Property Editor: View or Data first?

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ian.rees
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Property Editor: View or Data first?

Post by ian.rees »

Hi folks,

One little thing that I find annoying in the current FreeCAD is that I use the Data tab in the property viewer at least 10x as often as the View tab, but View is the default. Seems a waste of clicks.

So, I've got a branch over at https://github.com/ianrrees/FreeCAD_tin ... r-last-tab with two changes:
* Remembers the last selected tab within the property view, and opens it next time FreeCAD starts
* Defaults to the Data tab on the first boot.

Would appreciate a bit of testing, and any thoughts in case this behaviour is undesirable to you. Thanks! -Ian-
wmayer
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Re: Property Editor: View or Data first?

Post by wmayer »

* Remembers the last selected tab within the property view, and opens it next time FreeCAD starts
That's a good idea.
* Defaults to the Data tab on the first boot.
I have seen that you changed the order of the tabs. IMO you shouldn't do this because people are already used to have it in the order as it is now. Also, some people may have some special Python scripts where various things in the GUI are changed. With this change you could easily break such Python code. To have the Data tab as default you can simply use "1" as the default value for the parameter "LastTabIndex". Then instead of calling the parameter "LastTabIndex" I would call it "CurrentTabIndex" because this would be more consistent with the Qt method name.
ian.rees
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Re: Property Editor: View or Data first?

Post by ian.rees »

Good point, though I hope we don't encourage those sort of scripts!

I'll change it around to leave the tabs in the normal order and push an updated version. -Ian-
wmayer
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Re: Property Editor: View or Data first?

Post by wmayer »

Good point, though I hope we don't encourage those sort of scripts!
Of course not. But if there is no strong reason to change the layout we shouldn't do it.
I'll change it around to leave the tabs in the normal order and push an updated version. -Ian-
Thanks.
ickby
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Re: Property Editor: View or Data first?

Post by ickby »

I like this very much!

while you are at saving states of the editor, one thing that could esily reduce frustration with the property editor is to remember the fold/undfold state of groups (e.g. placements) so that for example iterating through x position of multiple parts don't need to make the x placement visible each time.
wmayer
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Re: Property Editor: View or Data first?

Post by wmayer »

so that for example iterating through x position of multiple parts don't need to make the x placement visible each time
This is already possible. You only have to make sure that you have edited one of the coordinates. When selecting another object afterwards it automatically expands the items and sets the focus to the corresponding coordinate.
ian.rees
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Re: Property Editor: View or Data first?

Post by ian.rees »

Updated version on git at https://github.com/ianrrees/FreeCAD_tin ... -last-tab2 to preserve the original tab order. -Ian-
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bill
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Re: Property Editor: View or Data first?

Post by bill »

While your in that area, might you also save the state of the "Apply incremental changes to the object placement check-box" ? This follows up along the lines of ICKBYs comments; sticky states.

Once state is controlled/remembered, order becomes essentially irrelevent (except for consistency of programming) and the order should be left alone (for backwards compatibility) like was previously stated. On the left or on the right is simply a personal preference; especially dependent on desktop layout/configuration.

Sticky configuration states are not defaults. They are more applicable/relevant to the task at hand; dictated in the particular session; like ickby states.

BTW ickby, your RE-SKIN of FreeCAD on utube is quite slick! Steve Jobs would be proud of the effort.
Last edited by bill on Sun Apr 12, 2015 4:05 am, edited 2 times in total.
wmayer
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Re: Property Editor: View or Data first?

Post by wmayer »

While your in that area, might you also save the state of the "Apply incremental changes to the object placement check-box" ?
Please open a separate thread for things that are not related to this topic.
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