The 3D Pub

This is an interactive 3D document that will be shown at SolidWorks World 2010 booth #117. Even thought this is a 3d LEGO model, this document represents how real-world show floor assembly procedures can be shared. The document in this example was created with Page3D Professional.

After we get back from SolidWorks I’ll put together a couple blogs on exactly how this was created, with videos to help with each of the steps. It only took a few hours to do the entire document. It will take me longer to do the videos, but we’ll show you how soon. Also, we will post the actually interactive 3D document so that you can download the file and interact with it yourself.

BTW, you can buy the lego kit used for this demo here: http://bit.ly/droFt9 …. then use the 3D version of the instructions to put it together quickly.

See you at SolidWorks World (booth #117)!

With the 2008 release, QuadriSpace chose to adopt the ribbon interface. By dedicating the product line to the ribbon user interface, we were making a risky move, but we were confident after considering customer needs that we were making the right decision.

The debate over the ribbon user interface started with the release of Microsoft Office 2007 and has continued to this day. The question really boils down to whether the ribbon is an effective interface or not; and for legacy products, whether the disruption is worth the benefits. I suppose to some degree the disruption applies to new products too, but this is limited since users must learn the new software anyway. QuadriSpace believes that the following profile applies to most users:

• Users like software that is familiar, and therefore easy to use
• Users want software tools that are organized with common tools easily available
• Users do not like the user interface to change much between software releases

As we considered our user interface for our 2008 release, we consulted with customers and set goals that would match our customers needs and our product’s road map.

Familiar Software

A major desire for users is that the software should feel familiar. In 2008, admittedly, a ribbon user interface was not familiar. However, we were looking to the not too distant future and we expected that the ribbon would become a standard. Also, to consider whether our product would be “familiar” or not we needed to evaluate our target user. Our target user is not necessarily an engineer, but rather a technical illustrator, writer or anyone in a company tasked with product documentation. We expected that these non-engineering users could benefit greatly from a user interface that was similar to Office in the long run.

Organized Tools

The ribbon is a perfect organizational method for our software. One of the unique factors about QuadriSpace software is the combination of 3D tools with page design tools. Our challenge was to design a user interface that was easy and familiar for Office users but had the power of easily accessible 3D tools. We explored various interface concepts based on toolbars and menus, but we didn’t feel that any of these options gave us the ability to organize tools effectively into categories. If you look at the QuadriSpace Pages3D user interface, you will notice that the first 2-3 ribbons provide the tools that are needed to create the page design and layout; the final 3-4 ribbons provide an organized set of tools for working with the 3D model. This organization allowed us to provide a set of page design tools that would be familiar to any Office user and the main effort of new users would be to learn the 3D tools.

Modern User Interface

For some users, modern means graphically attractive. But I believe that the biggest benefit of a “modern” user interface is the expectation that the interface will stay the same for years to come. Users know that software companies must maintain an up-to-date experience or they will suffer a perception of “out of date” software. For our 2008 release, we knew that user interface changes were required and we didn’t want to make our users go through another disruption later. In this sense, the ribbon was perfect, we do not foresee any major user interface changes for years to come and this suits our customers because they know that once they learn the software that they will not have to relearn next year or purchase additional training .

The Debate Rages On

In a recent response to Ralph Grabowski’s upfrontezine newsletter, Blake Courter from SpaceClaim weighed in with this experience:

I suspect that ribbon bars have a bad rap because most users first experienced them when they were forced to re-learn MS Office.  Personally, I continue to fail to be able to find common commands, and I have to look up their location in help.  No fun, for sure.  That said, new users to a product designed around the ribbon paradigm don’t seem to have any complaints.  We keep hearing great things about SpaceClaim’s ribbon UI.

To check out the latest edition of Ralph’s newsletter, go here: http://www.upfrontezine.com/2010/upf-630.htm. It’s a great source of 3D CAD industry information.

The Bottom Line

Overall, it really just boils down to knowing your customer and giving your customer software that is easy-to-use and provides immediate results.  Forget about the debate between ribbons and toolbars. Different software users have different needs. Based on our customer feedback, the ribbon has proven to be a significant competitive advantage for us versus competitors.

#1 Register to win a Free iPod Touch

We’re giving away a free iPod touch this year. Simply register with us at the booth to enter you name in the drawing.

#2 Learn how Document3D compares to 3DVIA Composer

You’ll be surprised how affordable our professional products are and we don’t give an inch when it comes to features. In fact, we have a patented approach that combines page design with 3D tools giving a complete solution that results in final documents. Also, be sure to ask about Smart Template Technology.

#3 Race against the clock for more Prizes

Use an Interactive Work Instruction created with Pages3D to put together a Lego model in record time. This example uses a lego model to demonstrate how our customers are creating assembly instructions for the shop floor in the real-world.

Thanks for visiting the QuadriSpace blog. There are a wide range of topics that we plan to cover over the next months and years, so join the QuadriSpace Twitter feed and keep up to date with what’s going on with QuadriSpace, our products and product documentation in general. We will help you come up with the best practices and strategies for reusing your 3D models to create everything from work instructions to technical illustrations, from illustrated parts lists to 3D PDF documents. Keep with us and you will be able to expand the use of 3D for everything!

Here are some topics we will be covering, feel free to let me know what you’d like to see from us too.

• Project Demos — I already have the first one in mind for this (and it has to do with what we will be doing and SWW 2010 this year too, sneak peak)
• Quick Tips — There are tons of features and capabilities, so we’ll have real QuadriSpace guru’s proving user tips weekly.
• Customer Success Stories — We have notes on many accounts and haven’t found the time to get this into formal documents, I think we can get blog entries going quickly.
• Discussions on Applications of 3D product documentation — from the professional to the entertaining, we’ll cover all kinds of uses.
• Competitive Comparisons — The differences between our products and our competitor’s is huge. We will clearly communicate these differences and point out how our products save more time, cost less and provide the best results. This is a big picture difference, we’ll help everyone see the light.
• Industry Insight— The 3D product documentation market is taking off; we’ve been focused on this market since 2001 so we will have plenty of things to say about the trends and direction.

That’s just a quick list. I’m sure there’s more.

Thanks for keeping up with us.

Brian Roberts