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Claus  
#21 Posted : Monday, August 16, 2021 12:42:29 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: magicart Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: Claus Go to Quoted Post
For as many years I remember I have suggested an overhaul of the interface. The code behind is old and all the bugs will never be fixed but I have gotten used to it. However the interface looks old,...


Fully agree. When I first launched Shark v8 in 2013 I was sure it is software from late 90' - it looks like first adobe photoshop releases - and after these years nothing changed here. The same icons and the same palettes. Now I got used to this. I know this isn't the most important thing but to redesign the whole interface would be a good step - after fixing major issues of course.


Magicart


Thanks for the support. The interface is unchanged since 1998. As any experienced users we are able to learn how to use it, however a modern interface should predict how the user interacts with it rather than provide a ton of floating windows. The current interface is especially annoying when switching between laptop screen and external monitor, everything has to be rearranged. Just a tiny detail, when you assign a custom color a new window with swatches open but in stead of providing a logical OK button you have to close the window with the top left close button. It literally took me minutes to figure out.

For the people who have been hanging on since the beginning of time, I started with this product when it was called Cobalt and sold by Ashlar Vellum in 1991, it’s not really a problem. But younger users will have experience with apps like Fusion360 that look more 2021. A new interface will at least appeal to them. As for the bugs I agree.
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MPSchmied on 8/16/2021(UTC), magicart on 8/16/2021(UTC)
UGMENTALCASE  
#22 Posted : Monday, August 16, 2021 1:34:30 AM(UTC)
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I've got used to the interface. Although my concept explorer is stuck to the bottom of my window and I can only move it left and right, it simply won't detach!
If you have the time and patience you can turn off the standard toolbar and create your own. I did it in v10, but then everything reset when loading the new builds so gave up in the end!
posh.de  
#23 Posted : Monday, August 16, 2021 6:00:01 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Claus Go to Quoted Post
...I started with this product when it was called Cobalt and sold by Ashlar Vellum in 1991...

Cadsoft Solutions Inc. was founded in February 1994, the first commercial release of CADD Pro was in March 1996, Ashlar licensed the code (OEM) in October 1996 and released it under the name 'Vellum Solids', later on as part of the Designer Elements series called 'Cobalt'. In 1991 there was Vellum (2D) only invented by genious Dr. Martin Newel with Dan Fitzpatrick in 1988.
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MPSchmied on 4/17/2022(UTC)
bbuxton  
#24 Posted : Monday, August 16, 2021 6:44:06 AM(UTC)
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Although it has not changed so much since the 1990's it was years ahead of its time. No other CAD software back then had such a clean UI with a vast working area. Also, most high-end monitors were at the most 1024 X 768,h later we got huge 1600 x 1200 CRTs. Even now SharkCad has a generous work area compared to many applications. The University I attended had Vellum Solids and FormZ. After graduating I went for FormZ with Electric Image for rendering. Vellum was always unaffordable. Eventually, I got the initial Concepts Unlimited with a discount for Electric Image users.
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murray  
#25 Posted : Monday, August 16, 2021 3:19:46 PM(UTC)
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The UI is great for smallish tablet touchscreens that I use for site work, being able to rip off toolbars and dismiss them so easily. They'd be even better for that if they could be ambidextrous, they only tear off left-to-right, sometimes it's more convenient to park the palette on the RHS of their screen, left-handed users would probably have thoughts about it, too.
Albatrossflyer  
#26 Posted : Monday, August 16, 2021 7:01:05 PM(UTC)
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FIX ALL THE DAMN BUGS
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damhave on 8/19/2021(UTC)
jlm  
#27 Posted : Tuesday, August 17, 2021 2:10:31 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: MPSchmied Go to Quoted Post
The Interface is very good. Every other CAD Program which i tested have not such a good Interface like ViaCAD and SharkCAD. The Interface is perfect. You have by yourself no idea how ro make it better. "tear off palettes that tear off by accident" - Just learn to work with it. "looks old"........... No it looks not old.


The interface WAS revolutionary and excellent 20 years ago when Tim started Vellum Solid.
It improved a little bit on Cobalt, Concept Unlimited...
Now it is still good but it definitely needs resources for improvement.
Just my opinion...

JL
magicart  
#28 Posted : Tuesday, August 17, 2021 5:56:58 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: jlm Go to Quoted Post

Now it is still good but it definitely needs resources for improvement.
Just my opinion...

JL


And one thing more. Shark interface for windows is not compatible with High Definition monitors (4k), where icons and text looks blurry. The same issue have Fusion 360 but it can't be excuse because a lot of CAD software (Rhino, IronCAD, AutoCAD) handled with this a few years ago. Only one workaround is to set system scaling to 100% or 200%. This issue is invisible on MacOS.

Magicart
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GARLIC on 8/17/2021(UTC)
MaiFy  
#29 Posted : Thursday, August 26, 2021 11:11:01 PM(UTC)
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I'm still using Via cad pro 10, But I worked my way up from 7, 8, shark 9 now viacad pro 10. (please windows don't break my program)
I'm just a basic user
In addition to the above the areas I think could have some work done on them are.
The hatch tool
. It hardly ever works.Some times yes but often repeated clicking on the area to hatch just brings up "valid hatch region not found. Making simple boxes sometimes works. Having a separate hatch layer doesn't seem to help.
. I use it at the end if I really have to because it often does something that creates crashes in the program. Doing hatching line by line doesn't seem right to me.

The Architectural tools
I thought when I started using shark, It would be a useful set of tools, but for me it crashed so many times I never use them any more. Its quicker to just draw your walls with the line tool.

A suggestion
.A diagnostic tool that I have used in other programs that would be very useful is a delete duplicate entities tool.

When I import PDFs or illustrator files, or even just using our own created and saved symbols from concept explorer. It invariably creates or has anywhere from 1 to 7 or 8 duplicate entities per line. Going around and selecting every dam curve and deleting duplicates is so much a waste of time. A delete duplicate entities tool would just be the perfect tool for such situations.

(putting aside if its a import glitch that creates the duplicates or just dirty files to begin with)

With our created symbols it creates bloat files (Viacad creates them so they should be clean) but they often makes a file unstable, so we save first, and bring them in at the end,un group, clean up, and save with a different file name so we can work on the files some more then re add back the symbols at the end again if we have to. I would use or develop symbols a lot more, its a great tool, but with the stability issues i keep it simple. (and it shouldn't create extra lines when you create the symbols anyway.)



Even with the above issues the program has trained me quite well in it's areas of exceptional strengths and certain limitations,
I really like the program, Its just if a program has tools in the tool box they should work reasonably well.

Edited by user Thursday, August 26, 2021 11:18:22 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

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jlm on 8/26/2021(UTC)
curtk  
#30 Posted : Friday, August 27, 2021 12:47:43 AM(UTC)
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build a reliable and heavily tested version before selling it , that's my only suggestion . 12 versions and it should have happened by now
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UGMENTALCASE on 8/27/2021(UTC)
Claus  
#31 Posted : Saturday, August 28, 2021 12:33:51 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: posh.de Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: Claus Go to Quoted Post
...I started with this product when it was called Cobalt and sold by Ashlar Vellum in 1991...

Cadsoft Solutions Inc. was founded in February 1994, the first commercial release of CADD Pro was in March 1996, Ashlar licensed the code (OEM) in October 1996 and released it under the name 'Vellum Solids', later on as part of the Designer Elements series called 'Cobalt'. In 1991 there was Vellum (2D) only invented by genious Dr. Martin Newel with Dan Fitzpatrick in 1988.


My mistake, should have been 2001. Thanks!
cad'n'stuff  
#32 Posted : Sunday, September 5, 2021 4:47:36 AM(UTC)
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Bugfixes, reliability and speed should be top priority for a new version (Especially, considering how old some of those bugs are)

But as you won't sell a new product without any new features, here are a few new things I'd like to see:

- Modernize the UI
I think especially the concept explorer and the inspector need a bit of rework. Another big improvement could be the use of workspaces. Having different workspaces allows you to have all the features on your screen while you need them instead of having the whole screen cluttered with features you currently don't need.

- Replace the render engine with a Blender bridge
The render engine in it's current state is a joke, to be honest. I guess a good bridge to Blender would be way better.

- Macros / Scripts / Developer tools
Basically every modern CAD lets you make macros, scripts or even whole new features. It's time for Punchcad to open up a little!

- Prices
In my opinion the prices for Viacad/Sharkcad are way too high. Why would anyone pay 200 bucks for Viacad 2D/3D, when there's Fusion 360 for free? Or why does Sharkcad Pro cost 2 times more than Rhino?

Edited by user Sunday, September 5, 2021 4:48:25 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

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GARLIC on 9/5/2021(UTC), damhave on 9/5/2021(UTC), MPSchmied on 9/5/2021(UTC), bbuxton on 9/5/2021(UTC)
bbuxton  
#33 Posted : Sunday, September 5, 2021 11:01:08 PM(UTC)
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I think for most things, the SharkCAD UI is bearable. Sure unified palettes and drag + drop arranging is nice, but there are many more pressing issues.
We have a bridge to Keyshot which needs updating.
Maverick Render is cheaper than Keyshot and already handles CAD files pretty well, even without a bridge.
Rhino got Cycles, but I think they needed to make a pretty big donation to the Blender dev fund. Also, sending CAD files to Blender via a bridge will be more problematic than putting Cycles in SharkCad.
Maverick Render is much cheaper than Keyshot and already handles CAD files pretty well.
The prices were hard to swallow a decade ago. Today they are just delusional.
It is a shame that Tim devotes all of his time to a significantly inferior, equally badly managed application. TurboCad is seriously overpriced too.
Sadly I doubt we will see anything further for SharkCad, not even the features recently removed.
It was once the best and most elegant affordable MCAD, but starved of development, it cannot continue indefinitely on its former glories alone.


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GARLIC on 9/6/2021(UTC), L. Banasky on 9/6/2021(UTC), jlm on 9/6/2021(UTC), MPSchmied on 9/6/2021(UTC)
UGMENTALCASE  
#34 Posted : Monday, September 6, 2021 4:08:42 AM(UTC)
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Well said, it'll fall on deaf ears though. There is just no input whatsoever from them. Really sad to be honest.
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GARLIC on 9/6/2021(UTC), L. Banasky on 9/25/2021(UTC)
ALBANO  
#35 Posted : Thursday, September 23, 2021 2:22:31 AM(UTC)
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What annoys me really is inconsistencies in work flow like having to select object and operator in one case ant in the other it´s operator and then object.

Another really simple to fix thing was a switch button in all operations where shark lets you input more than one number.
In like 50% of the time you will have to switch them out, as shark does not indicate which edge etc. you are typing in for.

Another big thing was sliders for numerical inputs with realtime preview. Typing numbers, examining the result, deleting them, retyping, examining, retyping, examining...is not the way to work in 2021 anymore. Especially when doing aesthetic design. (Neccesary to "hunt" for the right chamfer (radius) size, angle etc.

Bring back Mesh to Nurbs and implement selection by normals or only visible. So you won´t accidentally select surface entities of the backside of the object.

Please make a visual representation of creases that can be modified afterwards by selecting them with the mouse.

Generally I´d like to see all numerical inputs on the edges, objects, entities they belong to. It´s state of the art in other CAD-programs already and it sppeds up the design process very much.
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L. Banasky on 9/23/2021(UTC), GARLIC on 9/23/2021(UTC)
posh.de  
#36 Posted : Friday, September 24, 2021 6:12:14 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: bbuxton Go to Quoted Post
I think for most things, the SharkCAD UI is bearable. Sure unified palettes and drag + drop arranging is nice, but there are many more pressing issues.
...
Maverick Render is cheaper than Keyshot and already handles CAD files pretty well, even without a bridge.
Rhino got Cycles, but I think they needed to make a pretty big donation to the Blender dev fund. Also, sending CAD files to Blender via a bridge will be more problematic than putting Cycles in SharkCad.
...
It was once the best and most elegant affordable MCAD...


yep, the GUI is not the most pressing stuff, nevertheless migrating to a modern GUI toolkit as Qt would allow to focus on the core functionality and also bring modern GUI standards incl. support for high-res devices or multi-monitor setups to Shark.

Cycles Render looks pretty interesting especially being Open Source, i.e. no license fees as for the current LightWork engine. But implementing a working interface for the rendering/raytracing stuff shouldn't be underestimated, if having an other/additional bridge I vote for asking the guys form SimLab Composer (Win/Mac) to implement an integration plugin, which they did allready have done for lots of common applications. SimLab Composer would, additionally to the rendering, allow to have access to further functionality as animation, cinematics, VR/AR, 360° images and 3D PDF etc.

SharkCAD is no MCAD (assemblies) as SolidWorks or Inventor.

Edited by user Friday, September 24, 2021 6:17:08 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

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L. Banasky on 9/25/2021(UTC)
GARLIC  
#37 Posted : Sunday, September 26, 2021 2:41:53 AM(UTC)
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well, one efficient way to make use of SimLab Composer is export from Shark via step even without having a dedicated SimLab Plugin.....just my famous 2 cts.
regards
G.
posh.de  
#38 Posted : Monday, September 27, 2021 7:14:05 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: GARLIC Go to Quoted Post
...export from Shark via step even without having...


obviously valid for all other applications too but doesn't provide you with the comfort and productivity of a dynamic linking directly integrated into the modeling application.

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murray  
#39 Posted : Monday, November 29, 2021 10:37:37 PM(UTC)
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Suggest having both scaling handles, uniform and differential, on the bars of the gripper so you don't have to faff about changing the inspector setting, or use an option key while gripping the uniform handle to invoke differential.

Edited by user Friday, December 3, 2021 3:00:57 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

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GARLIC on 11/30/2021(UTC)
thefro  
#40 Posted : Friday, December 3, 2021 3:33:56 AM(UTC)
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this is a good idea like to see this
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