Measuring, analyzing
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 From:  Michael Gibson
3013.15 In reply to 3013.9 
Hi 3dcnc,

> I know this is wishing for alot at this stage of V2, but could
> we not have a "tape measure" button that does not draw a
> line but still shows a readout in the bottom of the toolbar.

V2 is all wrapped up at this point and getting prepared for the final release, so there won't be any new things for v2 at this point.

But also what you are describing is exactly what the Line command already does - it lets you pick points and shows a readout in the bottom of the toolbar.

So what would be the benefit of this additional tool that you are talking about here if it does exactly what the Line command is doing already?

If you don't want to keep the line like Burr mentioned above, just hit Esc or press the Cancel button to bail out of the command.


> Because I sometimes use files for CNC cutting, its a big gripe of
> mine to have additional "unwanted rogue" lines all over the place.
> It can cause problems for CAM software.

Well, you have all kinds of options to avoid that - press Esc or the Cancel button before ending the command, or you can even press the Undo button afterwards if you forgot to cancel out.


> but I struggle to see how anyone can design something for the real
> world, without being able to check basic measurments.

Well, like I posted previously there is also a basic size readout that is new in v2 which shows up when you select an object:



So just look over there if you want to confirm your object's overall size.


Most of the time if someone is drawing something precise, it is best to directly enter your desired lengths and such right when you are initially drawing the object so that you are controlling the size right from the start rather than worrying about it later on.

- Michael

EDITED: 3 Mar 2010 by MICHAEL GIBSON

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 From:  Michael Gibson
3013.16 In reply to 3013.11 
Hi 3dcnc,

quote:
I am not a programmer, but is it that difficult to just add a button.

It's not difficult technically to add a button, but it is very difficult UI design wise to add in new features that impact the UI in a major way like new buttons.

If I just add in a bunch of buttons all over the place in MoI, it will not take long before the UI is heavily overloaded with a zillion buttons all over the place and at that point it loses the streamlined and easy to use nature that is one of its major benefits currently.

In order to keep MoI having a friendly interface and maintaining the "ease of use" factor, I tend to be very conservative about adding in new buttons - I don't add them in just willy-nilly but only after carefully considering where they can be well organized for a long time.

With this function for instance, I'd like to eventually have it in some kind of "Analyze" or possibly "Dimension" palette on the side pane, but it takes a lot of thinking and design time to figure out exactly how to arrange big portions of the UI like that.

So it is actually a pretty major and complex issue, not something that I treat lightly at all.

I do expect to have a set of tools for things in this general area worked in for MoI v3.

But sorry, it takes a lot of design time to do a high quality UI, and one of the easiest ways to ruin it is to just stick in a whole bunch of stuff without careful planning.

- Michael
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 From:  3dcnc
3013.17 In reply to 3013.16 
Hi Michael

As a designer, I do understand compromising the Moi user interface by just adding buttons.I like using Moi for its "less is more" approach.

many thanks

3dcnc

(PS. thanks Burrman for trying to show me some alternatives)

EDITED: 3 Mar 2010 by 3DCNC

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