Now I guess that some of you may be thinking, ‘the A key is next to the W key so it is no big deal’ but it is the principle. So instead of a wall, I now set my work-plane, cascade my views or any number of activities before I get to my trusty wall. Then the new XML format was brought in, and while the same principle exists, the shortcut that can be used in conjunction with the spacebar is now based on which one comes first in the XML file. Lots of shortcuts may start with a W but when listed alphanumerically, the first of these could make use of the spacebar, hence the fact that WA was assigned to wall meant that it was the first of the W’s. So for instance W-Space would draw a wall and WW would add a window, so the ability to use the spacebar was a huge bonus to efficiency. Most of the keys within easy reach of my left hand had at least one, often two common commands attached to it, if you include the thumb hovering over the spacebar. Multithreading for rendering in Revit has been around for a few releases now but now the four-core limit has been removed. I know this does not suit wrong-handed people, but it suits me. I have for many releases circulated a revised set of keyboard shortcuts that congregate around the left-hand end of the keyboard, leaving the right-hand on the mouse.
While I have a head of steam I may as well get my other rant out of the way - keyboard shortcuts. Don’t get me wrong, I always have and still do think that the Ribbon is a better system, and I also think that the placement of some commands was a bit dodgy, but for the average user trying to get work done, it was not so bad that it needed to be moved around again. While this takes some getting used to, and I tended to find I was actually switching it off when I forget it was already on the screen waiting for me, now that I am accustomed to it, I love it - being able to scan through the properties of a collection of objects is so much better and quicker.Īs to the rest of the user interface and the changes to icons, Autodesk has introduced far more consistency into the mix with common buttons being in the same place across all the context menus which is great, but as for the improved icons and layout of the tools, I sometimes wish they would leave things alone a bit.
The controversial User Interface has had some further tweaking, the most noticeable feature being the always-on nature of the properties box. Looking on the bright side, at least that means I have a fair amount of usage under my belt upon which to comment. It is not quite 2011 yet but just to keep people like me permanently confused Autodesk Revit 2011 has been launched and is already at service pack one before I even get around to writing about it. Paul Woddy takes a look at Autodesk Revit 2011 and finds a user-friendly release that is more intuitive than older versions.