Autodesk Moldflow Communicator – Introduction
Today I’ve installed the Autodesk Moldflow Communicator Release 2010-R2 software for two reasons.
Firstly I wanted to discover more about what for this software has been developed and to understand which specifities each declinaison of Moldflow (Adviser, Insight and Communicator) have.
Secondly I like exploring unknown (by me) software and search for UI ideas. As software and web site designer and developer, I try to keep on being aware about new trends in interaction design.
Installation
Moldflow UI Technology Preview
Download the Autodesk Moldflow Communicator 2o1o patch on the Autodesk Labs, unzip it and run the executable. And that’s it! But it worthwhile because the new UI eases really the way to understand the software quickly.
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Step 1 :: Welcome to the patch! |
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Step 2 :: Installing… |
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Step 3 :: New UI-Patch explanation. |
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Step 4 :: Done! |
Autodesk Ribbon revolution
Before…
As you may see on the below screenshot the previous IDE was traditionnally using unpersonal and very uneasy-to-use toolbars. No distinction is done between the 4 toolsbars :
After
And now width the patch, all icons from the toolbar are integrated into the Ribbon according to the feature concept it is linked : Properties, Result, Animation, Image capture, etc.
Each ribbon bring directly to the user the possibilities to understand what for is done the software and may access directly to an huge quantity of features in one click!
Ribbon 1 :: Get Started
End of the unique F1 Help key! Now you may go to web site, online documentation, video tutorials and so on without searching for a long time. Just one click!
Ribbon 2 :: View
With this ribbon, you may configure you workspace.
Ribbon 3 :: Home
This ribbon appears when you have opened a project. Now you are really working with this software.
Other UI considerations
I’ve noticed that the Quick Access Toolbar is auto editing. You my make appear or disappear some item of the toolbar thanks to the combo at the end of the bar. May be useful to reduce this bar which can’t be very necessary for a dayly activity.
And that the same approach to manage the workspace. Quite clever.
Open Autodesk Moldflow Communicator project
As defined in the official documentation, Autodesk Moldflow Communicator aims at :
To experiment Autodesk Moldflow Communicator I recommend you to use the wizard to import project and test it, especially if – like me – you don’t have the possibility to create studies from Autodesk Moldflow Adviser or Insight! 😉
Wizard – Step 1 :: Choose result file
Wizard – Step 2 :: Select action
Now Autodesk Moldflow Communicator is installed. We had a look about the user interface and we made a presentation of the main characteristics of the products. I will try to go further in the exploration of this software in a future post. Stay tuned ! By the way I advise you to watch Autodesk video tutorials :
¬ Communicator Experimental Interface Show Me
¬ Experimental Interface Introduction
and read the official documentation :
I flowly recommend Autodesk Moldflow technology and its new UI patch!
About this entry
You’re currently reading “Autodesk Moldflow Communicator – Introduction,” an entry on dkor
- Published:
- 14 January 2010 / 00:01
- Category:
- 2D/3D Software, 3D, Autodesk, Design, Product design, Tools
- Tags:
- Autodesk, CAO, Communicator, Moldflow, ribbon
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