Double-click on Tools
Double-click on Tools
Would it be possible to open a Tool's options with a double-click on the tool in the palette?
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Double-click on Tools
Derek,
It is possible to open tool defaults with a double click, but this conflicts with using a tool double click to unselect all, which is the current action.
Todd
It is possible to open tool defaults with a double click, but this conflicts with using a tool double click to unselect all, which is the current action.
Todd
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Alfred Scott
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Double-click on Tools
Derek,
That is a very interesting idea. It has the advantage of making you more productive by eliminating steps, but it also means it might slow things down for normal clicks because it must wait to see if you double-clicked. Tricky business.
I have been working on a new tool palette design for about two years. I am making progress, but it is an exceptionally difficult thing to pull off. Every day I want to scream at the compiler “CAN’T YOU SEE WHAT I’M TRYING TO DO? YOU STUPID IDIOT!”
It’s a dramatically superior design, that includes:
Variable sizes, not just one small and large size, but anything in between.
Two ways to resize them. Like any window, there is a resize box in the bottom right of the palette. It highlights when the mouse is over it. And you can use the scroll wheel on a mouse to run the sizes up and down.
When you change the size, all of the palettes change in size together.
The palettes can also be ‘eccentric’ which means a palette can have its own size unrelated to all the others. You make the palette eccentric by having the mouse in the title bar when you use the scroll wheel to resize. Eccentric palettes have the title bar in embarrassed purple, at least for now and for testing.
Better tool icon image on a Retina display just like an iPad or iPhone where you take that for granted. Round dots on a Retina display, crisp square dots for the rest of us.
This also means that the palette handles all mouse events so we can do innovative things like what you are suggesting here, or Matt’s concept of an always-open palette. I have no idea where all this is going, but it feels like it was 20 years ago when I got started with WildTools.
And for me personally, I’ve decided not to get old. I’ve seen what has happened to many of my friends; they are not yet drooling, but they are getting close with closed minds, no imagination, brains gone to mush and all that. Not interested in being reminded of my birthdays. I’m 28 and holding. My mother is now 104 so I’ve got the genes for it at least.
Alfred
That is a very interesting idea. It has the advantage of making you more productive by eliminating steps, but it also means it might slow things down for normal clicks because it must wait to see if you double-clicked. Tricky business.
I have been working on a new tool palette design for about two years. I am making progress, but it is an exceptionally difficult thing to pull off. Every day I want to scream at the compiler “CAN’T YOU SEE WHAT I’M TRYING TO DO? YOU STUPID IDIOT!”
It’s a dramatically superior design, that includes:
Variable sizes, not just one small and large size, but anything in between.
Two ways to resize them. Like any window, there is a resize box in the bottom right of the palette. It highlights when the mouse is over it. And you can use the scroll wheel on a mouse to run the sizes up and down.
When you change the size, all of the palettes change in size together.
The palettes can also be ‘eccentric’ which means a palette can have its own size unrelated to all the others. You make the palette eccentric by having the mouse in the title bar when you use the scroll wheel to resize. Eccentric palettes have the title bar in embarrassed purple, at least for now and for testing.
Better tool icon image on a Retina display just like an iPad or iPhone where you take that for granted. Round dots on a Retina display, crisp square dots for the rest of us.
This also means that the palette handles all mouse events so we can do innovative things like what you are suggesting here, or Matt’s concept of an always-open palette. I have no idea where all this is going, but it feels like it was 20 years ago when I got started with WildTools.
And for me personally, I’ve decided not to get old. I’ve seen what has happened to many of my friends; they are not yet drooling, but they are getting close with closed minds, no imagination, brains gone to mush and all that. Not interested in being reminded of my birthdays. I’m 28 and holding. My mother is now 104 so I’ve got the genes for it at least.
Alfred
Double-click on Tools
Todd,
Can't you detect if the double-click is made within a Tool Palette? I'm not talking about double-clicking on the drawing.
Can't you detect if the double-click is made within a Tool Palette? I'm not talking about double-clicking on the drawing.
Double-click on tools
Alfred,
You only have to wait for the Double-click time set by the user's preference so the process is only slowed by their own setting which they are accustom to. And in any case, I know you love sorting out tricky things!It has the advantage of making you more productive by eliminating steps, but it also means it might slow things down for normal clicks because it must wait to see if you double-clicked. Tricky business.
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Double-click on Tools
Derek,
It is possible but it conflicts with the current model where a double-click on the tool deselects everything in the drawing. Even though the current model doesn't require a double-click on the tool, simply two 'single' clicks do the deselect, a double click event is generated. To change this behavior, users wanting to deselect all would need to click, wait the double-click time, and then click again. The current behavior, effectively, is double-click on a tool deselects all objects. We commonly request when talking to customers on technical support for the user to double-click on a tool to deselect everything. Your suggestion is a good idea, one that might should replace the current behavior, but there will be something lost in the process.
I'd love to hear other users' comments about a change like this.
Todd
It is possible but it conflicts with the current model where a double-click on the tool deselects everything in the drawing. Even though the current model doesn't require a double-click on the tool, simply two 'single' clicks do the deselect, a double click event is generated. To change this behavior, users wanting to deselect all would need to click, wait the double-click time, and then click again. The current behavior, effectively, is double-click on a tool deselects all objects. We commonly request when talking to customers on technical support for the user to double-click on a tool to deselect everything. Your suggestion is a good idea, one that might should replace the current behavior, but there will be something lost in the process.
I'd love to hear other users' comments about a change like this.
Todd
Double-click on Tools - please don't change it!
Dear Todd and Alfred -
Please never change this - is a key feature of how Powercadd works!
It is one of the first "hidden" things we teach new Powercadd users:
"Just double click the tool then use the Defaults Window to set its attributes."
These then stick for all drawings you open, so you get your preferred line thickness, text size, font, dimension style (arrows, font, size), fill colour etc every time.
Perfect as it is!
Jonathan
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Page 5 of the manual:
To change the default attributes for an individual palette tool:
- Double-click a palette tool. This will deselect all objects and select the tool. (Tool defaults cannot be changed if an object is selected in the drawing area.)
- Control-click on the desired tool in the palette
- Choose the desired default settings from the contextual menu.
- The selected attributes will remain active until changed by following this set of procedures again.
Our alternative wording:
To change the default attributes for an individual palette tool:
- Double-click a palette tool. This will deselect all objects and select the tool. (Tool defaults cannot be changed if an object is selected in the drawing area.)
- Select what you require in the Defaults window.
That's it - you don't even have to use the tool straight away - the Defaults for that tool are set.
A fantastic feature which goes as far back as I remember!
Please never change this - is a key feature of how Powercadd works!
It is one of the first "hidden" things we teach new Powercadd users:
"Just double click the tool then use the Defaults Window to set its attributes."
These then stick for all drawings you open, so you get your preferred line thickness, text size, font, dimension style (arrows, font, size), fill colour etc every time.
Perfect as it is!
Jonathan
--
Page 5 of the manual:
To change the default attributes for an individual palette tool:
- Double-click a palette tool. This will deselect all objects and select the tool. (Tool defaults cannot be changed if an object is selected in the drawing area.)
- Control-click on the desired tool in the palette
- Choose the desired default settings from the contextual menu.
- The selected attributes will remain active until changed by following this set of procedures again.
Our alternative wording:
To change the default attributes for an individual palette tool:
- Double-click a palette tool. This will deselect all objects and select the tool. (Tool defaults cannot be changed if an object is selected in the drawing area.)
- Select what you require in the Defaults window.
That's it - you don't even have to use the tool straight away - the Defaults for that tool are set.
A fantastic feature which goes as far back as I remember!
Double-click on Tools
Fair enough Jonathan,
I guess it will have to stay as it is.
I use a right click on any tool to select it and set its attributes. The right-click also deselects all objects and brings up the pop-up attributes menu at the mouse to achieve what you do with a double click and then a trip to the defaults window.
It's a bummer that we're using up two mouse click options to get to the same thing. Maybe I could get Todd to make a new user preference setting to bring up the attributes menu when there is a double click. Then I could re-assign a right-click to be the Option-click.
Derek
I guess it will have to stay as it is.
I use a right click on any tool to select it and set its attributes. The right-click also deselects all objects and brings up the pop-up attributes menu at the mouse to achieve what you do with a double click and then a trip to the defaults window.
It's a bummer that we're using up two mouse click options to get to the same thing. Maybe I could get Todd to make a new user preference setting to bring up the attributes menu when there is a double click. Then I could re-assign a right-click to be the Option-click.
Derek
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Charles Freeborn
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- Joined: Thu May 30, 2019 3:04 pm
Re: Double-click on Tools
Alfred Scott wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 12:05 pmDerek,
That is a very interesting idea. It has the advantage of making you more productive by eliminating steps, but it also means it might slow things down for normal clicks because it must wait to see if you double-clicked. Tricky business.
I have been working on a new tool palette design for about two years. I am making progress, but it is an exceptionally difficult thing to pull off. Every day I want to scream at the compiler “CAN’T YOU SEE WHAT I’M TRYING TO DO? YOU STUPID IDIOT!”
It’s a dramatically superior design, that includes:
Variable sizes, not just one small and large size, but anything in between.
Two ways to resize them. Like any window, there is a resize box in the bottom right of the palette. It highlights when the mouse is over it. And you can use the scroll wheel on a mouse to run the sizes up and down.
When you change the size, all of the palettes change in size together.
The palettes can also be ‘eccentric’ which means a palette can have its own size unrelated to all the others. You make the palette eccentric by having the mouse in the title bar when you use the scroll wheel to resize. Eccentric palettes have the title bar in embarrassed purple, at least for now and for testing.
Better tool icon image on a Retina display just like an iPad or iPhone where you take that for granted. Round dots on a Retina display, crisp square dots for the rest of us.
This also means that the palette handles all mouse events so we can do innovative things like what you are suggesting here, or Matt’s concept of an always-open palette. I have no idea where all this is going, but it feels like it was 20 years ago when I got started with WildTools.
And for me personally, I’ve decided not to get old. I’ve seen what has happened to many of my friends; they are not yet drooling, but they are getting close with closed minds, no imagination, brains gone to mush and all that. Not interested in being reminded of my birthdays. I’m 28 and holding. My mother is now 104 so I’ve got the genes for it at least.
Alfred
Did this ever happen?
I'd like to be able to resize the icons in my floating tool palettes.
Thx.
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Alfred Scott
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Re: Double-click on Tools
I don’t actually remember the details except that there was a problem of how a tool would be selected with a key command and how to call the tool to draw. There is much to be said for such a design, say to minimize a tool palette that you want to set aside and to minimize to de-clutter the display, particularly with a single screen of a portable machine. I have two 27-inch screens, so I just shove anything I’m not interested onto the second Thunderbolt monitor, so there is more than enough screen area.
As I recall, this would only work if the new design were universally adopted by all tool palettes, PowerCADD, WildTools, Paolo’s tools etc.
There are also other things that I would want to see happen if I ‘owned’ PowerCADD, such as the button docks and tool icons that drew themselves. These are all in WildTools now. For example, I think the icon for an Offset Line, Parallel Offset, and many selection tools should use the user’s highlight color in the icon. These are all implemented in WildTools now.
I still have all the programming for these new designs and I can turn them on with a single call to
TestNewToolPalettes = TRUE;
Maybe I should try that to refresh my memory.
My most recent efforts have been to draw Deck Screw threads as Beziers instead of polygons.
If you are not familiar with them, try creating a favorite with the little plus button in a tool’s dialog sample window. Start with the Offset Line and Parallel Offset tools, then Balloon Text tools.
Alfred
As I recall, this would only work if the new design were universally adopted by all tool palettes, PowerCADD, WildTools, Paolo’s tools etc.
There are also other things that I would want to see happen if I ‘owned’ PowerCADD, such as the button docks and tool icons that drew themselves. These are all in WildTools now. For example, I think the icon for an Offset Line, Parallel Offset, and many selection tools should use the user’s highlight color in the icon. These are all implemented in WildTools now.
I still have all the programming for these new designs and I can turn them on with a single call to
TestNewToolPalettes = TRUE;
Maybe I should try that to refresh my memory.
My most recent efforts have been to draw Deck Screw threads as Beziers instead of polygons.
If you are not familiar with them, try creating a favorite with the little plus button in a tool’s dialog sample window. Start with the Offset Line and Parallel Offset tools, then Balloon Text tools.
Alfred