Users complain abut missing Settings for a workbench

[PrzemoF]

I see users asking for help because Settings for a workbench that was not loaded are missing (I hope it's clear what I'm trying to say ). How hard would it be to force loading all enabled workbenches? I'm aware that it could take some time, so it would have to be off by default. What are potential problems, beside long start time?

This is not a feature request - I just want to discuss options to solve a recurring problem. I remember I asked the same question long time ago when I couldn't find something in the Settings.

P.S. A placeholder in Settings would be another option. Clicking on the workbench icon in Setting would trigger loading that workbench.

[triplus]

You can install Autoload module and enable all modules to see how long it takes, too long. Developers could "side load" only the Preferences functionality more often, but that i guess is not desirable as it too prolongs FreeCAD start. Therefore yes, having a workbench selector inside preferences is likely the way to go to improve things. On selecting a workbench the workbench gets loaded and hence its Preferences are made available. This is the approach i use in all my modules (mostly for loading commands like in for example command panel module). As Preferences are not Python based i guess one of the C++ developers would need to tackle this.

P.S. Or if none of that is desirable one way to improve things would be to add a notification inside preferences. Clearly stating one must load appropriate workbench for its preferences to emerge. As once you know this it's not an issue anymore and new users don't know it. That is the biggest issue. Not the lack of preferences but not knowing on how to access them as intended.

[kkremitzki]

The settings for a workbench and the act of loading it should not be as tightly coupled as they are now, otherwise it may be possible to set a setting that prevents loading due to a bug, and if it can't load it may not be able to make its settings available to be changed, with the only workaround being to manually edit config files or remove them and reconfigure to your liking.

[PrzemoF]

[..] Clearly stating one must load appropriate workbench for its preferences to emerge. As once you know this it's not an issue anymore and new users don't know it. That is the biggest issue. Not the lack of preferences but not knowing on how to access them as intended.

I think implementing this as a single time dialog window with "Do not show again" tick box might be an easy fix unless we have something that fixes the underlying problem.

[triplus]

Yes, i guess adding such notification would be the optimal solution for now and it would improve things.

[PrzemoF]

Should I open a bug report or we need to do a further discussion?