So I've been giving this a try, but ran into a roadblock of a current limitation that flyout menus are not set up to change size to adapt to content changes (like when different length text is displayed when different units are switched between on the flyout).

But I'm going to see if I can enable that in the UI system since it's been a limiting factor in some other things before too.

- Michael

Ok - this is what I've been able to come up with, does it look like it will do the trick?



- Michael

hey michael

that does look good...and this will only affect that specific selection, or does it change the unit system for the whole document?

thanks,
marco

Hi marco, it's like a "quick view" of that size information in different units. It doesn't change or edit anything about the geometry or the document, it's just for displaying that particular size value in other units just while that menu is open.

- Michael

Hi Martin (original poster) - ok I think I now fully understand what you were originally asking for which is a way to change the units being displayed directly inside of the properties panel.

So yeah that would worry me about people wandering across this feature by clicking on that spot and then not really understanding what unit setting their file was actually currently set to, I could see someone pretty easily thinking that they had changed the units for the current overall document by switching the units on the panel only.

The way that I've shown in that screencap should help avoid that kind of problem since I think it will be clear that it's just "peeking" at different units just in the popup alone and not actually altering anything. Or at least I hope it will be understood that way.

Maybe it will be possible for me to put in a hook that will enable a script to be set up to do alter the units being displayed at the top level in the properties panel, I'm not so worried about someone getting confused after running a specialized script as I am about someone clicking on things...

- Michael

That looks cool Michael....
Don't know if I ever gonna use it but it is a nice feature...

Peace,
Rich_Art. ;-)

Michael.
In my dreams it would be nice to have a kind of 'local units' feature for any particular item in the drawing, but I do realise that this might be a large undertaking to ask of you and I don't really know if it's a practical thing to request.

I much appreciate the work you have done on this and it will be a big help, because the 'calculator' will be right where I need it, assuming of course that it actually ends up in MoI. In short, I'm 100% happy with the example of the feature in use, it should also be handy for scenes that contain a mixture of large and small items as well, I think.


Martin.

Looks spot on for me ... Good job Michael, will it be staying ?

Martin Spencer-Ford (No confusion)

Nice conversion.
Should there be any indication that this is an approximate value, rounded to 2 decimals?
Line Inch +/- ?
Wondered if more decimals would be displayed with other settings?

Hi Martin,

> In my dreams it would be nice to have a kind of 'local units' feature for any particular
> item in the drawing, but I do realise that this might be a large undertaking to ask of
> you and I don't really know if it's a practical thing to request.

Hmmm yeah I'm afraid that does not seem likely since there would have to be some accompanying UI to control such a thing and it would have to be pretty carefully designed in order to avoid creating confusion between the "file's units" versus "this particular object's units".

Confusion over what units are actually active can possibly lead to pretty big errors so it's not generally an area that I feel very comfortable doing too much experimentation.


> I much appreciate the work you have done on this and it will be a big help, because the 'calculator'
> will be right where I need it, assuming of course that it actually ends up in MoI.

Yup, I think the 'calculator' thing as shown will be safe to have, and I have that implemented now so it will be in the next v3 release.

I will also see today about making it possible to use a script to change what units are being displayed directly in the properties panel so that it will be possible to set up keyboard shortcuts to switch that around.

- Michael

Hi Martin,

> Looks spot on for me ... Good job Michael, will it be staying ?

Yup, I don't think that it should cause any harm so it will be in for the next v3 beta.

- Michael

Hi Brian,

> Should there be any indication that this is an approximate value, rounded to 2 decimals?
> Line Inch +/- ?
> Wondered if more decimals would be displayed with other settings?

It uses whatever display precision you have set under Options > General > Decimal display, which controls the rounding of all values that are displayed in the UI in general. If you change that setting to show 4 decimal places, then this pop-up will show 4 decimal places as well.

The popup has more room available than a lot of UI that has to live inside the side pane, so I suppose it could be possible for me to use more decimal places than your regular display precision setting... But when I've tried that in the past people have also asked why some particular UI is not using the global setting.

- Michael

Michael.

Well, what can I say, except thank you!
I've only had MoI five minutes and you've already gone out of your way to build in one of my requests - this really is first-rate service.

Thanks again.
Martin (2).

Ok, so I have also been able to set it up so that a script will be able to change which units are used in the properties panel for the main display, so that means that it will be possible to set up a keyboard shortcut to switch the display there between the current file units and inches for example.

There have now been a lot of changes around that units display now so please be on the lookout for any bugs in that area in the next beta. I'll try to get out a new beta at the end of next week I hope.

- Michael

So the script will be a "conversion for the properties panel display" only. No actual document unit changes, and no "per object" units. Correct?

Hi Burr, yup that's correct, the script will control what units to use for converting just the Size: display in the properties panel, not actually change anything in the model just change the display readout only.

It will just be another option to do the same kind of thing as the pop-up menu, just if you're frequently switching between a couple of different displays you can set up a shortcut key to do it more conveniently.

- Michael

Thanks again, Michael.
I'm really looking forward to the next MoI v3 release so I can start using this and the script - it sounds like a real bonus over what I originally asked for.


Martin (2).