Michael,
could you add drag and drop funcitionality for opening files, this would be quite useful,
thanks

Hi okapi, yes that should not be too hard to add, but there are a couple of things to decide on -

What do you think should happen when you drop the file, should it do the same as File/Open which will close the current model and open a new one, or should it add the file's contents to the current model without closing the current file (like File/Import)?

Also what should I do if you drop multiple files?

- Michael

Personally, I would most often use it to import/merge into the currently opened file. But some others may want to replace the current file. Other folks may want MoI to open new sessions for each file being dragon dropped... why not add a toggle into the Options dialog, or create a popup when the event occurs?

jonah

Hi Michael,

ideally there would be a popup asking whether you want to open or merge the file (a third choice as mentioned would be to open in a new Moi session)

In the case of multiple files, I guess I would think it logical if there would be a choice between opening all at once, or importing all into the current file, or last, all in different sessions.
I think in such cases it is not necessary to decide on an individual basis ( more like a batch process).

Actually being able to open several files at once like this would be quite usefull

Hi jonah & okapi, thanks for the feedback on this.

For opening files in a totally new session of MoI, that is actually already possible if you do a right-click on the selected files in Windows Explorer, and then pick "Open" or "Open with".

So I think that I probably shouldn't try to replicate that with a drag & drop on a single window, that seems like it should be more focused on opening stuff up within that same session...

I'll take a look at doing a pop-up that asks if you want to open or merge, that should not be very difficult.

And I guess when multiple files are involved it will merge all those together.

- Michael

>>So I think that I probably shouldn't try to replicate that with a drag & drop on a single window, that seems like it should be more focused on opening stuff up within that same session...


Yes, that is my feeling too. But options are always welcome...

jonah

Hi Michael,
Just to add to merge, is it possible once you merge to have an option for placement, e.g. point to point or values.

.

Hi Danny, I'd like to enable that at some point, but it will probably be a bit tricky to do in the first pass on it, because it sort of needs an origin point to be defined in the file which may not be available in many file formats.

- Michael

Hi Michael,
I was thinking more once the merged object is in there you can have MoI prompt for an origin point from the object to where ever you want to place it, but then on the other hand I guess once merged you could use 'move' and the object widgets to orientate.
Just merge and open options are cool, just thinking out loud.

Cheers

Hi Danny - yup that would then be essentially the Move command which lets you pick that origin point and target point already.

I will make sure to make objects from the merged files be selected just like the File/Import command, so that they are all ready to go when you use Move.

I'm also looking into a kind of "Orient" command that will do a combination of Move + Rotate to align one object to another, although maybe I could add this as an option within Move.

- Michael

Hi Michael,
On the subject of 'move', I was just thinking could you probably incorporate it in the current object edit frame, referring to the picture you would select the move widget, which would activate the point selection, select the origin point (first mouse click) make it stick drag to destination then pick target point (second mouse click) to release.

Hi Danny, it's an interesting idea!

But one factor is that I have tried to keep that edit frame about as light as it possibly can be, so that it will not clutter up the screen.

That has some pretty big benefits since it then enables it to be more easily turned on all the time.

So I'm kind of a bit hesitant to add a bunch more stuff into it, unless maybe it was pretty heavily used.


You can already move an object by just clicking and dragging directly on it, and that drag operation will snap on to any key points that were close to your mouse.

So for simple things (like snap an end of a line to another line's end), the existing drag function should be able to do that job already.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

> You can already move an object by just clicking and dragging directly on it,
> and that drag operation will snap on to any key points that were close to your mouse.

Yeah, I use that all the time, it was just a thought when doing assembly stuff where you can say pick the center of a cylinder and line it up to the center of a hole that is slightly bigger, no big deal I use the 'move' function for this anyway, I also thought this because you mentioned you are going to have the part active after merge was executed in the drag and drop.

Cheers

Hi Danny - I guess the hope I would have there would be that you're doing assembly type operations at a somewhat less level of frequency.

If you're not doing something at a high level of frequency, then it isn't such a burden to fire up an auxiliary command like Move.

In fact, it is a problem to kind of "over optimize" and try to make a less frequently used thing very prominent in the regular UI because then it takes up some of the overall UI mojo for not a big gain.

The thing that will be good about the parts being selected on merge is that they will be all set up for you to do a Move (or whatever) operation on them right away without needing to select them first, so it will actually work smoothly with Move.

- Michael

Hi okapi,

I have set up drag & drop support for the next v2 beta.

After you drop a File or Files on the MoI window, There will be an options dialog displayed:



If you use "Open file" the current file will be closed and replaced by the new content.

If you use "Merge file", then any current data will stay in place and the dropped files will be added to it the same as the File/Import command.


If you have an empty scene then it will not prompt you and will do an Open.


If you want to open everything in separate MoI program instances, then do a right-click on the files in Windows Explorer and pick "Open" or "Open with", that should open them in that way.

- Michael

excellent michael !

I think it sounds best, the different options sound very logical

...nice job Micheal - I will look forward to that!!