Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Dockable Windows

Revit has supported docking the Project Browser, Properties Palette, System Browser(for MEP) and Reconcile Hosting for a few releases now. I find new users often struggle with the actual task of docking them because the UI interaction isn't entirely intuitive. There are graphic cues offered but users don't seem to recognize them right away. I find I have to make a point of stressing that the location of the cursor is paramount and that while they should be looking for the visual cues, the cursor is what drives them.

I made this short video (Two Minutes) to help capture the subtlety I'm talking about.



While I am at it, personally I find Reconcile Hosting hard to find. It has a button on the Collaborate ribbon > Coordinate panel but I also expect it to be lurking on the View ribbon > User Interface. That's because the Properties Palette, Project Browser and System Browser are there and Reconcile Hosting is the same sort of thing. At least I think so since it can be docked among the others. I also find it quirky that, since there is a button for Reconcile Hosting, there isn't a button for the System Browser on the Systems and/or Analyze ribbons.

1 comment:

Dave Baldacchino said...

Amen, glad to hear I'm not the only one thinking the location of Reconcile Hosting is weird. Why on "Collaborate"? Tag hosting is not necessarily a collaboration effort. Often we split into models and then tag through links (not cross-discipline but within the same discipline). I think it should be on the Manage tab, even though that ribbon is already quite full. I also agree that it should be in the User Interface list.