[To be reworked] Sketcher Tool settings : testers welcome!

[paddle]

Offset is not finished / debugged yet.

[paddle]

The problem with disabling it, is that a lot of tools will rely on it. Such as offset, circular pattern and so on.
So disabling it means you can't use the new tools.

One solution is to have a preference setting that allows to prevent the widget from expanding by défault. This way it will still be here, but just collapsed. This way if you don't want to use it, it's always collapsed, and when you need it for some tool, you just expand the widget.

[drmacro]

Just out of curiosity, what the advantage to disabling this?

I don't have number bouncing around in my peripheral vision while I move the mouse.

I don't have them now and some how I managed nearly a decade without them.

I suppose after ignoring them enough they'd become less distracting. Sort of like olfactory desensitisation for the eyes.

[drmacro]

Offset is not finished / debugged yet.

I assume since scale crashed as well it is the same status?

[adrianinsaval]

One solution is to have a preference setting that allows to prevent the widget from expanding by défault

I don't see why it needs to auto expand at all, can't it be like the rest of sketchers widgets that remain expanded or collapsed as you left them last?

[openBrain]

Here's a quick feedback. Sorry if there are duplicates, too busy to read the whole thread.

All in all, I find it looks like a good improvement that can improve some users workflow while not hurting others. But it's IMO not mature enough to be merged.

1. Toolbar
1.1. Probably the icons for arc and circle should be updated so we know drawing methods (center+radius or 3-rim) are hidden inside the tools
1.2. I would have swap rectangle and B-Spline, so that the toolbar looks like "Basic tools" | "Complex tools"
1.3. I would have put "Slot" in the same tool as "Rectangle", but pushed "Polygons" and "Fins" in a new tool called something like "Complex shapes"
2. General
2.1. Could be good to offer in ToolSetting a quick way to switch between Normal/Construction
2.2. It looks like autoconstraints are applied when a vertex is positioned with ToolSetting (entering values). IMO it should not be the case, as it leads to very strange behavior.
3. Line
3.1. Shortcut for "Mode" changing isn't displayed. It happened to be "M"
3.2. "Mode" isn't retained when leaving tool. This is boring.
3.3. Miss a mode "1 point + length + height"
3.4. If I click 1st point then change mode, 1st point is lost. This is boring.
3.5. If I click 1st point then modify its coordinates with eg. mouse wheel on the widget, I need to change both X & Y so it's took into account. If I change only X or Y, nothing moves but a weird thing happens to the cursor
3.6. If I delete a whole value (including unit) and want to enter "1 m", I can't because "m" will change the mode
3.7. Tab order is really weird regarding what comes immediately before and after the widget
3.8. When I'm entering a value with keyboard, if I end with "Shift+Tab", it will jump to next widget instead of previous one. Especially boring when reaching last value but see a former one is bad and want to fix it ... bang, the line is validated.
3.9. Depending on which value I enter last, the line will be or not validated. If I end by setting Length or Angle, Tab or Enter validates the line. If I end with X or Y, I'm stuck and have to click on the view or enter again the Length/Angle to get my line validated
4. Arc of circle
4.1. Snapping of 5° is useless IMO. Use 15° or 22.5°.
4.2. Lot of errors in the report view in 3-rim mode when arc is close to be a line : <Exception> Geometry2d.cpp(950): static Base::Vector2d Part::Geom2dCircle::getCircleCenter(const Base::Vector2d &, const Base::Vector2d &, const Base::Vector2d &) -- Points are collinear
5. Rectangle
5.1. No shortcut for "Rounded corners" and "Frame", even with Alt key
5.2. Incomplete UI management. If I enable "Rounded corners", then select the 2 diagonal points, then go back to the settings and disable "Rounded corners", I fall into a weird state when now moving the mouse on the screen makes the "Thickness" to change -- while not activated --, and I can validate my rectangle. After clicking twice on the 3D view, the DSH aborts with an error message in the report view. The DSH is permanently damaged at this time, any new rectangle creation (in continuous mode) will abort. Have to leave the tool and restart it. The problem exists in different flavors using "Rounded corners", or "Frame", or both, to reproduce.
6. Polygon
6.1. "Side number" is in 'mm' !?
6.2. "Side number" is the last value to choose. Is that what user expect as a workflow ?
6.3. 'Q' and 'A' shortcuts don't work
7. Fins
7.1. Not sure it's useful to a majority of users (remark)
7.2. "Number of fins" is in 'mm' !?
7.3. Lot of errors appearing in the 3D view when you select the 1st point then move the mouse around the point where the shape is tiny/collapsed
8. Slot
8.1. Snapping of 5° is useless IMO. Use 15° or 22.5°.
8.2. Lot of weird things when entering values with keyboard : launch tool -> 0 -> Tab -> 0 -> Tab (!! Error in the report view !!) -> 100 -> Tab (!! Length is still selected !!) -> 2x Backtab (land at 'x') -> 0 -> Tab (!! Length is selected !!) -> Tab -> 20 -> Tab (!! Length is selected !!) -> 2x Tab -> 10 -> Tab (!! Length is selected, the slot isn't validated !!)
9 Arc-slot
9.1. Snapping of 5° is useless IMO. Use 15° or 22.5°.
9.2. On some situations, I triggered a lot of errors in the report view when selecting 3rd point, and when arc angle is very small : Unhandled exception in ViewProvider::eventCallback: Geom_TrimmedCurve::U1 == U2
(Event type: SoLocation2Event, object type: SketcherGui::ViewProviderSketch)
9.3. When last value is entered by keyboard then Tab is pressed, the arc-slot isn't validated
9.4. Enter following values in this order with "Autoconstraints" and "remove redundant" both enabled : 0 / 0 / 100 / 90 / 90 / 10 (validate with a click in the 3D view because of above problem) -> !! The arc slot is over-constrained
9.5. Enter following values in this order with mouse pointer over the tool setting widget : 0 / 0 / 100 / 90 / 90 (no value entered for width), then move the cursor over the 3D view. Weird things happen, cursors are blinking everywhere in the ToolSetting widget, the preview doesn't show the correct step, and you will need 2 clicks to recover at the correct step.

Here it is, tested in what is currently a reasonable amount of time, and not looking for and reporting details but only major findings.

HTH

[paddle]

I don't see why it needs to auto expand at all, can't it be like the rest of sketchers widgets that remain expanded or collapsed as you left them last?

You are right. Because when tool setting is not active, it is empty anyway. So even if user keep it expanded at all time, it's not a bother.
And users who don't want to use it can just collapse it.

@abdullah does that sounds like the best solution to you?

[paddle]

Here it is, tested in what is currently a reasonable amount of time, and not looking for and reporting details but only major findings.

HTH

Thanks for testing and your detailed feedback!

1.1 Why not, though the current arc by center icon is a quite basic icon, so it could be considered a 'general arc' icon ? Or we could remove the center point from the icon to keep only the arc?
1.2 I agree that it would make sens. Though as of now it's close to polyline which makes sens as they are somewhat similar. By the way I was thinking that polyline and bspline could be in the same dropdown (once periodic bspline and normal bspline are merged in one tool). I'm not sure which solution is the best.
1.3 With this we would have directly accessible (not in dropdown) rectangle and polygon while with current we have rectangle and slot. Slot being more useful than polygon, I think it would be best to keep rectangle and slot.
Though we could have only 1 dropdown for all those : rectangle/slot/arcslot/polygon/fins. I think in a sens it makes sens because they all create closed wires made of several edges.

2.1 I agree we could have a 'construction' checkbox on all the tools that create geometries with a shortcut associated. This would also enable removing the 'construction' icon from the toolbar, where it's not the most intuitive place to be IMO. It feels like the icon ended up in the toolbar because there wasn't a widget where we could put tool settings

3.1 We can add in all the DSH notice a standard 'Press M to change mode.' Though that would make the widget bigger/more cluttered.
Better, we could change the label associated to the mode dropdown from 'Mode' to 'Mode (M)' It would make it clear what do you think?
Also we could do the same for checkboxes. For example 'Corner radius (U)' and 'Thickness (J)'
3.2 I thought on that and couldn't find an ideal solution for this behaviour. Because for some tool you will probably want to keep the same mode all the time due to preference (line for instance) while for others you will probably not : arc and rectangle. When you draw an arc by 3 points, then the following time you need to draw an arc, you might expect to get a normal arc and get annoyed. So overall I thought that always starting by the same mode is better. This way if you want arc by 3 points, you know you have to type 'G' 'A' 'M' and if you want a normal arc 'G' 'A'.
Then the question maybe is, what should be the default mode for the line?
3.3 We can add that later down the line.
3.4 Agree
3.6 Abdullah made a timer for this. If you press M just after typing your number (within 2s) then it will type M, if more than 2s it will change mode.
3.8 Agree
3.5 3.7 3.9 This needs to be looked into.

4.1 we could snap not only at 5° but also at more interesting values like 22.5. Snapping only at 22.5 is a bit restrictive. Also at 15 is also restrictive, snapping at 5 doesn't bring much downside as it's easy to read current angle and go to the needed value.
However maybe the best is to make that a preference setting such that user can select the snapping angle he likes?

5.1 U and J are assigned to first and second checkboxes. As said before it would be best to change the labels to add (U) and (J) so that user can understand the shortcuts.
5.2 This is why it's probably best to reset the tool if user change some parameters. Though being able to change while seeking the second point is nice and doesn't seem to make any bug. So we can force the reset only after second point is choosen.

6.1 This needs to be addressed.
6.2 This can be changed. You think it's best as first parameter right?
6.3 They changed to U and J, the notice needs to be updated.

7. Fins tools is not debugged yet and out of current test phase.
7.1 I agree that it may not be the most used tool. Though it enables making a lot of shapes very easily/fast. Things like U shapes or T shapes. Also it let user make more complex shapes with many fins that can be very tedious to do when required.
8. 9. Those DSH are not completely ready and debbugged either. Current merge forcus on :
DSH Line
DSH Rectangle
DSH Circle
DSH Ellipse
DSH Polygon

[paddle]

@abdullah How do you want to proceed concerning those feedbacks/things to correct?
Do you want to handle them on your side or should I make some changes and do a PR? And if PR to which branch?
Thanks

[openBrain]

Thanks for testing and your detailed feedback!

Welcome. I actually made a bunch of remarks, and all that will be hard to follow I think.
I copied my remarks to a public pad that I'll share the link through PM to you and abdullah ATM (I'm afraid making the URL public will bring lot of damages). Just a proposal so it's easier to follow. But you'll have to copy-paste your replies there.

EDIT : my main point now is that I think it's not ready for merge.