Sorry to necro an old thread, but I figure there're plenty of threads, already, on general changes and additions to 2009 environment, without me starting another.
-------------LAYER MANAGER--------------------------
How is anyone getting along with the new layer manage?
I'd read that they will -NOT- have "classiclayer" in future releases, after 2009 (whether they change their mind or not, I dunno) so I have specifically NOT modified buttons and commands for the new layer palette, to open the classic... forcing myself to use, and get used to, the new.
I am finding it horrible to work with. I can't find any other way for it to always be open other than have it docked to one side, on auto-hide. This is fine for me, as I do that normally with other palettes (left; tool palettes, referece manager, properties. Right; Visual styles, materials (when needed), design center, and now layers)
However, I find actually trying to WORK with the blasted thing is rediculous. Adding more than one layer at a time is a pain.
1) Hover mouse over bar on the right to expand the pallete
2) Click 'new layer'
3) Type in new name, enter to finish
4) Click color to change layer color, color interface pops up, click color
5) While I moved my mouse to the color picker, Layer Palette has no hidden again
6) Hover mouse back over layer palette to expand it
7) ???
8) LOSS OF PROFIT!
Seriously there is a hesitation for the palette to open, and I have to suffer it every time I add a layer! This is rediculous. Horrible, horrible, horrible, foresight by the designers... and they want to force us to migrate to this new piece of crap?
It seems one mantra they had in mind for the new features was to keep everything hidden and out of view, to free up desk space. Great, all for it, I do the same, myself. However, they make it so that it hides even when you NEED IT!
--------------QUICK VIEW LAYOUTS--------------------
So this is the replacement for the paperspace tabs, yea?
Quick view layouts... so now I have to click a button down at the bottom right of the screen (I'm getting used to the graphic changes, so am having to spend less time searching for which is which, now) to bring up quick view layouts... now I click which one I want, and it activates.
Not bad... it's an extra click, but not horrible. I only have one layout per drawing 99% of the time, so it loads quick enough, and automatically disappears once you have activated a layout/model space, so it hides itself at the appropriate time.
However, managing viewports stinks. This hiding crap DOES get in the way here.
1) Click 'quick layouts' button
2) Delete layout
3) Interface hides so you have to restart the process to delete many layouts
1) Click 'quick layouts' button
2) Right click on one, select 'move or copy'
3) It brings up the OLD window for moving/copying layouts.
We -just- got, in 2008, the ability to drag viewports on the layout-tab bar, to rearrange them. We JUST got the ability to double click on the tab to rename it. WHY, then, do they use -old- technology that they -know- users dislike, in their new product? Why can we not drag and drop to rearrange layouts?! The old move/copy window was bad enough that users repeatedly requesting a better way, and were seen as legitimate enough concerns to actually implement it... and one year later we are told to use this new way that incorporates the move/copy window that many of us hated?!
Hint: you can turn the model/paper tabs back on, and I have, but I want to use the new technology and get used to it in the event that they make old ways unusable like the Layer Palette...
-------------Status Buttons (DYN, DUCS, OSNAPS, ORTHO, POLAR, etc)--------
New graphics which is a bit annoying, but whatever... tip of an iceberg. One thing I did that helped me get used to it was click on the arrow on the far bottom right, to customize the status bar... and turned off all icons that I do not use. Turned off snap, grid, ducs, dyn input, ortho, lineweight display... all I have is polar, osnaps, and otrack. Those are the only three I ever change, and I actually never really change them, they just sometimes get reset by a rogue LISP or if I cancel out too soon or too hard during a command.
Additional status bar items : layout scale... added a "hide xref scales" which may not fix the problem, but at least it hides the symptom that bugged us all. Gotta love that. I keep it checked... of course there are times when it can be handy to use an xref scale, such as if I set up a custom scale, but that's really rare for me.
-------------Dark Color Scheme---------------
heh, contrary to most of what I see from people who bother to comment on it... I like it.
It matches my XP theme real close (Zune, dl'd from some MS site)
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That's about all the comments I got so far.
I'd like to know what people think about the layer palette though. Has anyone gotten used to it and liked it yet? If so, how do you use it, what problems did you run in to, and how did you overcome them?
