Duplicating objects

[mtsinc]

In current versions of FreeCAD, duplicating an object leaves the current object focus on the source object. I've caused myself more than a little annoyance when I forget this and start wreaking havoc.

A more intuitive result would be to shift focus to the newly-created duplicate. That's what most graphic application do, I think.

A related peeve is that duplicating an object causes the duplicate to be placed at the project root. When you're working in a container object such as a Part or Body, it seems more logical that the duplicated object should appear in the same container as the original.

[DeepSOIC]

A more intuitive result would be to shift focus to the newly-created duplicate. That's what most graphic application do, I think.

Questionable. For example, in inkscape, when I clone something, the clone is indeed highlighted. But then I can't use Clone button again to create more clones, as it creates a clone of clone.

Although, duplication isn't cloning, so yes, I agree, the selection should switch to the duplicate.

[DeepSOIC]

A related peeve is that duplicating an object causes the duplicate to be placed at the project root. When you're working in a container object such as a Part or Body, it seems more logical that the duplicated object should appear in the same container as the original.

That's a one I once tried to address, but I kinda failed. It is addressed to some extent in part-o-magic addon.

[mtsinc]

A more intuitive result would be to shift focus to the newly-created duplicate. That's what most graphic application do, I think.

Questionable. For example, in inkscape, when I clone something, the clone is indeed highlighted. But then I can't use Clone button again to create more clones, as it creates a clone of clone.

Although, duplication isn't cloning, so yes, I agree, the selection should switch to the duplicate.

Yes, I considered that, and it's obviously to be expected, since you're cloning from the object which has focus and the new object gets the focus. There's certainly an argument to be made for an alternative mode of operation where, perhaps holding down a control key would cause the original object to behave more like a "pad" of clone sources (which implies NOT switching object focus). And of course, if one object is a duplicate of another, it's more or less moot which one you make the third copy from.

About the only thing that's caused me more screw-ups than the present behaviour is when I select a property value, start typing in a number and the view starts wildly rotating because instead of my numeric values going into the text control, they're being used as viewpoint-selection hotkeys. Which could be mitigated by either A) recognizing that a text input with focus has priority or B) limiting the viewpoint-selection keys to the numeric keypad.

[DeepSOIC]

is when I select a property value, start typing in a number and the view starts wildly rotating

Yep, I know that problem very well. You can change the view shortcuts via Tools->Customize, but it's tedious enough that I bothered to write a macro: Macro Unbind Numpad Shortcuts.