A lot of times when I'm using MoI, i realize how great it is to work with it, but at the same time I see things that could make my work more fluid. Here I collected some of the ideas that I remember...

1. Get measures with cLines: cLines are great because you just drag them, and they have more options, very good options, but i rarely use them cause it takes 3 to 4 steps to get them done, and for me the idea of the cLines is a one-step aid, and that's what make them great. So, a lot of times I just want to grab an existing measure (for example the space between two lines middle points), move it and orient it at some other place... Lets count the steps needed if I want to make that with a cLine: 1.drag the cLine 2.clic the submenu button 3.clic relocate cLine 4.clic the new location point 5.clic the submenu button again 6.clic reorient cLine 7. clic the new orientation point 8.phew! (optional)... 7 steps. What if I tell you that it can be achieved in just 2 steps? 1.drag the cLine 2.drag again at the point you want, with the orientation you want but with a modifier key pressed. Congrats you've saved 5 long steps! (and you can get rid of 2 options at the cLine submenu). Using similar measures around the model is a common task, and now it can be 2 steps ahead of us.


2. Browser, a couple of details...

2.1 Selections: The new selection indicator is a welcome improvement, but lets face it, sometimes its hard to reach being such a little button. I like it as an indicator but not as a button. I don't know future plans for the browser, but if it fits i suggest to make the whole name the button again and keep the little yellow dot as the good indicator it is.

2.2 Option to make objects work like styles: I've said that before and Michael argued not everybody wants to have every single object attached to a name in the browser, so why do I insist? What makes MoI such a great program is that the steps required to make something is minimized, so you can work faster and more fluid. Objects is a great way of organizing your scene, but, by default, you have to write a name for every single object you create if you want it in the Objects list, other way, the unnamed objects can be easily lost. Three problems here: 1.writing a name every time is time consuming 2.a name can be easily misspelled and then it will create a new "object" in the objects list 3.you can't select the unnamed objects easily. Let me reinforce the 3rd one there. If you have a heavy scene with a lot of objects, and you are looking for the unnamed, if you first turn all objects "visible" MoI will get slow (very slow in my experience), then you will turn off all the objects with a name assigned, then you have those unnamed you wanted, after making whatever with them you will want to restore the objects you were working on, but it happens that you don't remember which they were, so you just start to turn on and of every object in the list with a lag of 30 seconds each... it can be very painful. I know, thats a extreme case, but even in a simple scene it can take various painful steps. Well, all this can be done by just one clic with an unnamed group in the objects list. So, selecting objects and changing their names with one clic and not having to worry about the spelling, having all your unnamed objects under your control, deciding which name new objects will have... all this with Objects working like Styles. I think a lot of users will take advantage of this feature, so, why not to make it an option?

2.3 Browser organization: Again I don't know future plans for the browser, but I think modifier_key+drag rearranging and modifier_key+clic name change will be welcome additions.


3. Cycling shortcuts idea: This is something I borrowed from photoshop and kind of adapted to MoI current shortcut system. Im running out of keys, I would love if every single tool has a shortcut in my keyboard (maybe I'm exaggerating a little), but how about this: you assign "x" for 1d scale "xx" for 2d scale and "xxx" for 3d scale. You get the Idea. You can have a certain milliseconds space for pressing a letter twice or three times, just like double clic works. A nice way of expand you shortcuts!


4. split/select_view/reset single shortcut: Just a whim. Can it be possible to have a shortcut that when you hold a key it splits the view, and when you release, it stops in the view you have the mouse over and if you just press the shortcut it resets the view. I've been working with the split-view shortcut and its great cause it is more visual, you will know which view you need when you see it. It was confusing when y tried to use the default buttons at the bottom of the interface. This shortcut just can make the experience better.


Well those are the Ideas, hope not so long it bored you. Just trying to put mi five cents into making MoI even better than it is now.

Hi ed, thanks for the feedback!

A lot of these things seem to revolve around using special modifier keys to do things - just in general I actually try to avoid a huge overload on so many special modifier keys required to do things. One reason is that I tried to make MoI be able to work without actually needing to touch the keyboard at all, but there is also another reason which is that a huge array of different modifier keys tends to be difficult for people to learn, and all that functionality tends to stay hidden from a lot of people.

That tends to be a problem when a function would be hidden for say 99.99% of users - that tends to make me sit back and wait until maybe some more accessible and discoverable design might be achieved.


> 4. split/select_view/reset single shortcut: Just a whim. Can it be possible to
> have a shortcut that when you hold a key it splits the view, and when you
> release, it stops in the view you have the mouse over and if you just press
> the shortcut it resets the view.

Right now there's no way to overload a single shortcut key with different actions for "hold" versus "tap" which I guess would be required for this one.

The problem with setting up something like that would be how to manage it and how to set up a clear UI for controlling it. More UI is a problem because having a lot of additional UI to control things that are only very rarely tends to clog things up and just makes the overall UI more complex and harder to manage for the areas that would actually be more widely used.

It's a goal for MoI to have a streamlined UI and to be easy to use, and so having features that would require a massively elaborate control panel to set up and manage are really at odds with that core goal of MoI to have simplicity and ease of use...

- Michael

I know, some of those features will be hidden but for example, one of my favorite things of MoI works that way, holding ctrl while using a tool like rotate makes a copy instead of just rotating the object. Another one is copying a point of a curve will make a copy of that curve with that point modified. Those are hidden features that I use a lot and if I discovered them I think more people did it.

This aren't in the "hidden" or "modifier-key-needed" group:

Selections at the browser
Make objects work like styles
Cycling shortcuts

For the hold and tap shortcut I was just wondering, nothing important.

Hi ed,

> Those are hidden features that I use a lot and if I discovered them I think more people did it.

Yeah but those are some good examples of when it can help things to be more discoverable if there is some consistency with the shortcut key being used for the same kind of thing in multiple different areas, like in the one you're describing there it's all on a common theme of making a copy by using Ctrl.

The ones that you were talking about previously for clines I don't think would fit into that kind of category, they'd be pretty unique just to clines.

Also I think it's possible to just set up a regular shortcut key to get those particular actions triggered, if you set up the following on regular shortcut keys:

script: /* Reposition a just drawn cline */ moi.drawingAids.constructionLineReposition();

script: /* Reorient a just drawn cline */ moi.drawingAids.constructionLineReorient();


So if you want to avoid going to that cline menu and instead use a keystroke, that's possible to set up now without needing to dedicate a special hard coded modifier key for that...



> For the hold and tap shortcut I was just wondering, nothing important.

I'm not sure if I've ever really seen that kind of dual hold/tap type thing as a regular shortcut key mechanism with any other software. The complication with it being unfamiliar is that it would probably be pretty difficult to make a good setup mechanism for it that did not also complicate making just regular more familiar type shortcut keys. I do want to overhaul the shortcut key editor but the main reason for that is to make the setup for it easier than it currently is, something like press the key that you want to assign the shortcut to rather than typing in the label of it as currently done.


> Selections at the browser
> Make objects work like styles
> Cycling shortcuts

Did you want me to comment on every single one of these? Some things I think we've already discussed before, like the downside of the auto generating object names being that it would clog up the names list instead of letting you put just the important objects on there, and that trying to make it an option would probably require modifications in every single command which probably makes it a kind of wide impact type of thing.


re: browser selection - I'm probably going to try to make a menu pop out when you click on the name which has some various actions on it, that's why the selection action was moved to the dot to free up room for that. Also with adding in the selection dot indicator feature it also made sense to use it also for the toggle action as well so that it behaved in the same way as clicking on the eye icon for toggling visibility.

cycling shortcuts / shortcut key sequences is something that I would like to add in the future, it's a bit tricky to implement though because it probably involves some kind of pause mechanism since it can't execute the shortcut on the first keystroke if that keystroke is also part of a sequence. Then in addition to the implementation it will have some setup and management UI stuff as well.

It's not unusual for the UI for managing and controlling these kinds of things to be one of the biggest barriers to me sticking them into MoI - one of the main ways that I keep the UI for MoI under control and not get all bloated up is to be very conservative about slapping in new features that require significant new UI. If a lot of UI is involved it usually puts things quite a ways on the back burner where I'd like them to sit and stew for a while before jumping into them.

Modifier keys are kind of similar in a certain sense - it's usually hard to take such features away after they've been introduced and I hate to have the situation where there is finally some significant idea that really needs to use modifier keys (like maybe say some kind of special history editing mechanism), but it can't be done easily anymore because all the modifier keys are already taken up doing other things. That's why if it is possible to do it with a regular shortcut key it's not likely to get a dedicated hard coded modifier key for it...

- Michael

Ok, thanks for your answers.