This is a concept design to make CAD more comfortable.
Every research participant (design studio director, student, engineer) expressed poor user experiences with CAD command tools.

Four Outstanding Problems

Below are findings upon user interviews where they had first-hand CAD trials:
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01. Small icons strain eyes
02. Users forget command names
03. Misclicking happens too often
04. Re-designing current CAD software would be inefficient

Award Winning Idea but...

In 2021, I explored a dial mouse concept. User would select a command group on the dial and scroll the dial to find specific commands.

After dozens of sketches and more than 9 clay mockups, the idea won an award. However, further studies proved me wrong.

Users wanted More Direct and Natural Controls

Users wanted larger icon graphics, finger tip controls of the model, and neutral appearace that won't clutter their desk.

How does This Concept Work?

01. Click a tool icon
02. Set of tools in the category appear
03. Use the dial to scroll through the tools
04. Use the trackpad to zoom + pan + rotate

The dial and the trackpad offer physical control of a CAD program. These liberate users from physical strain which comes from constantly holding and clicking multiple keys.

Logical Breakdown of Commands
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Offer easy tool searching in both parametric and direct modelling program. Customization is available for the users who wants hotkeys to a certain command.

ESC from "shift+ctrl+rmb" and more

One Finger Swipe to Rotate

Two Finger Swipe to Pan

Pinch to Zoom