Interface Ramblings

[Darren_DeVecchio]

Not sure what category this might go in, however after using Astroprint for a while now, I have noticed some things in the UI that I think might be cleaned up to improve the user experience…They are not meant to be criticisms, nor am I trying to nit-pick, in general things work fine but might be made even better…And of course I am not going into the things I like just the things that I think might benefit from some tweaking…these of course are just my opinions and others may think differently.

This all deals with the cloud web pages not the ones internal to the Astrobox.

First I find the reveal icons in the FileManger to be odd. To me the arrow should point to the right when the reveal is closed and down when the reveal is showing. Right now it is down when the reveal is closed and up when open which seems really backward but if it is supposed to be a button not a widget, and thus reflect the state it will assume as opposed to the state it is in, but it sure feels funny and does not look like a button.

Second I find the position of the reveals is very inconsistent…sometimes it is on the right of the item, sometimes it is on the extreme right of the page other times it is to the left of the item. The Icons are also inconsistent sometimes an arrow sometimes a plus or an ellipsis …again they make sense in their own right but not consistent.
Using different symbols to do similar but different things I am okay with but I feel like I have to mouse around back and forth from one side of a design entry to the other to do things.

Third it is odd that the pop ups for the links to Printer and Filament info in a design are one style while the info for the Slicer is different.

I find it odd that the dashboard Icon is not available in the Camera/Controls screen…instead there is an icon in its usual place in the upper right that takes you to the same place as the camera/controls button but to return to the dashboard one must click a back arrow on the left side of the page (opposite of what is usual) to return to the intermediate page where you then have to move to the extreme right side of that page and click the dashboard.
To be honest I don’t even understand that intermediate page but maybe it is for selecting multiple Astroboxes and since I have only one it seems like an extra step…maybe in the single Astrobox case that intermediate page could just be skipped.

Overall I think the font and spacing of things is too big and spread out. I know the helps legibility for some, but even I, with marginal old guy vision, think things could be a bit tighter so that more info could fit on a typical screen and still not feel crowded. I also think in general the file manager could be better with two columns to reduce vertical scrolling, especially within the Projects category or perhaps a column for projects and a second column for Designs…maybe even a pop up list to select the project.

I find the pop up for the account mouseover to be a bit over sensitive or maybe just too low…I often seem to hit it when going for the dashboard…not a problem since the dashboard choice is also in the pop up but it would be better if that just didn’t pop unless I hit the account name or reveal triangle.

Very minor but I would also arrange the items on the Dashboard a bit differently…I know they shift around with the window size but I would put all the Astrobox items together and follow those with the third party links for Thingiverse and 3dPrintCloud etc. Maybe even divide it into two Panes, Astrobox Controls/Third-Party Addins

In a different area I sometimes have the problem where a design seems to upload and slice fine but never appears in the design list. I have found this is possibly do to a questionable STL file as running it through netfabb will sometimes allow that design to be added and sliced…I would kind of expect an error pop up or a slice failed or something not just that the design shows as a recent and seemingly successful slice but can never be printed and disappears when the page is closed…like it was never uploaded.

Thanks for reading.

[Daniel]

Thanks for taking the time to write this to us. There are many things here that we will add to our list to fix

[Darren_DeVecchio]

Here is my take on a way to improve the slicing interface…as if you didn’t have enough to do…
I have included a link to simple hand drawn picture of changes to the slice screen.
I tried keep it similar to the current setup.

So you might wonder about all the boxes under the model picture…a pretty obvious add, that others have also mentioned, these are a way to rotate, scale and move objects on the print bed…adding a way to have several objects would be nice but not sure how to fit that into the current model/slice structure.

The bigger change in the right column…I have added 2 steps…one to Choose the Slicer independent of the printer and the second to add what I call “OVERRIDES”.

These work very similar to Slice Profiles…They are not tied to a model or a printer or material but probably to a slicer.
Once you choose the slicer and the slice profile (either a stock one or a custom profile) you can choose to modify the profile just as you do now in the “advance slicer settings” however once you do that you save the setting and return to the slice screen.

Next you optionally choose one or more overrides (I think 3 is probably about the right number.)

Overrides are just like a slice profile except they have all the settings blank (there are not default values as in a slice setting.) When you create an override you set a value for one or more slice settings. For instance you might set up an override called “Fast” in this override you would set only the slice setting All Speeds to 80mm, Cooling to On and Fan Controls to turn on at layer 2 and run at 80%. Another override might be called “Vase”, it might have the layer setting set to Spiral, with External Perimeter Speed to 50mm, and the Bottom layer count set to 6 and the Fan Speed set to 100%. If you applied these as overrides A being set to “Fast” and B set to “Vase” you would get the selected slice profile but override A would set all speeds to 80mm, turn on cooling fan on layer 2 at 80% however override B would then reset the external Perimeter Speed to 50mm and enable Spiral layering and change fan speed to 100%. All other Slice parameters would be taken from the selected Slice Profile. If you reversed the application of overrides and set override A to Vase and Override B to “Fast” you would end up with all the same setting changed but your model would be sliced for all layers at 80mm, you would still do spiral layers and have 6 bottom layers however your fan would run at only 80%. You could view the overridden parameter set with the VIEW button next to SLICE and PRINT.

Now for the WHY would I want to do things this way…I find that when I am setting up with a new material or printer or slicer I have an iterative process to get all the setting right for a generalized succussful print…once I get all that setup I save the profile…This then becomes my Go To Profile for this system/material however by itself it can’t print everything in the best possible way…Obviously a Vase wants a spiral layering and usually concentric layers on the bottom and wants to have a thicker bottom for water tightness than say a model of a remote control mock up. A working part might be fine with the optimized profile but need a heavier infill ratio and more perimeter layers. A tall thin piece might need more fan etc. Trying to create all these profiles and giving them names that work gets to be a challenge…right now I try to include details in the name or maybe name it after a specific model or model type if I can dream up something. Using overrides I can just stick with my stock profile and add a tweak here or there or even create a set of tweaks that I use for some class of object…I might have overrides for infill 10%, 25% and 100%…yes I could use the standard profile then change that parameter but then when I want to print a similar part I either have to have saved that profile and recall what I called it or go back and look at all the custom settings for that part and see if I can figure out how it is different. Using overrides I could see (I am assuming the overrides would be shown in the file manager just like the slice settings) and know that on this part I used the standard settings but just used an override to increase infill to 100%.

Obviously I could reasonably just create a new profile but that gets a bit tedious and it is hard to know how they differ. Having Overrides I think might also be helpful in that initial creation of a baseline profile as I could tweak the common things and test them individually or all together until I get the desired result then build a new slice profile based on what I learn.

Thanks for Reading.

Edited for typos and clarity…

[Michael_A_Fuselier]

Wow, Darren_DeVecchio has some great suggestions. I would add a few minor ones to that.

1. Perhaps in the header at the very top, opposite of the Astroprint logo that functions as a sort of dashboard home link button, I would add a logo for the Astroprint home page, A contact button, A support button, and a forums button all opening up another tab or window. A nice a quick way to navigate away from the cloud interface and back out to YOU for support in one form or another.

2. I would also group the main dashboard icons differently. Putting the Design Uploader, File Manager, Monitor, Print Queues, Print Captures and Print History together, while grouping all the various settings together as well (perhaps each it’s own line. Then I would do the same with the repositories, and the online apps and tools. Might even be nice to allow the user to rearrange each line as they see fit, at least for sure with the repositories and app/tools lines.

I also really like Darren’s suggestion for changes to the slicing interface, and overrides, the only thing I would add would be a file list out to one side (perhaps a queue list) where I could drag additional items onto the print bed to print more than one file to batch the jobs, and a slicer layers view and slider to see how the file will be sliced like the full app slicers.

I think that about does it for now.

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Just remembered this one. It would be very nice to have the Thingiverse link take me to my account page in Thingiverse, where I have already saved designs. Nice for the other repositories you add too.

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OK, so to add to #1, I would put the button that’s on the monitor screen which allows you to jump to your local Astroprint config, on more pages. Not sure if it makes sense to be on them all, but you might want to think about it. But whether you do or not, it might be nice to allow advanced users some place to put settings for a ddns account to their local machine settings for gettng there from out on the internet.

Also, if there was a way to have the file manager show both files in the cloud and on the local astroprint (and possibly on the printer’s memory card as well) that would be swell.

Also a way to know that gcode files can be uploaded on the local astroprint box, perhaps in the upload message that pops up when trying to upload them to the cloud, would be nice. I feel like an idiot realizing that I spent the last two months thinking it wouldn’t upload gcode files, only to realize it will but only on the local box setting page.
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