Silo’s UI is very basic, only text buttons and everything is put without any clear hierarchy or classification.

Silo at the beginning

Silo

Silo is a very simple yet very powerful 3D modeler.

You can find it at nevercenter.

One of the particularity of Silo is that it allows a user to easily build his own interface.

As the interface that come with it is very spartan (see below),

I decided to implement one.

My intent was to build an interface to ease the learning curve :

To make the commands visible, visual and with a readable shortcut.

That way, you can quickly discover the potential of the software and learn the shortcuts to become rapidly proficient.

One of the more interesting challenge was to find the semantic and the look of the icons. I did the job twice and you can see here the second try and there is still a lot of work to do.

Depending on the selection mode : vertex, edge, face or object, the palette change.

Commands and shortcuts are the same where available, but the icon change according to the behavior.

Selection palette

help with selections.

tools palette

where it doesn’t fit elsewhere ;-)

mirror palette

everything to mirror things.

The interface in action.

There is some more tweaking to do and the icons in the settings area can be greatly improved in look.

The construction palettes:

Construction

noun-verb commands to construct your model.

Change the selection type

Transform

Manipulators to modify your model

Tools

verb-noun commands.

Orient the manipulator

snap

selection style :

paint,

lasso,

rectangle,

soft selection

display mode :

wire

facet

smooth

show/hide edge.

Settings

I organised the layout in 6 areas :

Selection change the selection mode (vertex, edge, face or object) and the construction tools accordingly.

Construct are noun-verb commands that modify the topology.

transform and local transform are manipulators that transform the geometry.

Tools are verb-noun commands that allow to create geometry or modify topology.

I added a multi-palette where we find other commands, helpers for selecting and commands for mirroring and duplicating.

The last area allows to modify some settings like the display mode.

Every command as an icon and most have a its name displayed and a shortcut.

A typical palette in face selection mode.

Helpers, Mirrors

and othe tools