garya wrote: ↑Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:47 am
I refrained from suggesting "3D" as the label as it seemed too pedestrian, but thinking about it more I think it would be a better term than anything else.
I completely disagree. I use "3D view" to refer to the area where the model is shown. I'm sure I'm not alone. An example of use is in
Getting_started. Even if you set the 3D view (see what I did there) to a 2D orthographic view (top, right...), it is still a window into a
3D space. Naming this "3D view" would just bring all kinds of confusion instead of bringing clarity.
And what about the three new view orientations: isometric (formerly axonometric), dimetric and trimetric? How would you rename them?
CAD evolved from technical drawing. Technical drawing has always represented objects through orthographic projections. In CAD, the perspective view was added as an afterthought: it's just eye candy. (In the CAD program I use at work, you can't even enable perspective projection from a toolbar or the menu; you need to open a dialog; there's a keyboard + mouse wheel combo that is not documented)
Most experienced CAD users will tell you: they design in orthographic projection, not in perspective. Perspective skews the model to use your words. For example, when you're sketching on the top face of a cube, referring geometry from the bottom face, you absolutely need to have its edges superimposed where they actually are, rather than distorted by perspective.
I would even wager this, I'm surely generalizing but here goes: engineers almost never use perspective projection because they don't see the point (just have a look at the screenshots in the
Users Showcase forum). Only architects and industrial designers do, to look at their model in the closest way it will look in real life
, or to make screenshots/renders; they return to orthographic projection for design. The time I spend in perspective projection is maybe 2% at most.
Over all the wiki pages you've looked at that contained screenshots, how many show perspective projection? Not that many I'd say.
To me it does not make sense to change the terminology of views to unusual words that will have experienced CAD users scratch their heads, all for a perceived discrepancy that is after all very minor, and only happens marginally.
I mean, you are the first person in 9 years I've been here who's having a problem with this...
garya wrote: ↑Tue Jan 15, 2019 7:57 pm
Once orthographic mode encompasses three different types, would you constantly switch between isometric, dimetric, and trimetric?
Yes. This is why I've lobbied for it for many years, and finally got my wish! I've already mapped keyboard shortcuts.
(7 and 8, as it happens)
garya wrote: ↑Tue Jan 15, 2019 7:57 pm
If the tooltip said "Axonometric", as it does now, one would write the tutorial to say "switch to axonometric view." If the user is in Perspective mode, some users will think, oh, I have to switch to axonometric mode and do that rather than switching to the 3D view. Things go downhill from there.
Uh, sorry but "
I have to switch to axonometric mode and do that rather than switching to the 3D view" makes no sense to me.
In any case, I very much doubt that a beginner will ever have that thought. For one thing, they won't even know what an axonometric view is, so we'll have to explain it, or link to the command page. And, they will probably not even know yet that they can switch to perspective projection. AFAIK there is no mention of it on the wiki, and orthographic view is the default.
If you insist on this, we could always add to all the tutorials on the wiki to make sure to start in orthographic view.
FreeCAD
