Re: [Therion] Interface Comments/Suggestions

[Wookey]

On 2006-12-28 11:18 +0100, Stacho Mudrak wrote:
> On Wednesday 27 December 2006 01:26, Wookey wrote:

Thanx for the feedback Stacho, and taking all my complaints about your
software so well :-)
- here are a few more comments in response.

> May be, it would be worth to have possibility to specify subtypes in type 
> specification: e.g. border:invisible (and having this in types list).

That would be easy and a major improvement. The list is already a bit
long (because I use wall and border, at opposite ends of the list 90%
of the time) but making the drop-down long enough to show the whole
list would fix that. 

> > Part of the problem is that there is no link between the x-sect scrap
> > and the section line on the plan/elevation. Only the point has a link.
> > It seems to me that xsections are logical entities and making sure all
> > of the line, the scrap and the point are associated is a good thing,
> > which will help with the grouping of sections into boxes when that is
> > implemented. Associated with this is the need to give each section a
> > 'display name' or label like 'E3' or whatever. Have I just missed this
> > facility?
> 
> No, this is not yet possible. And associating section line with secion scrap 
> is definitely needed. In the far future, this information should be used in 
> 3D model generation from plan and cross sections. But this also implies, that 
> "line section" should have exactly two points. 

The 3d model part implies exactly 2 points? I can think of (very rare)
cases where a section line has a kink in the middle, because this
shows a more representative section. A two-point section line would
prevent this. It would be nice to consider keeping this, but
ultimately auto-3d model generation is more important and useful.  

> > 3)
> > xtherion should warn you when you accidentally create lines
> > outside of a scrap. It is easy to do and slow/fiddly to put right. Is
> > there ever a valid reason for creating lines outside a scrap? I can't
> > think of one.
> 
> No there is no reason. But as far as I know, it is already possible to insert 
> line outside of a scrap only in some rare cases (e.g. "end of file" is 
> selected). I will try to fix it.

I managed to get them entered in the middle of the file, whilst doing
cross-sections. I don't recall how. I think it is because when doing
this you have to select the 'scrp' line itself in order to fiddle with
scale markers. Then if you just do an insert of something it goes
above the scrap line and so between this scrap and the one before.

One workaround would be to allow moving several lines at once. This is
also very useful when you find you need to split a large scrap up
(which is quite common, especially if you are not already an expert,
so some of your scrap are not ideal). being able to select a set of
lines and move them all, rather than one by one (waiting for the
redraws every time) would be great.

> > 4)
> > The xtherion interface needs more work on shortcuts generally as we
> > use it so intensively. More keyboard options for chanigng between
> > common line and point types and moving to next
> > scrap in the scroll list. e.g only showing lines in the current scrap
> > and showing lines from other scraps collapsed or greyed might do the
> > trick?
> 
> Selecting scrap and areas is already possible using toolbar buttons. Making 
> shortcuts for them is may be a good idea.

Yes, the toolbar is useful. One way to deal with the 'common actions'
problem would be to add things here like 'insert line border:invisible'

> > 5)
> > I don't believe the 'right click to select line hidden below' is
> > working. When I have a line at a scrap join on both scraps (because there
> > is an area join here), I can only selectone line. I have to move it out of
> > the way to get the other one.
> 
> Agree, it works only when a line point is right-clicked. I will try to fix it.

Ah yes - I just found that in wiki. I was trying to do it on the line
itself.

> > 6)
> > really big job to fix, although finding someone to re-write it in gtk
> > would be very good
> 
> Yes. But when I was working on loch I have realized, that coding UI in some 
> other languages then TclTk takes cca. 10x more time and it is very difficult 
> to keep it platform independent :( 
> 
> It looks, even with 3D viewer, I will return to TclTk (with C++ codes for 
> some 
> faster calculations).

Agreed - there is no good solution here, but speed is a big issue for
me - part of the reason therion takes a long time is the speed of the
interface. I spent a _lot_ of the time waiting. OK. I will soon get a
faster machine, but this machine is adequate for most jobs, and the
interface is not doing things _that_ hard. it should be possible to
make it faster. I ought to try and look myself but of course I am
short of time and tcl expertise. 


Oh, and one item I forgot: One thing I really miss is an easy way to
say 'find this area'. Often I see an area, and there is no visual
indication wether it has been entered or not. If lines which are
included in an area showed this always, that would be very helpful.
Some kind of indication over the area itself would be even better but
I think the design means that xtherion can't do that.

Perhaps the simplest would be a 'show me areas containing this line'
button.

Something to think about. 

Wookey
-- 
Aleph One Ltd, Bottisham, CAMBRIDGE, CB5 9BA, UK  Tel +44 (0) 1223 811679
work: http://www.aleph1.co.uk/                 play: http://wookware.org/
_______________________________________________
Therion mailing list
address@hidden
http://www.speleo.sk/mailman/listinfo/therion