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KeyCreator CAD & CKD Viewer Technical discussion of CAD/CAM and integrated partner products
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jmccullough@kubotek3d.com - (10/1/2021 10:41:16 AM)
RE:Why not 2D/3D anymore and where in the world did Z Free and Z Lock come from??

It is possible to change text in the UI, but probably not practical for this. The complete answer (which may be helpful for some of you) is all of the text in the UI of all Kubotek products is designed to be swapped out for non-English markets. The system for doing this is setup for our experienced resellers localizing to serve hundreds of users, and not designed for typical end-user engineers. 

For KeyCreator there are non-compiled resource files that are usually edited with a software compiler like Microsoft Visual Studio. This process does require some caution, as making text strings longer can easily cause run-time errors and system instability. So unsupported "hacking" of the resource is possible, but programming experience is strongly recommended. Another warning - there are legal strings like copyright notices in this system which no one is allowed to alter. 

Configuring KeyCreator to use an out-of-date resource file can also easily cause instability. New versions of KeyCreator routinely update these resource files with new text strings, etc. and the compiled code is designed to access the resources without double-checking for out-of-date changes. Point is, these edited resources should be re-edited for every release.  

Returning to Jason's topic and point - small UI changes can get in the way of deeply ingrained workflows. To prevent such problems, KeyCreator has mostly avoided making UI changes. When major changes have been made, special options have been included to allow users to continue to use old interfaces. As great as that is for experienced users, over time it can result in a product which looks old and less appealing to prospective users.  

KeyCreator is currently at a significant "fork" in it's history. Later this month Kubotek will be introducing a new generation of variant KeyCreator products with a dramatically different user interface designed for new users. The KeyCreator variant you guys are using now is named KeyCreator Pro (2021). I want to emphasize part of why we’ve created new variants is so that the Pro interface can be “locked” as Jason is requesting.
Both sets of KeyCreator products use the same core and CKD database. This allows them to be used side-by-side. During the creation of the new variants there have been a few changes made in Pro like this 2D/3D to Z Lock/Z Free change. Another example was changing Accept to OK in all conversation bar menus. Changes like this have been evaluated to be a long-term improvement which has an overall benefit to the KeyCreator community. In other words, the needs of Pro users to continue working as they always have has been balanced with the need for the community to continue to grow by attracting new users. This transition is complete. There are no terminology changes in the pending KeyCreator Pro 2022 releases. The UI style of the new variants will continue to adapt to market trends – without impacting the KeyCreator Pro UI. 
I’m working on a blog post to further detail this strategy more publicly. The short version is that KeyCreator Pro power users are the fastest and most productive CAD users in the world. Pro users should be comfortable that the UI they know is stable and highly valued by Kubotek.  

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