Feature Requests for easier UX

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1

Hello, I’ve been using the free version and just got my pro on, and I had some thoughts that would really help streamline things. My background is in graphic design and UX, and I’m very familiar with adobe interfaces, for some context. I’m still learning your tools, so I may be missing some functionality.

  1. Select tools. Please, some kind of lasso tool that allows you to quickly select multiple items. maybe use a finger or two on the pad while drawing the selection path, to switch between “all items intersecting the drawn path” and “all items contained within the path.” A visual cue with icon/color, either near the pen tip or at a fixed place in the interface would indicate the current state of the tool.

1a) if I tap and hold an object with the pen, I can select the whole object… what if I held it longer… and it selected the group the item belongs to, and every .5s thereafter selecting one group parent level up? jumping to the group menu every time I want to select multiple items is a high-friction occurrence.

1b) Please please please, a “reselect” tool for those errant taps that make us lose our selections.

  1. Align tools. in 2D drawing mode, I would reference adobe illustrator’s align tools, giving control over which face of which object to align to (select objects, then highlight the “anchor” object and align to X or Y axis). Let the user move the control point that gets aligned, and snap it to points on the object. Similarly it would be nice to have a “bring together” tool that would allow you to select two points on different objects and reposition them so those points are in the exact same point in space.

  2. Image Textures - I’ve seen this request before I just want to reiterate it. One thing I’ve been using shapr3D for is making accurate scale models of my friends renovation projects, and using it to help plan construction as well as choosing surface finishes and colors. I understand not wanting to make texturing too complicated, but color+transparency is very limited. We have the ability to bring in images, so why not be able to project and either stretch or tile them to cover a surface? I have manually tiled images placed in front of surfaces to mock up things, and it’s a bit frustrating.

  3. Carving/Texture tools. imagine being able to draw lines, shapes or patterns on a surface, and then carve all those lines into the face. Full control over the profile, shape and depth of the gouge, or use it to create an embossed or raised surface.

Let’s leave it at that for now, happy to flesh out these ideas if needed.

2

Hey, all good points, selection improvements are definitely needed. Did you know that deselect all is undoable?

3 Likes
3

Hello, thank you for clarifying that. I had to go back and use the tool to more properly isolate the issue I’m experiencing.

It’s not that I’m tapping and accidentally clearing my selection, as that is addressed in the undo command. It’s when I’ve spent a bunch of time selecting multiple items, then use a transform tool (like to copy a “texture” shape to an opposing wall. If I don’t first move or rotate it the right amount, I can click on the number to enter it manually, but if I accidentally deselect then, particularly by an errant sketch tool, I can undo or redo the action, but it does NOT reselect the affected items or let me change the parameters of the transform (only undo and redo), and I either have to completely undo and start re-selecting everything all over, or re-select the cloned items and move them individually.

If I were smart I might group the items at some point so I could go back and reselect the items easily, but this seems like a weak workaround.

As my designs get more complicated (and as I have to use repeating shapes on surfaces to make up for Shapr3D’s limited texturing capabilities), the number of objects I’m dealing with increases exponentially, meaning I am spending more and more time selecting items, and every time this issue occurs I want to throw my ipad across the room. I had to stop working on my model to come here and type this out.

Thank you

4

And it just happened again. This time I forgot to check the “copy” button before I ran the transform (would be nice to toggle “copy/move” while actually using the tool). Oops, gotta undo that and put those shapes back where they were. AND DESELECTED AGAIN, no way to get it back. Fantastic.

I’m taking a break because this is just too frustrating.

5

Honestly I’d like to be able to hold down a finger or two (or activate some select tool if human gestures are too efficient) and simply draw a line across all the objects I wanted selected, instead of having to multi-tap or long-press every. single. object, increasing with each tap the chance that the aforementioned frustrations will occur.

Another approach to this could be to maintain a selected history, separate from the action list, and let you undo/redo selection as a dedicated toolset. This means you could make it really easy to work with groups of selected, quickly switching between them

Another feature request: a “do again/duplicate last” option (see CTRL+D in illustrator), so you can either apply the same transform to the object or copy and transform to create say, a row of items evenly spaced, or a symmetrically-spoked rotated item. To do this currently, I have to copy/transform and manually enter the value for each element.

Imagine an “apply grid to surface” option, with tile and grout size options, to quickly turn a face into a tiled surface. My ultimate dream with that would be to be able to import a PNG with a transparent background/ignore white, and convert to a vector outline which could be used to create an extruded raised, embossed, or pressed surface.

Lastly, this was just another musing on the “select multiple items” thing, but being able to “select similar,” as in, if I have items with the same or similar dimensions within a certain radius of the selected object would be a lifesaver.

Another reasoning for the “select similar” function: say I’m building something with standard-sized wood cuts, metal or plastic poles, bricks, pavers, etc. What if I could select all the 2x2s or 2x4s at once and calculate how many planks I need to buy or process, or choose the surface I’m covering and calculate how many 4x8’ sheets (or programmable tile size option) I’ll need to cover the surface, showing the seams. This would give me all of my cut dimensions, making life a whole lot easier.

6

Thanks for the feedback, very helpful. We have many improvements planned regarding the selection flow, including area selection, and smart object selection. These improvements are on our roadmap.

1 Like
7

Last used 3 commands small toolbar ?

8

Glad the feedback is being well received. As an addendum to the “select similar” idea, what about “select touching,” so that all all items that actually touch the already selected item will then be selected as well. This could be an easy way to select multiple items at once without having to make groupings. Thanks!