here’s what the red triangle would look like…
png 
svg 
one advantage I see here is that the red doesn’t pretend to be part of the upper component as much.
ViewCube: A 3D orientation indicator and controller
Our experimental results indicated that
users prefer and are twice as fast at using the ViewCube with
dragging (to perform orbit operations with view snapping)
compared to the ―single click based‖ view switching techniques.
Also, by making the scene orientation always visible via the
ViewCube as a proxy for the 3D scene, we make visible the effect
of other application tools including ArcBall functionality. We
found no significant performance effects of varying the
ViewCube’s labeling schemes (using text, 2D graphics, a 3D
proxy model, or no labels) but to facilitate collaboration we
believe text labels are most beneficial.
1 Like
The problem with ViewCube is AutoDesk patented the dumb thing.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20130332889A1/en
Legally dubious for KiCad to include it.
1 Like
ugh… classic. So it could almost be that with earliest patent listed as 2007-03-28, this is one of the first publications after the fact. Everything is poisoned by patent law ^^
I’ve been thinking about the cubes a bit,
Currently, the icons look like these fellas:
and a proposal from above to make the backgrounds more distinct, avoiding the look of 60° rotations 
but not fixing the “right = right, left = front” conflict.
Now one could rotate the cube slightly and test orthographic vs. perspective projections to end up with something functionally equivalent to the old (v5) icons.
Here’s a rough sketch of planes looking down into a wireframe cube (l-to-r: back, left, bottom, right, top, front)
So what could we do about these six icons?
I made the cube be more 3D.
png 
svg 
“front” indicator:
png 
svg 
axis3d set
@Seth_h here’s a summary of the stuff I proposed above. (as per issue, MR for 1. or 2. would come with code adaption).
-
rotate.zip (10.6 KB) -
rotation_rgb.zip (10.6 KB) -
-
-
axis3d.zip (19.6 KB)
Hey guys, I am seeing these new icons on Kicad Nightly.
Then I found this thread here.
I don’t have much to say, especially because I didn’t have time to read the whole thread. But these round corner squares as icons are so bad for me. Their information is also pretty hard to understand.
Yeah, I know it will be pretty hard to match all of the known operating systems and styles. But in this case, is better to improve icons being closer to the original ones. In this way, the change will be more gradual.
The color scheme is not there yet for the dark theme too, but this is also something that you already know.
Main window
Eeschema
PCBnew
3D Viewer
The toolbar icons are getting fine since they are not square.
And yeah, the color theme is not there yet.
Eeschema (Left)
Eeschema (Right)
PCBNew (Left)
PCBNew (Right)
This icon set is not supposed to work for dark themes. We hope to have dark theme support for V6.
1 Like
should be tracked here:
1 Like
If you compare the first iteration in the first screenshots in this thread with the current nightlies you can see that the current set of the main KiCad window is “relatively close” to the original set. Hopefully the problems with the red details will be fixed, then I will be happy and won’t miss the old icon set except maybe for some details.
I don’t know what’s the problem with the round corners, they look better than sharp corners. The informativeness of the first iteration was awful, the current set is much better and I don’t see why it would be worse than the original in that respect. I think you are just accustomed to the old set as all we were 
1 Like
Yep, it might be the fact that I am not used to them. I don’t know, I just don’t like them, these round-corner rectangles just look childish. But improving the color theme for dark environments may help a bit in my case. Lets, see. I hope to have this dark theme for v6. And of course, these things can always be improved with time.
is it just me? ^^
No, kicad actually hints at big brother’s eye spying on all of us. (just kidding)
@Seth_h
I gotta say from the time when I started this toppic kicad icons have gone a long way. For me it went from “ugh” to “I can live with that” to “I actually like these more than v5 icons” in the matter of weeks. There are still a few icons that definitely should be improved, but overall it’s starting to look very nice.
Great work!
4 Likes
The more layers in your board, the more surveillance cameras KiCad can deploy to watch you
3 Likes
As action in this thread is winding down a bit, could I ask you to have a look at the axis3d icons above in New icons in nightly (5.).
With the proposed replacements I tried to alleviate the difficulty in making out the depth cues in the current version of those icons.
Also having some ideas how to improve the “flip” icon.
1 Like
Very nice and intuitive icons, I’m only afraid that the ‘cartoonish’ style will not blend with the overall theme well.
2 Likes
If you can be specific about what aspects strike you as such, I can try to tweak them and we can see what the impact is. Of course you’re also invited to grab the svg files from post 235 and play around with them yourself 
ps. I’m also ok with any of my proposed icons to be grabbed and used as examples for what doesn’t fit the intended style guide (cc @craftyjon).
Hard do say for sure, it’s rather general impression. Probably the front lines of varying width and the shadow edges at different angles than the cube’s edges.
As I explained, i really like them for the intuitiveness, but find most of the icons in the theme to use simplified/minimalistic style without visual ornamentation.
Probably in some time we will be able to use alternative iconsets for Kicad, and then these could find their deserved home.
1 Like
These fancy cubes are still viewed from a corner / diagonal, and therefore information between “Front” and “back” is very minimal. I suspect the triangle in the corner is supposed to be the “eye” location, but this is not very clear and it looks too much like the “foldout” corner as used in for example the measurement icons.