Feature #1632: Allow entering of diameter instead of radius for circle radius constraint

[Jee-Bee]

I could be easy single click on edge is radius click twice is diameter

[GeneFC]

I think non-intuitive options such as inside-outside click or single-double click will be nothing but headaches.

A user-set toggle or separate controls will save a lot of traffic in the Help forum.

Gene

[abdullah]

PR:
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/pull/1520

[abdullah]

What I mean is switching automatically from one to the other:
- if the cursor is inside the circle use diameter
- if the cursor is outside of the circle use radius

I could be easy single click on edge is radius click twice is diameter

Any new constraint shall support the legacy constraint addition method (selection+click button). Thus implementing extra addition methods, which I am not against, will not result in lower amount of icons.

What I see as common here, is that you both wish to have an additional (more ergonomic) constraint addition methods. I think it was Paulee who requested also another input method, kind of continuous addition method of any type of constraint (I think there is a ticket for that one too). I think this is a different separate feature request. I will not be implementing these things in the short-term, but I keep hearing about it, and I think eventually all the contributions may lead to a general more ergonomic implementation.

[NormandC]

Like this?

Exactly!

I am not sure I understand. If I selected a circle and click on the constraint icon. How would FC know if I want radius or diameter?

I believe dbecad is thinking of one single icon, but a radial constraint would be created outside of the circle, and a diameter constraint would be created if you click inside the circle.

Not sure which CAD software he mentions, but I know of none which would do that. The one I use at work uses a key on the keyboard (D) to toggle between radial and diameter.

[abdullah]

issue #1632: Allow entering of diameter instead of radius for circle radius constraint.
Discussion thread.

As you see, we need somebody with a whip from time to time so that we close tickets

The first time I added a constraint it took me several days to figure everything out. I started this yesterday and it was mostly finished a couple of hours later. I think this PR may be interesting to people wanting to implement a new constraint in the sketcher. I have separated the different things one needs to touch in separate commits, which should serve to a more didactic approach. I am telling you this because you take notes and may point a new user in the right direction.

Thanks for the lashes

[abdullah]

Not sure which CAD software he mentions, but I know of none which would do that. The one I use at work uses a key on the keyboard (D) to toggle between radial and diameter.

Do you think it is appropriate to start a serious discussion about sketcher shortcuts?

It is a long-felt need for me. I think the Sketcher is not showing the potential it should with respect of shortcuts. I think that Draft style successive press shortcuts could be a general advantage. Any ideas?

[dbecad]

Not sure which CAD software he mentions, but I know of none which would do that. The one I use at work uses a key on the keyboard (D) to toggle between radial and diameter.

I stand corrected, I though Fusion was switching between radius and diameter (it's been a while) and I just checked and this "more ergonomic" input method as you named Abdullah is only available for segment dimension not circle radius.

(not trying to hijack thread, just to illustrate possible ergonomic of our dimension tool)
In this gif you see that the location of the mouse relative to the segment will pre-select the type of measures (length/vertical/horizontal) depending on the relative cursor location. But that does not work with the circle as i though at the end (but could).
I have mentioned in the past similar feature for the angle constraint here that use the same tool/icon but detect an angle constraint from the object selection:
https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=28321

Maybe we don't need to go all the way to a single dimension icon tool, but we could have more ergonomic, I know I've seen discussion on the fact that the GUI/UX is not discussed or considered a lot in FC. But gui/ux is hard and changing user habits is even harder...

Cheers

dimensionSelect.gif (869.98 KiB) Viewed 1301 times

[abdullah]

The one I use at work uses a key on the keyboard (D) to toggle between radial and diameter.

One thing is that, if you have selected diameter, the current radius constraint shortcut "SHIFT+R" will apply to diameter (it will apply to whatever you see as icon, i.e. the default action).

[abdullah]

Maybe we don't need to go all the way to a single dimension icon tool, but we could have more ergonomic, I know I've seen discussion on the fact that the GUI/UX is not discussed or considered a lot in FC. But gui/ux is hard and changing user habits is even harder...

Ah! Now I do understand. This is similar to the other idea I was saying of single dimension icon tool. The thing is that you have to be in that dimension modus, so you have to press a button to tell it "hey! let's dimension".

Actually, it is not much different (in spirit) from what we have now in FreeCAD with the Constraint+Selection modus. Only that a first click allows to select a shape and apply appropriate constraints (selection can be made by mouse position or I imagine they would also have implemented one key to iterate among appropriate constraints, should the mouse gesture fail). Once you are there, I think going to single dimension tool is a piece of cake. I do in fact like this way of constraining.