Originally Posted by: NickB Generally I find the control bar too buggy for entering data
I hardly needed you to tell me that. What you are saying is that VC is useless (in this respect). I'm turned right off using VC by this kind of observation.
Originally Posted by: NickB
only enter data there for the few operations that absolutely require it and I know are bug free
Which ones might they be? You seem to know! How should I? Should we perhaps demand it be put in the manual?
Are you really sure the ones that YOU know are bug free, are, in fact not bugging you somewhere else?
Originally Posted by: NickB
In fact I default to extrude by vector, and then enter the distance in the Object Info / Data window. My method is: select tool, select lines / curves to extrude, click my mouse in the direction I want to extrude then enter exact distance in Object Info / Data.
Mostly using the mouse to get around the bug means you end up doing the operation twice! A complaint I have with VC.
Seem you never used the speed and simplicity of command line CAD. Mostly a mouse and a GUI get in the way, unless something very clever emulates the command line. Failure here then!
If the bug, I have now spent much time pinning down, is so obvious then why did you not explain to unique early on?
Originally Posted by: NickB Sometimes you get lucky and can enter the distance in the control bar, sometimes you get either an inconsistent result or an error message.
A mater of luck!!! Couldn't let you near a dangerous machine tool then.
Originally Posted by: NickB Welcome to the wonderfully (buggy) quirky world of ViaCad / Shark. Like I wrote earlier once you get over the quirks things work fairly well.
Nope I'll never accept bugs. It's the thin end of the wedge. But, then you Windoze types have been conditioned to accept them.
It's obvious (from your sarcastic remarks about bugzilla etc) that you have never used a UNIX platform and wouldn't know a bug free platform if it poked you in the eye.
To be fair most accurate 3D modelers are in the same state as VC, even the big boys insist on playing the feature bloat game at the expense of stability. I had hopped, perhaps stupidly, that VC might be different.
Have a play with something like Wings 3D if you think there's nothing powerful, feature rich and bug free. Oh it's also free open source. That's free as in freedom of thought not free as in a free lunch.