Link Group Usage in Arch/BIM

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yorik
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Re: [Bug?] Link Group cannot be selected in viewport

Post by yorik »

We might want to think of a better structure to handle all these different levels (subobject > object > assembly). The current mouse model with only one level of selection seems to fall short.
Maybe the base mouse model class needs to be extended to offer different levels of selection? Then each mouse model could implement these as they see fit... I will have a look at how you did it @realthunder...
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dimitar
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Re: [Bug?] Link Group cannot be selected in viewport

Post by dimitar »

realthunder wrote: Fri Jan 28, 2022 11:35 am What if there are multiple hierarchies? How would user indicate which group to select. Not sure about Arch, but for assemblies, the user rarely wants to select the top hierarchy. In my assembly3 workbench, I use the 'Active assembly' (similar to active part/body) to let user indicate the intention of commands like move. Have you tried the 'U, U' hierarchy selecion menu in my branch? Will that fit your need?
In Arch, it is usually sequential from the outer-most object to the inner-most object. For example, one click selects the overall group/assembly/etc, and further click get further inside.

It sounds like there may indeed be a good reason to have a toggable setting somewhere for the expected behavior between click on group parent vs click-through as based on your explanation, the expected behavior for typical assembly design situations is as is currently working

First time using your branch, really loving the little aesthetic elements like collapsible properties sections, and vis/sel icons in the outliner! Hope these changes make it to the master some day! I did try the U,U behaviour you explain and it definitely helps, but it's still a hotkey, and a click more than the ideal case of just being able to select a group to transform it.

I am also noticing the building part links also work in your branch. This is huge! May be using your branch until the building part link capabilities land in master.

Edit, and diverging a bit. Seems like there are some bugs with materials for arch objects. Might be something with all the extra view settings objects have in the Assembly 3 branch. I know arch is not the main focus, so will stick to the master branch, but really hoping that the building part link could make it to master as it's become the best way to organise an arch model.
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Re: [Bug?] Link Group cannot be selected in viewport

Post by paullee »

dimitar wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 6:41 am Maybe this discussion should get moved to the Draft, Arch & Bim section?
OK, maybe the topic better be ...'Link Group Usage in Arch/BIM...' ? :)
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dimitar
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Re: [Bug?] Link Group cannot be selected in viewport

Post by dimitar »

yorik wrote: Fri Jan 28, 2022 1:52 pm We might want to think of a better structure to handle all these different levels (subobject > object > assembly). The current mouse model with only one level of selection seems to fall short.
Maybe the base mouse model class needs to be extended to offer different levels of selection? Then each mouse model could implement these as they see fit... I will have a look at how you did it @realthunder...
Rhino uses something similar. There is a automatic popup if there are multiple objects close to one another and rhino is not sure which object is supposed to get picked. Its quite close to what @realthunder's U,U popup does.

Maybe there can be hotkeys like in blender along with the menu. Ie first item In the menu can be chosen with pressing 1 whole the menu is active, second with 2, etc
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Re: [Bug?] Link Group cannot be selected in viewport

Post by F_Rosa »

dimitar wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 6:41 am
ABeton wrote: ping
F_Rosa wrote: ping
@Abeton, @F_Rosa, curious to hear your feedback on group click behaviour especially with links. I am using the process that @Abeton documented nicely here (thank you again!) for the group links: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 10#p496267
...
I don't know if I got comfortable, but I usually make all the selections (parents and children of linked objects or not) in the labels & attributes descriptions window, it is undoubtedly more work than simply selecting everything in the 3D window, but there I feel safer, because I have full control of what I'm selecting.

Undoubtedly, I think that all suggestions posted here are very welcome!

Still on the use of linked elements, there is another issue I would like to address. Sometimes I needed to use the linked object as a reference in the sketch, but from what I understand it's still not possible.
Last edited by F_Rosa on Fri Feb 04, 2022 5:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: [Bug?] Link Group cannot be selected in viewport

Post by F_Rosa »

dimitar wrote: Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:40 pm ...

I am also noticing the building part links also work in your branch. This is huge! May be using your branch until the building part link capabilities land in master.
...
I hadn't noticed yet. Great, it shows that it's already possible. This increases our hope.
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Re: Link Group Usage in Arch/BIM

Post by realthunder »

For anyone who's intrested in this and is on Linux, you can try my latest snap build. Quoting from the relavent commit,
Right click any tree item that has child, and select 'Toggle selecting group' to mark the item as 'Selecting Group'. Any 3D selection of object that is a desendent of any child of the 'Selecting Group' will select the child object instead of the desendent.

You can also mark the document as 'Selecting Group', so that only top level object will be selected in 3D view.

Repeat click of the selected object to go down to the leaf object, if 'Hierarchical Selection' is disabled. If else, then repeated clicking will ascend hierarchy first and loop over to leaf object.
There can be only one 'Selecting Group' in a document, and will be saved and restored. If this works as desired, I can make a PR later. But please don't expect it to be soon, there are already quite a few PRs on my to do list.
Try Assembly3 with my custom build of FreeCAD at here.
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dimitar
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Re: Link Group Usage in Arch/BIM

Post by dimitar »

realthunder wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 11:05 pm For anyone who's intrested in this and is on Linux, you can try my latest snap build. Quoting from the relavent commit,
That's amazing! I've been literally moving groups all the time recently of adjusting floor plan layouts. Will need to find some time and install ubuntu to test it out.
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