While the software is still currently in Beta what is being shown so far in terms of overall capability just seems amazing!!! When you watch the videos you'll some of the streamlined approaches that are really helping to simplify and take into account how to improve on certain UI/UX areas that CAD software has been in need of for quite some time.
Plasticity is a 3d modelling software for concept artists. Modelling in Plasticity is quick and efficient due to the unique gizmos, shortcuts, and thoughtful workflow. The goal of plasticity is to make working with NURBS like working with clay.
It is pretty kewl... has potential for those who like direct modeling (Shapr3D). I like how he thinks or how he's moving along with keeping the interface clean.
Re: Plasticity - amazing new CAD package
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2022 11:50 am
by mattpeneguy
Nice! What do you think @matt? Seems to improve on the direct editing SE provides.
As someone posted in the comments, the big players could learn a bit about UI from this guy.
Re: Plasticity - amazing new CAD package
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2022 7:43 pm
by matt
mattpeneguy wrote: ↑Sat Nov 19, 2022 11:50 am
Nice! What do you think @matt? Seems to improve on the direct editing SE provides.
As someone posted in the comments, the big players could learn a bit about UI from this guy.
It improves on the initial creation ease of use, but I'm not sure it improves the editability. People assume that Synchronous is unsophisticated, and that it isn't parametric, but it is. There will eventually be a meeting of the minds between this ease-of-use crowd with the people who need something more sophisticated and powerful. SE can use primitives and the add/subtract stuff, but I think it's still more structured for sketched features.
Deleting sketches, even in synchronous, is bad form, and to show that in a demo means that these people are still more on the blender side than the Solid Edge side.
Re: Plasticity - amazing new CAD package
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2022 10:25 am
by KennyG
matt wrote: ↑Sat Nov 19, 2022 7:43 pm
IDeleting sketches, even in synchronous, is bad form, and to show that in a demo means that these people are still more on the blender side than the Solid Edge side.
Funny you should say that! In some of the videos, they make it clear that they are aligning a lot of the controls with those in Blender, and you quickly get the feeling this is just "Blender for NURBS".
From what I saw, the streamlined UI isn't really that streamlined because they make you remember a million option keys to do anything with it, thus needing an extensive "cheat sheet" hanging next to your monitor... Maybe it's because it is still a work in progress, but that means if all the options are included in the UI, it will not be what it is today.
Re: Plasticity - amazing new CAD package
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2022 8:00 pm
by Arthur NY
@KennyG One thing I can say is that, like anything else "new", a UI/UX like this becomes like muscle memory with use. Being icon "mainly" driven is not optimal when just wanting to model. Trust when I say this as someone who is constantly going back and forth it took some time to get use to this but now I almost dread going back to the "heaviness" of CAD.
Take for instance when wanting to rotate a view in SW, SE, IV...etc their all about clicking an icon to get to an Ortho view. This is something that can be built into the navigation so that an icon doesn't have to be selected which means less mouse movements. Imagine holding "shift" or "Ctrl" while rotating a model that then snaps to top, right, front...etc. Some of what SW has built into the RMB menu helps to add some levels of functionality that can speed up the process but it's still a far cry. Say you want to extrude into two directions with the Extrude feature.... there's an "intelligence" in selecting a vertex, edge, or surface when the default is "Blind" but once locked into that end condition you have to back to the property manager or RMB menu to change it. This should easily programmed into the UI/UX so that it can change based on what's selected at any time.
Selecting multiple edges or faces, specifically in SW has gotten better over the years.. what REALLY sucks is once selected, if a selection set is not created and you click anywhere accidentally it's all deselected and I can tell you that nothing makes me want to throw my mouse out the window (or better yet as some programmer) when I have to do it all over again. Imagine just being able to do a Ctrl+z and that comes back.
As a whole CAD UI/UX goes these days, it was great for the '90's and early 2000's. But the overall paradigm does need a slight overhaul. It's also not a zero sum game and everyone has to switch but at the very least offering the ability to customize further would be appreciated.
Last example..... One package I use has a global rule that if nothing is selected then everything is selected. At first I really didn't see the value in this and I didn't really leverage it until one day I needed to do a simple copy and paste and then it hit me....I didn't have to select the geometry I just hit the hot keys and kept it moving. Imagine you have a block and you want to fillet all the edges once the fillet tool is selected all of the edges first for the feature to work. By using this above rule the fillet would just immediately highlight and preview. Now throw in the "semi-intelligent" Fillet Xpert on top of that for a more complex model to follow the base rules of larger fillets first then smaller fillets and this process just shaved a good amount of time out of the day of not having to pick edges.
This guy's approach isn't trying to be yet another SW, SE, IV clone. He seems to be taking some of the more direct ways of modeling quickly that most parametric software's lack.
The Blender bridge is an incredible feature, hope to be able to try that soon.
Re: Plasticity - amazing new CAD package
Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2023 7:50 pm
by rodface
I have now had the chance to spend some time in the program. I must say that it really is a "Parasolid Blender".
Re: Plasticity - amazing new CAD package
Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2023 5:26 pm
by Arthur NY
rodface wrote: ↑Fri Apr 14, 2023 7:50 pm
I have now had the chance to spend some time in the program. I must say that it really is a "Parasolid Blender".
All of these companies... Solidworks, Solidedge, NX, Catia, Pro/E, Rhino, Inventor, OnShape, F360..... they've ALL been stuck in the old ways since around 2005...MAYBE, if pushed a little, 2010. And when I show some of the direct Production Managers in some of these companies they all scratch their heads and can't imagine why or how what Plasticity is brining to the table is just game changing.
But then again I find that a lot of parametric modeling users, as a whole...no matter which community their in, think that parametric modeling is THE be all end all. That the idea/notion of not having a history tree is somehow just the thing that will blow up the universe. Kind of like Gandalf in Lord of the Ring..... "YOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUU SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL NOT PASS!!!!!!!!!!!" If you even possibly mention or say that parametric modeling isn't #1.
And I get it that's what they know, it works, and it gets the job "done". Ce La Vie.......
