Hello!
Yesterday I posted about my struggels while building terms and referring to objects. Mostly the amount of writing and the (admittingly small) hussle of finding the name of an object. Because changing the naming of object is something quite difficult (thank you @Grace ) for your answer) I came up with a smaller idea that could potentially make this step easier.
When hovering on an selected object, their properties get displayed, and so does its name. The idea is, that when an object is selected, and we “ctrl+c”, the name of that object gets copied. And if multiple objects get selected those could be joined with a “+”. Maybe if we press “shift” in addition, the degree of that objects gets copied instead, since you rarely need both degree and lenght in one term.
If we want to take this even further I could imagine an additional window in the/next to the “f(x)” button/window, where we get taken to a builder that displays the copied objects and lets us work with them simultaniously.
You do know there is the Formula Editor? Clicking the Fx toolbutton where ever, pops up the Editor dialog and allows you to construct a formula based on available measurents, custom variables, and tool variables.
Simply selecting objects will not provide the variable data needed to construct a formula. That’s not how the graphics scene works. For ex: selecting points A1 and A2 will not give the variable Line_A1_A2. Not to mention that a tool only has access to tools created before it. Using the FX Editor prevents access to invalid tool variables.
Im not sure if I was able to get my point across. I do infact know both; that there is a formula editor and that a formula is not just created of object names. That was not the point.
My point was, that I know for a fact, that the programm knows what an object is called, just by selecting it. Often times i need to refer to multiple objects, and it would make my workflow easier, if I could just select it, instead of having to type out the name and to search for it in the formulareditor search bar. And since the formula is mostly made up of those names, but not exclusively, my idea was, that this could be something that works simultainiously to the formula editor. That was my second suggestion. And yes I know that if you just string the names together with a “+”, you´d have to alter it afterwards, but at least you´d have the needeed names somewhere to work with.
Once you open a tool (modal) dialog or the dialog open upon creatting a tool, you can’t access the scene objects… that’s why the FX Editor is there.
And again… if you select 2 points, you can’t get a line length variable name from them. And again depending the tool that’s being created or edited, the FX Editor will only allow you access to tool data created before that tool. You can’t just select any points or curves on the screen and plug them into any formula.
That being said what you can do is cut and paste from the Variables table using Ctrl + C. Since the Variables table dialog is non modal it stays open while you work, and if you have dual monitors you can drag it off the 2nd monitor.
I added a context menu with a Copy item to the varibles tables, so one can more easily copy and paste any item from the table with just using the mouse and not having to use Ctrl+C.
BTW… as I was testing this another thing came to mind… just because you can select 2 points in a block, does not mean there is a line between them. For ex: If you selected point A0 and A6 here… there is no line.
So it’s completely pointless trying to assemble a formula simply by selecting objects in a block. And again I point out that not all the variables are available to every tool. If you tried to edit the length for point A0… there are NO line length variables you can use, because none have been created yet.
The table is great! thank you! I still think though my idea would be easier and quicker.
And yes, just because two points exist, doesnt mean there is a line. Thats why you could maybe just be able to copy the name of an object that has those properties.
An idea that would work for me and would probably be easier to realise : the name of an object could get highlighted in the property manager as soon as you select the object. Or maybe if you also press shift simultainiously. Would that be possible?
The Variables table is not new, I only added a Context menu copy item.
Not from the perspective of how much time it would take to implement such a feature.
So what you’re asking is if the text in the name box is highlighted AND selected… without having to double click in the name box? Like:
If so that in itself presents a problem as most all the “line edits” already have a FocusIn override that places the cursor at the end of the text. If name was automatically selected, 99% of users are probably going to get annoyed when they start typing and the text is overwritten. It would be like opening a text file and the whole thing is highlighted / selected… it’s just not a standard expectation.
We could have the Name box default to having focus i.e the cursor is in the name box, but not selecting the text You can then use the standard Ctrl + A, Ctrl + C to select & copy the text.
That would be a great help for me, thank you very much!
I think what I can learn from the past few days is, that it is propably more efficient to describe my problem first, and then come up with a solution together, rather than storming head first into new features, that might do their job, but the details make them hard to realise.
This process is way more frustrating than I thought but thank you @Douglas for sticking with my issues and helping.
Ok… ran into a couple snags that I’ve run into before in other areas of the app.
The line tool is not handled like the other GObjects, and thus doesn’t have a tool name… it’s created on the fly from the xml document.
The operations tools also don’t have a tool name, they have a group of object names.
In a nutshell it means instead of 4 lines of code to grab the tool name and copy to clipboard, it turned into 100+ lines to handle each tool type in switch statement.
Also in testing out the copy function I noticed that the names of the curve tools are not translated in the hover tooltips.
Also found a bug that was driving me nuts. When trying to paste a curve length (arc, spl, or splpath) into a formula I kept getting an error… turns out the formatting for the curve names that are displayed in the history have an extra “space” after the “Arc_”, “Spl_” or “SplPath_”… which is really hard to see. Fixed that.
I also added all the points tools that produce a line, with the exception of the Shoulder tool, as I’ve been working on that so the line may different when I update the tool.
I also combined the length and angle into a Copy submenu… it just looks cleaner.
I also updated the German translations for SplPath and AngleLine:
SplPfad_A_A30_a1
WinkelLinie_A_A45
I think that’s it for now. At some point I’ll figure out how to copy the curve angles… it’s more complicated as there are at least 2 angles for curves, more if it’s a path.
Yesterday I posted about my struggels while building terms and referring to objects. Mostly the amount of writing and the (admittingly small) hussle of finding the name of an object. Because changing the naming of object is something quite difficult (thank you @Grace ) for your answer) I came up with a smaller idea that could potentially make this step easier.
