Ordering addon Workbenches

[chrisb]

I have taught FreeCAD to a whole bunch of young people and my observation is first, that they know very well, when they have installed an addon, and second that they have far less problems in configuring a program than they have with alphabetical ordering.

[wmayer]

And not sorting obviously confuses new users.

I disagree. When I install a plugin it's a lot easier to find the entry if it's the last one. If entries are sorted alphabetically it would take me more time to find the right entry immediately.

[uwestoehr]

And not sorting obviously confuses new users.

I disagree. When I install a plugin it's a lot easier to find the entry if it's the last one. If entries are sorted alphabetically it would take me more time to find the right entry immediately.

Why does it take longer to look under "a" when you installed "Assembly 4".

I posted here because of a real case: 2 engineers, one below the age of 30, the second > 30, both with a master degree (if that matters ).

And if alphabetically sorting is a problem, why do we deliver FC then with the WBs sorted by default? We could e.g. group the important ones on top or have a logical sorting like that Sketcher is before PartDesign.

I don't want to take a feature away, I proposed to add an option to prevent the sorting. This option can be used by expert users like you.

As I wrote, before you judge my wish, please leave your expert point of view. My colleagues are just users, they don't care about internals, why some WBs they never used are always there and why they have to install others, why they have to change the WB to measure a radius, why there is not by default a WB to assemble etc.. I got recently a lot of useful feedback and noticed this way that I am too deep into FC to see some obvious things . The missing sorting is such a thing and thus I reported it.

[chennes]

On a totally different topic...

I'm still working on migrating to a better display technology for the detailed view (e.g. the README for Workbenches, and the Wiki for Macros). I've just pushed a new Pull Request for your testing and evaluation: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/pull/5458 . Particularly if you have slow internet, I need your feedback on how you feel about the rendering of the details page (the page you get when you select an Addon in the list view). There are a number of advantages to using a QWebEngineView, mostly related to render quality and expected page behavior, but I think some disadvantages too. Please let me know what you think.

[wmayer]

Why does it take longer to look under "a" when you installed "Assembly 4".

Well, in reality sometimes things are more complex. When installing several wb and they are sorted alphabetically afterwards I have to carefully go through all entries to remember which wb I have actually installed.

[heda]

maybe split out the question of ordering in a separate topic?

what about making it a preference?
while at the same time adding ordering, maybe even dividers as well as ability to not show even if loaded.
maybe put all of that in a new tab in preferences besides the "loaded workbenches"?

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[balrobs]

what about making it a preference?
Screenshot from 2022-01-29 09-35-53.png

+1
had the same idea, IMO this would feel naturally.

[heda]

well, was a bit too quick on that one, it basically exists in "customize", apart from ability to not show even if loaded.
anyhow, I think several users will look in preferences as well for this, so a button there on workbenches to open the "customize" could very well be sufficient.

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[balrobs]

well, was a bit too quick on that one, ..

Ohh ... sorry for being also to quick and a bit off topic!
I would have expected this feature under the preferences of the workbenches.

[chrisb]

You mean a button in AddonManager to open the customizing dialog? Sounds reasonabe. Together with a sort button in the customization dialog, Uwestoehr would be almost there. (And then nevertheless talk to his colleagues about the usefulness of backups.)