corrupt" this new era with any of my old (very old - some from Rev 7) configs, GUIs, and mapkey ... I started from a clean sheet.

After changing the backgound, my very next desire was to move the message/status window to the top as was the option in WF5 & prior. When I couldn't find the option, a quick note to my VAR to ask how and was told it was not possible.

Horror!

So now my eyes have to bounce around the screen like a kangaroo on crack. I can't believe that such an oversight (pun intended) could be made during the development of what is touted as being, and should be, the bechmark of CAE systems.

PLEASE PTC - give us back the option.

Ken.

[DHLewis]

Just allow everything to be moved around in the user config.  Like also moving the dashboard to the bottom instead of the top.

[LawrenceS]

Yes it should be customizable in the config file.  The option to put on the side of the screen might be useful for users with widescreen monitors.

I don't care much where the notification bar is, but I cannot stand the feature window opening up and covering the model tree preventing me from seeing and selecting features (like datums!!!) near the top. Grrrr.  Thankfully I can still customize this and put this at the bottom of the screen.

Lawrence

[STEVEG]

I'll bet you that they will remove allowing you to customize that in Creo 3. 

[LawrenceS]

Although PTC's track record of removing features and the ability to customize is not good for new releases, the purpose is to have more good features and add more customization without removing the good!

The needs of different companies are so diverse I don't think any CAD software company can meet the needs of all of them without creating their product to be highly customizable by the customer & users in a user friendly way.

Formula for disgruntled customers (we especially noticed this in our latest migration from PDMLink9.1-PDMLink>10.0):

         (Adding Good features)+(Removing good features) = (Net gain of ~0 +/- a little)

Alternatively, formula for happy/elated customers:

         (Adding Good features)+(Keeping good features) = (great overall improvement!)

(Although it should be avoided new software will inevitably bring new bugs; the improvements must significantly outweigh the new bugs or this cannot be considered progress.)

[dhermosillo]

We are switching the whole company to Creo 2.0 and this issue is becoming a real hinderance because people miss the warning when something doesn't save.

PTC, fix it!

[bduncan]

PTC, fix it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dhermosillo]

To: Creo Parametric Product Manager,

Can we get a status, update, or estimate on this?

Is anyone at PTC even reading these?

[bduncan]

The way of PTC make us so sad

[dhermosillo]

I just found another bug in Creo P2 that PTC refuses to acknowledge is a bug.  When in assembly mode, if you select the assembly constraint and then pick the Find tool (binoculars) from either Tools > Find or from the quick access toolbar, the results in the find window are not filtered for the component constraints as they were in all previous versions of Pro/E.  The reason given is that the focus is changing due to the ribbon changing (another reason to kill the ribbon).  PTC's solution was to add the find tool to the message bar.  However, since it is as far away from the constraints as possible, no one ever notices it there.  Moving the message bar to the top of the screen would make this invaluable tool more noticeable and reduce the mouse travel required for routine operations.

[bduncan]

Will you show me with a picture?

[dhermosillo]

[STEVEG]

Why the heck would three people vote to not allow the user the option to move the status bar?

[BenLoosli]

Maybe they see more value added if PTC spent the resources on fixing bugs or other enhancements that are needed.

This is a nicety enhancement, not a required one or a bug fix.

[dhermosillo]

That's what I was wondering too.  Bizarre.

[dhermosillo]

People are losing work because of the poor layout; I'd consider that a required fix not a "nicety".

[dhermosillo]

Here's one for the wide aspect issue:

Creo needs to take advantage of wide aspect displays

[STEVEG]

Domingo,

I would uncross out the comment "The ribbon is bad enough, but".  I've been on MS Office for about 3 or 4 years now and I still hate it.

[dhermosillo]

Agreed, but it's obvious that PTC is dedicated to aping MS whether it's better for its users or not; so, I'm trying to live with it.

Interestingly, one thing I found when I started using Open Office, instead of MS office, was that the previous toolbars, with all of the buttons displayed, were almost as horrible an interface as the ribbon.  The one thing that made them better was that they were always visible and always in  the same place.  This allowed the user's innate ability for spacial recognition to learn where the buttons are and find them quickly.  What I also realized was that the quick access toolbars I had created in MS office, and Creo, were much more useful than either the ribbon or the old style toolbars.

I've created a series of quick access toolbars in all of the modes in Creo that have all the same buttons, so they never change position, no matter what mode the user is in.  This has 90% of the features I use and eliminates the 2 to 3 seconds of staring at the ribbon every time I need to use a command, that is right there in front of me, but that I can't see because of spacial disorientation or the awful mixture of different sizes of fonts and icons.

With the commands on the quick access toolbar and mapkeys, I only need the ribbon for infrequent tasks.

[STEVEG]

But you still have to spend the time figuring it out.  Then redo it for every version of Creo from now on.

I understand what you are saying.  One of my users created a tab in Creo 2 that has many of the commands our users use.

I also created my own tab in my Word and Excel programs that has most of what I need to do.  But it's still a pain.

[LawrenceS]

Domingo,

Taking up where Steve left off, one advantage to a created tab is that you can select anything and don't need to know what tab you are on in order to just select something!  This is a HUGE added advantage to creating a tab, and not just using the quick access bar commands!

I might get beaten for saying so, but I do find it easier to find new commands in the ribbon style than in the menu...especially with the command search (which would be awesome in any interface).  Also, now that I have a touch screen at home, I find that the ribbon interface is more touch friendly than the menu interface.  However I was disappointed to find out that MS ribbon is not nearly customizable as the Creo one, and I cannot change the size of commonly used commands, yet I can on Creo.

[dhermosillo]

Good point about not having to recreate the tab in each mode.  I'll have to try that out and see how it works.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[dhermosillo]

Hmm.  Already running into issues.  With the commands in the ribbon, you lose access to them when you have to use another tab.  For instance, in assembly mode, I have layers and find positioned so that the assembly constraints menu does not cover them (my quick access toolbar is below the ribbon).  While I am assembling components, I have access to layers and find without having to switch tabs.  When a custom ribbon is used, the user has to switch back and forth in tabs again to access assembly constraints and then to access layers and find (these are huge assemblies we're dealing with).  Also, the ribbon allows stacking of icons, but has no borders or dividers, other than groups.  This causes the users eye to have to wander and find icons, the same basic issue the ribbon has always suffered from.  I'll continue to try to use the custom ribbon, a little more to see if I get used to it, but the access and spacial recognition issues are pretty key to why it was a bad idea in the first place.

[LawrenceS]

Domingo,

Yes, if a command you need is not on the specialized tab, then yes you have to change tabs.  This is more palatable to me when I remember that when there were menus, we were constantly changing between the menus which I see as fairly equivalent to the tabs. ProE did have toolbars which we could really put all over the place and didn't change, so that is probably what you are really missing.

I get frustrated with the quick access toolbar because they are linear and there position is hard to relate to something else when they are simply in one long straight line, however there are some users that love that...so I would never want that ability to be lost (different users function in different ways and so flexibility is needed!). 

I am not sure what you mean about the positions in the group.  I think that the groups staying in their location and having dividing lines is helpful.  I can then make more frequently used commands with larger icons, and can customize mapkeys to have a special icon that can look like what it does.

For me the best thing about the custom tab is that, as long as key commands are all on it (even if hidden), I no longer have any restrictions to selecting stuff on drawings.  The real fix would be PTC just allowing us to once again select anything, regardless of what tab we are on...however they have seemed unable or unwilling to do this...so I am glad that there is this feature (which I am not sure they did on purpose...sometimes I think it is a 'bug' that got through and we should take advantage of it while we can!)