Rationale: not really needed, but if you need a reason for such a wizard to exist, here is a small list:
- Watch the first five minutes of this video, please. It hits hard, at least for me.
- https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 60#p617960
- https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=71171
Say you are a mechanical engineer, MCAD hobbyist or a student, coming from another paid software you use at work or learned at uni, and want a free CAD for home use. I would guess, without any data, that this is a moderate amount of the userbase. You open FreeCAD, and have no clue where to start. You see a workbench selector, and navigate to "Part", because that's what you want to make. However, you have never learned CSG, and want to design the modern way with sketches and features. You click all sort of different buttons, watch some "Part Tutorials" on youtube, get scared of booleans and an unusual looking model tree, and uninstalls FreeCAD. This is exactly what my colleagues did, and probably what many other engineering forums users also have done.
What i would propose as at least a start, is a "Getting started wizard" that customizes the UI and settings to suit the new users needs. It will not fix the many UX issues that exist, but it could at least guide the new users through the first two or three steps in getting started. Here is a QT5 Designer mockup of what the skeleton could look like:
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With the work @chennes have done with preference packs, implementing this wizard should hopefully be simplified greatly, as settings, toolbars, themes ect can be applied via preference packs.
Here are two screenshots of how a "simple" layout could look like compared to the default layout.
Simple
Default
The exact implementation details and default settings should of course be discussed and agreed/voted upon, but the goal would be to make a fully usable UI, not a dumbed down thinkercad clone.
Disclaimer: I can't start programming this by my self atm, mostly because i have no idea where to start implementing such a wizard, secondly because i'm scared to death by C++. I'm taking a general programming course in python at uni this fall (besides work), and hope to start coding Q1 2023. If someone could help with the code stuff, i can absolutely find time to help with preference packs, defaults, documentation ect, and of course do some python coding where i can.
I see there is a lot happening in this thread already, the @Zolko preference pack could be a default layout perhaps?
Ping: @paddle @chennes @Kunda1 @drmacro +++++
Disclaimer 2: I love FreeCAD and will use it for as long as it is the leading FOSS MCAD. I am insanely greatful for the work that has gone into it the past 20+ years, and do not wish to come off as demanding or ungrateful. I wish the UX was better and that OCCT was as good as parasolid, but i do not expect or demand anything by anyone. And by the way, i have never heard of QT Designer before installing it as a FreeCAD compile dependency. I made that mockup in 15 minutes, without any tutorials or web searches. UX should not have to be difficult.