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Tool Icons Made for Kids (#3380)
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jol  
#21 Posted : Monday, January 10, 2011 5:12:44 PM(UTC)
jol

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... just what I thought when I read what you wrote

wish I was faster on my feet : )
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misterrogers  
#22 Posted : Monday, January 10, 2011 7:30:09 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: lovebugjunkie Go to Quoted Post
Should have told him you tailor them to the expected audience. One of the reasons I noticed ViaCAD the icons were simple and very intuitive and there is not 30-50 or more displayed at the same time.


That would have been hilarious, but he is a valuable client so I thought it was best to not to say anything offensive. On the other hand, I wasn't really expecting it because the icons appearance was never problematic for me prior to this. I will be meeting him in Vegas at the furniture market.. perhaps I can "highlight the benefits" of these icons to him this time to rub it in. Although there will be other more serious people present.
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Tem  
#23 Posted : Monday, January 10, 2011 10:42:25 PM(UTC)
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Alias/Wavefront (OLD) studio had some nice icons, but that was years ago.
I think that most of sharks icons work very well, although, for me, I think some of the tool names are not quite fitting (probably because of all the software I have used since I started all this 3D stuff).
I find that some of the icons didn't make sense to me until I used the tools, then they stuck, but the others are fairly straight forward if one has some experience already (sorry, that was a little too general). I am not going to go into specifics.
The one graphical aspect I find visually attractive in SolidThinkings icons is the color depth and exaggeration, the extensive shading and consistency in color hierarchy is also helpful. SolidWorks seems to be oriented towards ME's, mold makers, and Mechanical designers, not so much ID, although it can be used for that it tends to take (me) a while to set up features and distracts from the creative process in that way. Rhino has a huge toolset, and icons for each tool, but not always very intuitive (used it for 8 years, and watch the development of the Mac version once in a while) it still needs a lot of polish, and reminds me of Autocad in many ways. Pro-e and its wildfire offspring might be good for hardcore M-CAD types, but it would be hard for me to say that I found it tolerable, even if the weather was nice outside.
Designing intuitive icons is not easy, one has to put a lot of meaning into a 2D scribble smaller than a postage stamp that conveys process and result.
good night all.
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jol  
#24 Posted : Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:42:18 AM(UTC)
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When the general workflow and UI was redesigned for Concepts 3 (prior to Shark and ViaCAD), it was decided to make available the icon toolsets to be customised as 'skins'. Thus you can change any icon you like by replacing the corresponding tool icons in the application folder>skins folder. (Remember that each tool has icons of 4 sizes - so each must be replaced).

To my knowledge nobody has had a play with this - I guess life's too short. I do however have a colour-desaturated icon set. Should anyone be interested in this alternate set, they'd be most welcome to a copy. If so, perhaps we can get Tim to host it somewhere (it's about 80Mb and contains the necessary 4 icon size sets). I can also place it on 4shared or similar if anyone's interested. This may address a criticism from some that the default toolset is too bright / toy-like.

I'm sure you're also aware that the toolbar preference can be changed to show icons at 2/3 size (24x24px) should you find the default icon set too big (tick preferences>interface>use small icons)
jol attached the following image(s):
desaturated icons c.jpg (172kb) downloaded 5 time(s).

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mikeschn  
#25 Posted : Wednesday, January 12, 2011 9:37:37 AM(UTC)
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Can you post a screenshot of your colour-desaturated icon set?

Mike...
ViaCAD Pro 12 on Windows; Viacad Pro 14 on Mac
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jol  
#26 Posted : Wednesday, January 12, 2011 9:46:42 AM(UTC)
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oops !

- there you go - image is in post above
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Tim Olson  
#27 Posted : Wednesday, January 12, 2011 11:34:54 AM(UTC)
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>>If so, perhaps we can get Tim to host it somewhere (it's about 80Mb and contains the necessary 4 icon size sets).

Jol,

Yes, I can place on our server. I can also write a blog entry with a link to it.

Tim
Tim Olson
IMSI Design/Encore
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jol  
#28 Posted : Wednesday, January 12, 2011 11:55:34 AM(UTC)
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Terrific Tim !

- do you have a place I can upload to ?
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mikeschn  
#29 Posted : Wednesday, January 12, 2011 5:28:34 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: jol Go to Quoted Post
(Remember that each tool has icons of 4 sizes - so each must be replaced).

I'm sure you're also aware that the toolbar preference can be changed to show icons at 2/3 size (24x24px) should you find the default icon set too big (tick preferences>interface>use small icons)


If the default icons are 30 x 28 and the 2/3 size icons are 24 x 21 (according to the user manual) how do I get Shark to display the other 2 sizes? Or is that for custom toolbars only?

Mike...
ViaCAD Pro 12 on Windows; Viacad Pro 14 on Mac
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jol  
#30 Posted : Wednesday, January 12, 2011 5:38:57 PM(UTC)
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custom boxes only I think

manual may be wrong - sizes are 64x64, 32x32, 24x24, 16x16
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misterrogers  
#31 Posted : Wednesday, January 12, 2011 8:32:01 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: jol Go to Quoted Post
I'm sure you're also aware that the toolbar preference can be changed to show icons at 2/3 size (24x24px) should you find the default icon set too big (tick preferences>interface>use small icons)



Boy what a difference that makes. My primary computer that I lug around everywhere is only about 13" so you can imagine the tool bar takes up too much room.

Now about those de-saturated icons, count me in. Thanks!
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jol  
#32 Posted : Thursday, January 13, 2011 4:54:07 AM(UTC)
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Tim will host the new icon set on the Punch server

No doubt, when he does - he'll post a link here
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mikeschn  
#33 Posted : Thursday, January 13, 2011 5:48:22 PM(UTC)
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Just for fun... I changed the block one point icon in the 32 x 32 skins... it shows up in the vertical toolbar, but not at the top. Where is that changed? in the 64 x 64 skins?

UserPostedImage

Mike...
ViaCAD Pro 12 on Windows; Viacad Pro 14 on Mac
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jol  
#34 Posted : Thursday, January 13, 2011 5:52:01 PM(UTC)
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yes - that's right Mike !!
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jol  
#35 Posted : Thursday, January 13, 2011 5:59:16 PM(UTC)
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Tim's blog post is up if you're interested Mike :

http://blog.punchcad.com/?p=492#more-492
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mikeschn  
#36 Posted : Thursday, January 13, 2011 5:59:33 PM(UTC)
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Got it! Thanks...

Mike...
UserPostedImage
ViaCAD Pro 12 on Windows; Viacad Pro 14 on Mac
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Tim Olson  
#37 Posted : Friday, January 14, 2011 10:32:07 AM(UTC)
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Nice Mike! Yes there are four icons making up a tool.

16-Tool cursor
24-Small Icon (Prefs:User Interface)
32-Large Icon (Prefs:User Interface) Default size
64-Prompt area icon

Creating a custom palette lets you specify any of these four cursors.

Tim
Tim Olson
IMSI Design/Encore
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Tim Olson  
#38 Posted : Friday, January 14, 2011 10:33:58 AM(UTC)
Tim Olson

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I created a blog entry regarding changing tool icons.

http://blog.punchcad.com/?p=492

Many thanks to Jol for the desaturated icon folder linked in the blog!!

Tim
Tim Olson
IMSI Design/Encore
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Kevin Quigley  
#39 Posted : Thursday, January 20, 2011 5:39:07 PM(UTC)
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Jol, I much prefer that desaturated set of icons - WAY better than the standard. Maybe ViaCAD should have the bright blue, and Shark should have the desaturated ones?

Now.....all that remains is to reduce the size of the cursors :)
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jol  
#40 Posted : Friday, January 21, 2011 3:26:31 AM(UTC)
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Glad you like the desat ones. If anyone is good with photoshop actions - you can generate your own set in a few minutes

Which cursors are too big Kevin ? Would you be better off increasing the resolution of your screen to make everything smaller ?

If you want to reduce one (or any) of the icons, just locate it in the appropriate skins folder and reduce the graphic down in PhotoShop etc

[... remember when you do though - that each .bmp graphic has a corresponding alpha channel to update too - and keep the overall pixel dimensions of the .bmp file unchanged. Then you can have whatever size cursors you're happy with !?]

Unfortunately, everybody has a slightly different visual requirement with regard icons - (based perhaps on prior app use) ... we did the best we could at the time to please !
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