[JesperW]

I understand the plugin is very much in development right no, so I thought it would be useful to offer you some feedback.

First a couple of bugs:

- Selection Filters: When I exit the Maxwell plugin, the selection filters are often active (the cursor looks a small funnel). Also SW has been confused as to weather the selection filter toolbar is actually displayed. To see this effect: Show the toolbar before entering Maxwell plugin, and undock it.

- Picking sometimes crashes. When assigning materials and picking entities from the object tree, the whole application frequently crashes.

- The background color of the plugin panel does not follow SW settings. And the buttons OK/Cancel/Help loose their alpha channels. Try for example Tools > Options > System Options, uncheck "Match Graphics Area and FeatureManager Backgrounds", and then open the plugin.


The a few suggestions:

- The OK and Cancel buttons of the plugin does exactly the same thing as far as I understand: Close the panel. Remove them and let the user close the panel by switching using the panel tabs on top instead.

- Selectiong a material is mixed up with changing the material type in the current layout. This is confusing. Also assigning material button are mixed up with modifying material buttons. I created a suggestion for how the GUI can be made very much clearer without too many modifications in the software:

[jjs]

I think your seperation of the Material Assigning and material generation is much clearer.

The crashes you get are similar toi mine - on my system they are hard to pin down. - solidworks or Maxwell? I usually give Maxwell the benefit of the dooubt and blame SW.

I saw your question on how to improve your boat. I only have a few tips, make sure your colours are not saturated - keep them below 150 to reduce noise. Use dielectrics only when you have to.

Spend a bit of time going back through the forum as there are alot of tips that people have given.

TTFN


jonathan

[juan]

Hello Jesper,

Your suggestions are very welcome! We will take it into consideration for next updates.

- Selection Filters: When I exit the Maxwell plugin, the selection filters are often active

By default the plugin sets the filters to the initial value. We will check if there is a bug in this process.

- Picking sometimes crashes. When assigning materials and picking entities from the object tree, the whole application frequently crashes.

Please try to get the sequence you do before get this crash. We have fixed most of the bugs in this area but may be there is still one alive.

- The background color of the plugin panel does not follow SW settings. And the buttons OK/Cancel/Help loose their alpha channels.

I am afraid we have not so much to do in this area but we will investigate it indeed.

- The OK and Cancel buttons of the plugin does exactly the same thing as far as I understand: Close the panel. Remove them and let the user close the panel by switching using the panel tabs on top instead.

I guess you are talking about put a tab in the top as the Feature design tree tab or the configuration manager tab. At now it is not possible changing the internal design to achieve it, but we are investigating future ways to improve the integration of the plugin

.. I created a suggestion for how the GUI can be made very much clearer without too many modifications in the software

Your ideas are great, many thaks. We want to provide the interface that make you feel more comfortable and I think your ideas could be very useful.

Best,

Juan

[JesperW]

Please try to get the sequence you do before get this crash. We have fixed most of the bugs in this area but may be there is still one alive.

I have not been able to come up with a repeatable testcase. On an average complex model, create some materials, delete some, switch between face and body select, pick some items from the Fetaure Manager tree, pick some from the graphics window, and the applications crashes.

If there is some kind of utility that I can install to provide you with tracebacks or other info thats useful to you, please tell me.

I guess you are talking about put a tab in the top as the Feature design tree tab or the configuration manager tab. At now it is not possible changing the internal design.

You are right. Well, then you might consider having just one button that says "Hide Maxwell Plugin" or something similar. The OK button gives the impression that something should be saved when you press it, and the Cancel button means changes are thrown away. Neither of these are true in this case.

[juan]

The crashes you get are similar toi mine - on my system they are hard to pin down. - solidworks or Maxwell? I usually give Maxwell the benefit of the dooubt and blame SW.

Hi Jonathan!
Nice to see you again
If the crashes are with the Maxwell property manager opened I usually think this is a bug of our plugin. If you are able to reproduce any sequence that causes crashes you will make me very happy (and I promise fix it inmediatly )

I am going to work with your suggestions in mind. As you know we are working hard in the new engine and we need to wait a bit before increase the level of integration of the plugin. But sure we will do it soon and you will be very very happy

Best,

Juan

[jjs]

I know you have alot to get to grips with as SW seems under constant development - looking forward to the release as and when you are happy with it..

TTFN

Jonathan

[JesperW]

I have a repeatable testcase of the crash!

Basically I start SW, open the model, go into swMaxwell2006, materials tab, check "Show The Material Automatically" and try to pick a body that has a SW texture and a Maxwell Texture from a previos session. This crashes every time. Not shure if I can send the model in a repeatable state, it is 35MB of parts/assemblies plus some textures. Please send me a private mail if you want the model.

Also I found another bug (OK, its a small one): If I use the "Change Transparency" feature in SW, the body is not selectable in the plugin. You expect it to be, since it is visible and selectable in SW.

/j

[JesperW]

Sorry, I was confused when I wrote the crash scenario above (14 hr working day, getting a little soft

The body I select USED to have a Maxwell material assigned. but I deleted the material in the eralier session.

/j

[juan]

Jesper,

Many thanks, we will fix the bug inmediatly. Also I knew the issue selecting objects with transparency, I am afraid this issue is not in the maxwell side but anyway we will try to get a solution for it as soon as possible.

Juan