HEX 2 Manual

[bwtr]

Can I use it as my avitar when I get my printed manual?

[mdunakin]

Hey!, ain't that the old Keep on Truckin' dude from when I was a kid back in the day?
Back when they also invented the cat that hangs from a thing.

.............md

.

[Nate Owens]

Originally Posted by mdunakin

Hey!, ain't that the old Keep on Truckin' dude from when I was a kid back in the day?
Back when they also invented the cat that hangs from a thing.

.............md

.

Yep... Mr. Keep-on-Truckin' himself.
I wouldn't use him for anything unless you can get the artist (Robert Crumb) to ok it. Felix the Cat, and others were featured in underground comics back yonder about the same time they were making dirt... which by the way was quite interesting.... another time I will tell you how they did it.

[mdunakin]

Cool, sounds good.
We can take they off line or something or find a forum that that
subject could fit in, cuz I wouldn't mind hearing the rest of this story.
Thanx.......md

.

[bwtr]

Nate, my point was that I am affraid that my beard will be that long by the time the printed manual arrives!!!

[mdunakin]

Nate, my point was that I am affraid that my beard will be that long by the time the printed manual arrives!!!

LOL

........................md

[Thomas]

For your info, we should update the manual on each new update. I mean, if we do additions for a .x version, the manual will be rebuild and added in the update, with the new movies added too.

[bwtr]

Thanks for that Thomas. Have you considered that the soundless movies are rather an indication of skill expression than education to many? The swf's that detail, in words, and which you can progress through at your own "absorbtion" speed are far superior I would suggest.

[Thomas]

Sorry bwtr, I didn't understand whay you mean.. (sorry for my poor english..)

[whkguamusa]

I have to agree with Nate
- printed manuals are out of date even before the ink has dried on the last page printed.
I think people are just going to have to get used to it.
Electronic guides are far easier to keep up to date with the rapid changes in software.
Maybe Eovia can arrange some kind of print on demand service with a 3rd party and keep the info current there.
Then users who want the paper can pay and have the latest version printed and sent to them without the risk of Eovia sitting on pallets of unsold Hexagon 2.0 users guides when they release Hexagon 2.5 & up.

Keep the resources where they count the most - in the code, not in dried ink and paper.

wayne k
guam usa

[bwtr]

Thomas I'me sorry if I seem to be tough on you. All your movies are brilliant in themselves but, for me, and I suggest many others, they are more about your skills in using the programme than in how we learn to use the programme. I have to go through all of them one frame at a time to grasp what you have done, and, even then, I know that you are doing things to get the results you acchieve that are not shown in the movies. Does that make sense to you?

I know many can grasp the implications involved in what you are showing but many of us are not so programme literate. Thats why a printed manual is important to some, just as others may always use duall screens and have no problems with pdffs either.

As an "inbetween" point I am sugessting the "show and tell "of swfs as a better answer than, particularly, soundless movies.

Hope that is constructive.

[Nate Owens]

Originally Posted by bwtr

Thanks for that Thomas. Have you considered that the soundless movies are rather an indication of skill expression than education to many? The swf's that detail, in words, and which you can progress through at your own "absorbtion" speed are far superior I would suggest.

This is a good suggestion.

Flash Movies - (.swf file format) - are not "linear" (meaning they just play non-stop from start to finish).

They can have animation... they can even have sequenced j-peg files and thus look like movies... they can stop at a given point and await a button click to proceed and so on. They can have text blocks, arrow graphics, or whatever to further explain what is happening.

I find I have to play the current movies in the manuals many times just to figure out what is happening, and then in some spots play them by stepping ahead frame-by-frame. I agree that they are not the most convenient method of trying to learn new moves in a software program.

This is an all graphic flash "info-graphic" example, where something happens and then the next step happens when a button is clicked. It could have used sequenced jpeg's, making it look like a movie....
Interactive flash map

This one uses sequenced jpeg images of animated 3-d graphics. It is very basic, and the jpegs could have been screen captures or frame-by-frames from a .mov file...........
Interactive diabetes graphic

[Thomas]

The problem with Hexagon documentation is that some users thinks that they are tutorials. They are only here to illustrate what is describe in the documentation itself, or only showing the tool in action.

For Hexagon 2, we added audio comments on most videos. (not all, some of them doesn't need audio

[bwtr]

Thanks Thomas. A move in the right direction. However, I think a problem may be that most think the movies should be the replacement to the printed word. What is happening, I think, is that neither are doing it properly. A full comprehensive written manual is, I know, a lot of hard work and few get it right--the Carrara 4 manual, with many faults, is still about as good as most manuals.

[Couerl]

Whkguamusa is all the manual I need.

Put the money in the code where it belongs and maybe for the next version of this forum (because it can grow too) find a good way to deploy a search function so that it will crawl the whole text of the site. It needs a strong database, but maybe Eovia can supply something like SQL 2005 for the job.

[Nate Owens]

Originally Posted by Thomas

For your info, we should update the manual on each new update. I mean, if we do additions for a .x version, the manual will be rebuild and added in the update, with the new movies added too.

Maybe I missed something or don't understand this...
When Hex 1.2 came out, the PDF help remained the same as it was for version 1... the new tools like "Dissociate," Quad, triangluar and diamond tessalation.... were only documented in a tag-on html file. Is there now a full all-inclusive pdf file for the current (1.2) version that has all of the old and new stuff in one pdf file?

I'm assuming (and hoping) that Hex 2, as a whole new version, will be fully documented in one pdf.

[efflux]

This discussion always goes on where programs have no written manual.

These are my opinions.

Manuals cost loads to produce so the software would have to cost more. It costs to post manuals. Software and manual can be downloaded. Paper manuals are a waste of paper. If you are working in the program isn't it more convenient to see a manual on the screen that you can easily search rather than having a paper manual on your desk? Then there is the question of constant updates making paper manuals all the more problematic.

Video tutorials are definitely very useful but it depends on how they are made. The best ones have sound and act as if you were right there following what the tutorial is showing in some kind of sensible real time so that you can follow the actions without having to constantly flick back and forth. Flash files may be a better option but they are probably a lot more trouble to produce.

[bwtr]

There are many, like me, who find working with anything other than a printed manual almost impossible. I find them a real joy and pleasure--and I can read them at all odd moments and places without having to switch on or be at a computer.
I have many nights when I think I may have thought up a solution and get out of bed to quickly double check so I can get back to sleep.
I would not suggest that manuals need to be sold with the app--just available to purchase.

[Thomas]

Hexagon 2.0 manual include all updates made before (1.01-1.2-1.21) plus the new additions.
For the next minor release (2.x), a new manual will be included with the additions, to replace the current one.

[bwtr]

Thanks Thomas