Reorganize Toolbar?

[grmonsey]

I am curious if it is possible to reorganize the toolbar, and change the alignment from left side to right side.
If not, it would be great if a person could unlock the toolbar, rearrange the order of the tool groups, align some on left and others on right and then relock it.

I run the toolbar in small mode, so it may not be feasible in the other modes.

Just a question and a thought.

[henmedia]

@grmonsey, thank you for the question. No, the toolbar cannot be rearranged today: the groups stand in a fixed order, and so does the side bar with the camera and tools. A second person asked for the same thing in #433, who wants to drag the groups into a different order.

Which bar do you mean, the ribbon at the top (Home, Clipboard, ... Manage, Help), or the vertical bar at the left edge? And what would you move to the right, and why? That tells me what a change would have to do. A freely arrangeable toolbar is a big change that touches the whole screen, so I want to hear from more people before I decide on something like that.

[grmonsey]

I just wanted to reorder the top ribbon, not the sidebar, and shift the ribbon groups to the right (group, ungroup, align etc. ). I worked in tinkercad for so long, and got used to most of the selections being on the right. Again, I use the small ribbon, the bigger ones wouldn't fit anyway.
Its no biggie, just though I would check into it.

[henmedia]

@grmonsey thank you, that makes it clear: the ribbon groups on the right as in Tinkercad, in the small ribbon. I have noted it next to the request in #433. I will wait to hear whether more people want the same before I touch the layout of the ribbon.

[prmod3d]

I'm indifferent to the order of the ribbon groups in the menu, however I would like to be able to move the "SHAPES" one wherever I wanted. My preference is to the extreme right, and I'd also like to have user control over how many columns are used to display the shapes --- with a scrollbar if required -- either as a user-definable value in the Shapes panel itself, or auto-formatted by resizing the left side of the panel with the mouse. Here's the reason why:

Most times when I select a Shape from the temporarily active Shapes panel, I want to cruise it onto another shape or drop it at a specific place on the Workplane. The Shapes panel always gets in the way of my view of this, even momentarily until it closes, and I find it a bit visually jarring to target the intended landing spot again. Having it on the right side, with a user-definable column width, would replicate what most people are used to with Tinkercad, and would likely not interfere with the Workplane as much as it does when opening nearly in the center of the screen.

Finally, the location of the Shapes menu on the right would have more consistent placement with the related Properties panel, presuming people leave it in it's default location on the right side of the screen,

I realize this is all a very subjective thing, which is why I vote yes (generally) for being able to position the ribbon groups in any order and in any place (right, left or middle) on the menu strip. The only down side of this -- and it's a big one -- is that the screen captures in the User Guide would start to get very confusing... unless AI was smart enough to generate and insert images of custom layouts on the fly when displaying the Guide. Now THAT would be very cool! (And of course not possible with a locally-running app).

[henmedia]

@prmod3d thank you, the part about the Shapes panel is concrete: it opens near the middle and covers the spot where you want to drop the shape. I have noted it with the other requests about the layout of the ribbon in #433.

[RobbieKnobbie]

While the repositioning of the SHAPES group has merit with regards to blocking your workplane, I am in general against too much customization.

I used to be the Solidworks guru at a former employer and it would drive me nuts when I had to go help a new engineer, only to find that he's spent his first two days with the software moving things around arbitrarily. That also lead to guys being unable to help each other because they had gotten used to their own customizations and were unfamiliar with the other guy's layuout

This led to even more confusion when sometimes a Service Pack would come out and reset everyone's layout and the office ground to a screeching halt as half of us spent two more days trying to remember the crap they had moved around.

That said, perhaps this could be another option for taming the SHAPES button: Since its currently the only group composed of just one member, split it into two or more groups. Maybe one for basic geometric shapes, and another for 'advanced' or 'functional' shapes like gears, fasteners, text, belt covers, etc. A third group for fun shapes like hearts, stars, crescents, key chains. That way each drop down would be much smaller than it is now.

And if you have fewer options to display, maybe run them in just two rows, most of the way across the screen, so the majority of the workplane remains visible? (see quick workup pic below)

[henmedia]

@RobbieKnobbie thank you, that is a clear view from someone who has seen what too much customisation does to a team, and it is a fair point against moving groups around. Your other idea, splitting the Shapes group in two and showing it in fewer rows, is a different way to keep the panel off the work area. I am collecting it with the floating panel that @prmod3d suggested in #433. Nothing is decided.