Left pane, and toolbar, prominence: Features, or not yet refined functional issues?

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a3bksll47
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Keyboard entry to create/edit primitives sans toolbar display

Post by a3bksll47 »

If I want to free up some screen real estate, and load the app without a workbench and start using shortcuts, I notice that if a workbench's toolbars are not displayed onscreen, that I can't use its keyboard shortcuts. Is this typical of FreeCAD in its current release?

I also haven't yet looked at every toolbar to see if full key sequences are different for every tool in the system.
a3bksll47
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Left pane, and toolbar, prominence: Features, or not yet refined functional issues?

Post by a3bksll47 »

Left pane:
Every time a tool command is issued, whether it be to draw a primitive, or move one, or copy one, or any number of other actions, the left window pane is immediately displayed. If that pane is something I need to <Close>, then behind it is the Combo View panel. Questions: Does everyone else experience the same? And if so, is the automatic display of the pane under such conditions adjustable/hideable such that its default state can be hidden unless specified otherwise?

Toolbars:
Ok, so it appears the keyboard shortcuts on the workbench toolbars only work if those toolbars are visible. Questions are pretty much the same as above: Is it the consensus that it works for everyone as I've just described?
a3bksll47
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Left pane, and toolbar, prominence: Features, or not yet refined functional issues?

Post by a3bksll47 »

Left pane:
Every time a tool command is issued, whether it be to draw a primitive, or move one, or copy one, or any number of other actions, the left window pane is immediately displayed. If that pane is something I need to <Close>, then behind it is the Combo View panel. Questions: Does everyone else experience the same? And if so, is the automatic display of the pane under such conditions adjustable/hideable such that its default state can be hidden unless specified otherwise?

Toolbars:
Ok, so it appears the keyboard shortcuts on the workbench toolbars only work if those toolbars are visible. Questions are pretty much the same as above: Is it the consensus that it works for everyone as I've just described?
chrisb
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Re: Left pane, and toolbar, prominence: Features, or not yet refined functional issues?

Post by chrisb »

a3bksll47 wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:26 pm Left pane:
Every time a tool command is issued, whether it be to draw a primitive, or move one, or copy one, or any number of other actions, the left window pane is immediately displayed. If that pane is something I need to <Close>, then behind it is the Combo View panel. Questions: Does everyone else experience the same? And if so, is the automatic display of the pane under such conditions adjustable/hideable such that its default state can be hidden unless specified otherwise?
To me this has always been normal: If I edit something I get the panel for detailed control of the edited item. If you have to access the Combo View panel while editing you can switch to the "Model" tab while editing.
Toolbars:
Ok, so it appears the keyboard shortcuts on the workbench toolbars only work if those toolbars are visible. Questions are pretty much the same as above: Is it the consensus that it works for everyone as I've just described?
You can create your own toolbar if you so wish.
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a3bksll47
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Re: Left pane, and toolbar, prominence: Features, or not yet refined functional issues?

Post by a3bksll47 »

chrisb wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:58 pm
a3bksll47 wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:26 pm Left pane:
Every time a tool command is issued, whether it be to draw a primitive, or move one, or copy one, or any number of other actions, the left window pane is immediately displayed. If that pane is something I need to <Close>, then behind it is the Combo View panel. Questions: Does everyone else experience the same? And if so, is the automatic display of the pane under such conditions adjustable/hideable such that its default state can be hidden unless specified otherwise?
To me this has always been normal: If I edit something I get the panel for detailed control of the edited item. If you have to access the Combo View panel while editing you can switch to the "Model" tab while editing.
Toolbars:
Ok, so it appears the keyboard shortcuts on the workbench toolbars only work if those toolbars are visible. Questions are pretty much the same as above: Is it the consensus that it works for everyone as I've just described?
You can create your own toolbar if you so wish.
But even with a customized toolbar, it must be visible on screen before keyboard shortcuts affiliated with it may be used?

In other words, if even a macro for object Move were to be created/recorded (aside from, or even duplicating, M, V)--and keyboard shortcut keys were prepared to invoke that macro--can they result in a Move command being issued without any toolbars present at all on screen?
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prandall
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Re: Keyboard entry to create/edit primitives sans toolbar display

Post by prandall »

As an example, on the Draft workbench, the Keyboard short-cuts are loaded when you first load the Workbench. They are available "globally" from that point forward.

It seems some of the WB's have shortcuts some do not:

Arch: Does
Draft: Does
Part: Does not
Part Design: Does not
Sketcher: Does ( but only a some of the tools. )

So in short if Yorik made it, it has shortcuts :)

It also seems that Shortcuts will step on other shortcuts. For example Sketch uses "R" for rectangle and Draft uses "R,E" as soon as you use the shortcut in Sketcher the Draft shortcut is not available until the Draft Rectangle is invoked a second time.

You can also look at and change all the sortcuts in the Customize tool from the tools menu. Keep in mind that the Keyboard Category for a workbench wont even show up until the workbench has been loaded once.
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a3bksll47
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Re: Keyboard entry to create/edit primitives sans toolbar display

Post by a3bksll47 »

prandall wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:16 pm As an example, on the Draft workbench, the Keyboard short-cuts are loaded when you first load the Workbench. They are available "globally" from that point forward.

It seems some of the WB's have shortcuts some do not:

Arch: Does
Draft: Does
Part: Does not
Part Design: Does not
Sketcher: Does ( but only a some of the tools. )

So in short if Yorik made it, it has shortcuts :)

It also seems that Shortcuts will step on other shortcuts. For example Sketch uses "R" for rectangle and Draft uses "R,E" as soon as you use the shortcut in Sketcher the Draft shortcut is not available until the Draft Rectangle is invoked a second time.
Okay, thanks.
prandall wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:16 pm You can also look at and change all the sortcuts in the Customize tool from the tools menu.
So I can take the (M, V) presently accorded in the software as delivered to Move and change that to a different alphabet sequence, as a native high-level assignment from within Preferences or somewhere?
prandall wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:16 pm Keep in mind that the Keyboard Category for a workbench wont even show up until the workbench has been loaded once.
And so using key shortcuts associated with a loaded workbench--or using key shortcuts associated with a loaded customized toolbar--presupposes that toolbar also being displayed, I guess. (?)

In other words, any keyboard command sequence that I issue through memory (except from within the Python command line) must be attached to a button on a visible toolbar?
triplus
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Re: Left pane, and toolbar, prominence: Features, or not yet refined functional issues?

Post by triplus »

Hi @a3bksll47.

Without the Combo View sidebar the problem is FreeCAD isn't all that usable. Therefore for general usage ATM you will likely realize rather quickly you need to have it enabled. As for disabling the toolbars and using the shortcuts. That could work out. You need to load the workbench first. For the command/shortcut from it to be made available. In FreeCAD 0.17 what you could do is to set the default workbench to Complete (in Preferences). And to use Autoload module to load the workbenches containing the commands you will use on FreeCAD start:

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=22976
a3bksll47
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Re: Left pane, and toolbar, prominence: Features, or not yet refined functional issues?

Post by a3bksll47 »

triplus wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 7:28 pm Hi @a3bksll47.

Without the Combo View sidebar the problem is FreeCAD isn't all that usable. Therefore for general usage ATM you will likely realize rather quickly you need to have it enabled. As for disabling the toolbars and using the shortcuts. That could work out. You need to load the workbench first. For the command/shortcut from it to be made available. In FreeCAD 0.17 what you could do is to set the default workbench to Complete (in Preferences). And to use Autoload module to load the workbenches containing the commands you will use on FreeCAD start:

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=22976
Ok thanks. When I get a few minutes, I'll look into this and how it works.

On Combo View, as well as the commands that load an equivalent amount of pane area into the same region, the big problem I have with it from a UI/UX perspective is all the white space suddenly encroaching on my drawing. There's a lot of it.

I think one simple menu keystoke or button could call the model and task details as necessary. For example, when I copy an object, when I move an object with snap, I don't necessarily need to see tasks and other attributes suddenly displayed for me. It's just more mouse movement to recenter the focal area of my drawing, to close the task tab--then to close the Combo View that in turn underlied that task tab.
triplus
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Re: Left pane, and toolbar, prominence: Features, or not yet refined functional issues?

Post by triplus »

a3bksll47 wrote: Sun Apr 15, 2018 7:42 pm Ok thanks. When I get a few minutes, I'll look into this and how it works.
You're welcome.
On Combo View, as well as the commands that load an equivalent amount of pane area into the same region, the big problem I have with it from a UI/UX perspective is all the white space suddenly encroaching on my drawing. There's a lot of it.

I think one simple menu keystoke or button could call the model and task details as necessary. For example, when I copy an object, when I move an object with snap, I don't necessarily need to see tasks and other attributes suddenly displayed for me. It's just more mouse movement to recenter the focal area of my drawing, to close the task tab--then to close the Combo View that in turn underlied that task tab.
At this point this is the best i can offer (to get some results). Didn't test it but creating a macro command with assigned shortcut likely should be achievable using the code snippet as a basis:

Code: Select all

from PySide import QtGui
mw = Gui.getMainWindow()
mw.findChild(QtGui.QDockWidget, "Combo View").toggleViewAction().trigger()
P.S. In the future who knows what will happen. Projects like this or some other approach might end up making viewport a bigger by default:

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=23053
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