Autodesk software, was: Re: [Qgis-user] Editing: advanced vs. basic, dropdown menus

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi all,

I have access to Autodesk software (Map3D, Topobase), though I have to
admit that I am not a regular user of the software. I am more the database
administrator, my colleagues do the data entry work.

But to be honest I am not so sure if it is a good example of an easy to
use tool. It may be a very productive tool for Autodesk cracks, but for
beginners it is quite hard to learn.

In my opinion, the Autodesk software also offers too many construction
tools and options for a GIS. It is primarily (and was originally) a CAD,
not a GIS. Also, it offers many 3D tools that are of no use for 2D GIS
like QGIS.

Recently, Autodesk changed its UI to the Microsoft ribbons (like in MS
Office 2007 (or whatever this is called))

What I like about the Autodesk software is that it always allows to enter
numeric values (for coordinates, distances, angles, etc.) It is also nice
that it sort of guides the user through the process while doing more
complex constructions. The coordinate (or angle/distance) entry input
boxes follow the mouse cursor. And of course it is nice that it handles
curves and splines. It is however, annoying that one cannot mix splines
with regular polylines in the same element (something that drawing tools
like Inkscape, Illustrator and Corel allow).

Another nice thing in Autodesk map 3d is that it allows many scale
dependent data filtering and symbolization rules on one single layer. In
QGIS you currently have to import the same layer multiple times if you
want to apply different symbolization rules for different scale ranges.
This makes the legend and layer tree overloaded and the project more
complex to manage.

Another very nice symbolization thing is the ability to apply a SVG
pattern along a linestring element. One can define a more or less complex
pattern in SVG geometry and it will be drawn repeatedly along the line.

Often, I am also surprised on how complex certain things are in Autodesk
(or almost impossible). As an example I was recently looking for a tool to
visualize directions of a line with arrows and change the direction when
necessary. This was not possible and the support team did not offer me a
solution. Quite embarassing for a tool that costs approx. 10k US$ per seat
plus a yearly subscription fee for support and upgrades.

As a conclusion, I think there is a lot to learn from the Autodesk
software, but we should not do the same mistake of doing everything in one
complex tool. The danger that the software will get too complex and too
slow is high.

The Autodesk software is really slow to startup and also during operations
it is not very fast. QGIS is faster for the tasks we primarily need.

I can offer to bring an Autodesk Map licence along to the QGIS hackfest in
Vienna. I can show the interface and show the good and bad things about
it. Maybe it partially provides inspiration for QGIS.

Andreas

On Thu, June 18, 2009 7:35 am, Paolo Cavallini wrote:
> Andreas Neumann ha scritto:
>> I'd like to discuss again what it is "advanced" and what is "basic"
>> editing. I think many of the "advanced" tools are really "basic" tools.
>
>> I understand Tim's argument of keeping things simple. On the other hand
>> pull-down buttons are quite common today. Many of the well-known
>> software packages use them, such as Adobe, Corel, Openoffice
>> (partially).
>
> Good point. I think we should make life as easy as possible for users,
> so why not using the same approach as the most advanced tools available?
> AFAIK, AutoCAD is considered the most productive tool for editing: does
> anybody have access to it? Could someone lt us know how they approach
> the problem? A description of their design would be a good starting
> point, I guess.
> All the best.
> --
> Paolo Cavallini: http://www.faunalia.it/pc
>


-- 
Andreas Neumann
http://www.carto.net/neumann/
http://www.svgopen.org/