Idea for the main window

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grd
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Idea for the main window

Post by grd »

Most commercial CAD software nowadays use a Ribbon Bar and to be honest I don't see many issues with that, but FreeCAD use still today an outdated (in my opinion) icon bar GUI. So I looked into a Ribbon Bar GUI and I found this https://github.com/Qt-Widgets/Best-Ribbon-Tab-Toolbar

I think that we can populate this with the icons that already exits today. It is just so much easier to use and organize the existing icons. I don't know exactly how to use it with additional Work Benches but I don't think that it is gonna be that hard.

When compiling this software you are gonna notice some bugs and that is because the guy who created this didn't allow to make issues. I compiled it on my machine after tweaking it a bit and I can put it on github if you want to.
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obelisk79
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Re: Idea for the main window

Post by obelisk79 »

I think this is has a similar style already.

https://github.com/HakanSeven12/Modern-UI

Or at least could provide a starting point for another developer.
grd
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Re: Idea for the main window

Post by grd »

obelisk79 wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 2:55 pm I think this is has a similar style already.

https://github.com/HakanSeven12/Modern-UI

Or at least could provide a starting point for another developer.
Hmmm, yes and no. I like that one too, but this one is compiled in C++ (faster) and you only need to fill in a JSON file and you should be done ;)

The other benefit is that it is more extendable (but that requires programming AFAIK).
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obelisk79
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Re: Idea for the main window

Post by obelisk79 »

A similar approach could be done with a python addon. While yes, C++ would would offer better performance, I'd also argue that this shouldn't really be an issue for interface components.

I only offer the suggestion as I suspect you'll find there to be a tremendous amount of pushback against your idea. Anything which would even moderately redefine the way existing power users interact with FreeCAD is usually met with passionate opposition. An optional python addon is a much easier pill to swallow.

I think there's some merit to what you propose though and warrants further investigation which I think could work rather nicely within the workbench paradigm.
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onekk
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Re: Idea for the main window

Post by onekk »

grd wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 3:06 pm ...
The other benefit is that it is more extendable (but that requires programming AFAIK).
As usual, the first answer that came in my mind is:
jriegel wrote:"Stop whining - start coding!"
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Carlo D.
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obelisk79
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Re: Idea for the main window

Post by obelisk79 »

onekk wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 3:21 pm As usual, the first answer that came in my mind is:
jriegel wrote:"Stop whining - start coding!"
Regards

Carlo D.
Carlo,

I strongly disagree with your sentiment here. Coding something like this could very easily be 100% wasted effort without some general consensus, including buy-in from project maintainers. I know you are well aware how controversial UI/UX changes can be around here.

Regards,
Joe
grd
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Re: Idea for the main window

Post by grd »

@onekk So, you like it?
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obelisk79
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Re: Idea for the main window

Post by obelisk79 »

@grd my suggestion would be to create some mockups of what this would actually look like in FreeCAD to include various workbenches and switching between them so that others can get a better feel for your idea.
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onekk
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Re: Idea for the main window

Post by onekk »

grd wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 3:25 pm @onekk So, you like it?
From my point of view interface is only a mere way to interact with a program, not the final goal for a CAD.

It works, and this is sufficient for me.

But it is not a question of taste, is a question of "man power" or "man hours" spend on coding FreeCAD.

Ultimately is even a question of money, as volunteers are not payed, and probably criticizing them too much will make things go worse, as if the few developers involved in FreeCAD will stop coding, all these "sterile discussions" will stop simply because there will be nothing to speak about.

How much all these "critics" have contributed to FreeCAD:

- writing a Wiki Page.
- report errors in a decent way useful to track where the problem is.
- simply thanks developers for their invaluable work.
- funding FreeCAD

I think very few.

OpenSource is living on volunteers, even if someone is making money with FreeCAD (I'm one of them as I made some modelling job to raise some money as I'm unemployed.) very rarely they contribute to FreeCAD.

For what I can I could say that I have contributed in some manner to FreeCAD, I have reported some errors, and I have written a couple of Wiki Pages, and made some documentation here:

https://github.com/onekk/freecad-doc

Not too much, to be honest, but it is something.

I have also posted some code in the Python and Macro Forum, and not simply part of code, but usually real examples that produce something and are loadable and executable in FreeCAD, so people may learn something (probably not much as I'm not a professional programmer but a self teached one).

But something is netter than nothing.

Kind Regards

Carlo D.
GitHub page: https://github.com/onekk/freecad-doc.
- In deep articles on FreeCAD.
- Learning how to model with scripting.
- Various other stuffs.

Blog: https://okkmkblog.wordpress.com/
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onekk
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Re: Idea for the main window

Post by onekk »

obelisk79 wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 3:25 pm Carlo,

I strongly disagree with your sentiment here. Coding something like this could very easily be 100% wasted effort without some general consensus, including buy-in from project maintainers. I know you are well aware how controversial UI/UX changes can be around here.

Regards,
Joe

Yes and no, someone have to code it and someone have to maintain the code.

I have followed many discussions, and most "newcomers" have contributed many "good things" that sadly have some "coding flaws", many of these code is not wasted is only waiting for someone to review the code and integrate it better in the FreeCAD source tree, but as there are some maintainers that have also a life other than FreeCAD developing things have slowed down. If you search around probably not far from a couple of days ago there has been a discusssion about some integration of some Sketcher improvement code.


If search around, not too far ago there were also an user from India that reported that almost all of his past work were screwed up by a change in code.

Result was that these "very blamed" developers have modified FreeCAD sources to make these "old files" works as expected and found a way to integrate new code without wasting coding efforts.

This is in my personal opinion the "right way", as I have done some jobs, for some "third world" people who use FreeCAD to "feed the family" and as I have been forced to loose weights due to some "First world" disease, I know a little how "starving" is :D.

Opensource is not about consensus, it is not paid software on which you have some "right" to ask things, and to have "something in exchange", it is usually true the other way, developers "have the right" to ask for some "reward" being moral or more concrete (not in the sense of receiving concrete blocks on head :lol: ).

Sorry for my bad English as I'm Italian so some words could not be the most correct. If any of above could seem offensive, it is not my intention is only probably "bad choice of word".

I don't want to start flame wars, at all, but recently there have been a bunch of people criticizing, many of them have very "low post counts" some of them are newcomers, and as FreeCAD is probably "breaking some business plans" for some paid software companies that have started to use a "pay per use" politics, some bad toughs will come in my mind. And here in Italy there have been some very religious politician that said "bad thinking is a sin (in religous sense), but usually is a correct guess" :lol:

Regards

Carlo D.
GitHub page: https://github.com/onekk/freecad-doc.
- In deep articles on FreeCAD.
- Learning how to model with scripting.
- Various other stuffs.

Blog: https://okkmkblog.wordpress.com/
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