GUI Improvements

Probably not… just describing what most graphics programs will do with text pasted into a given sized box.

IMO the idea should be to change the size of the box to fit the font size, not changing the font size to fit inside the box - as it is now… unless you want to have that as an option?

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Hmmm. I like the idea of changing the box for the text, but wonder what happens when the pattern piece ends up too small for the text. I remember reading that the original idea was that all patterns would be made with a spot drafted into them for the label, so the text would always be a certain size in proportion to the pattern piece.

I just now tested that using a simple square in the (20200927 TestBranch Linux AppImage,) to see how well the current system deals with smaller pattern pieces. Not well. Actually, using the label with pins in the top left & bottom right corners of the label, as was supposedly the ideal way to do it, refused to layout nicely. I had a big, huge label text, & the letter sized page was just a wee little fingernail in the corner.

So whichever route you go, I’m pretty sure it’ll work at least as well as the present system. & we’re not even to release 1.0 yet, So experimentation is to be expected. Currently a free-standing label seems to auto-adjust down to the size of the piece it belongs to when clicked, & that is a very nice feature.

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I believe currently the box (bounding rect) is constrained by the pattern piece… it’s been awhile since I’ve played with labels.

You almost have to use the “pins” aka “anchor points” to locate the labels or they can get placed wonky when a piece is scaled.

Something I’ve tossed around in my head is instead of pins is to use an origin point of a pattern piece… like the lower left corner of the bounding box… and then the text (label), symbol, or some other item can be located by x / y offsets from the origin. Or basically the origin point, would be the default anchor point, and then there can be the additional offsets. If the offsets can also use formulas then you can have the item move with the sizing.

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I just create a pin when I’m finished with the drafting that is more-or-less in the centre of the pattern, label it pin1, pin2, etc. for the difference bits. It works very well.

And then I resize the dimensions of the labels according to the size of the pattern.

I’m thinking that the labels need some serious rethinking in terms of programming, if I read the other posts. And everyone is doing such a brilliant job, I’m so very grateful. Thank you very much :heart: :heart: :heart:

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I did some work on my fork… so we’ll see. :slight_smile:

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I (finally) just pushed the zoom updates / additions I made.

  • New features include:
  • Spinbox to display and enter zoom scale percentage
  • Zoom to selected in draft and piece mode
  • Zoom to previous view
  • Zoom to area via a rubber band
  • Pan tool for a non middle button mouse or trackpad
  • Adds zoom gesture for touch screens
  • Zoom to selected by left mouse button double click in draft and piece mode
  • Now Zooms to 1:1 or 100% when creating a new draft block

The zoom toolbar icons were also updated:

toolbar

Renames mode menu to view and places all zoom items there. I also added an edit menu and moved the Undo / Redo items there. A Tools menu was also added with the tool related items moved there. This now separates the functions into the proper menus.

menus

Preferences have been updated to include settings for scrollbars & zoom. In order to create more space for new preferences a new set of tabs was added - Graphics, which handles prefs associated with the functions of the UI.

Of note 2 prefs from the Configuration tab have been moved to the Graphics ->Appearance tab. Also there is now a tab for “colors”, expect to be able to customize various elements of the app… such as changing the background color to something other than GLARING white.

gfx_prefs1

As a space saver you can now choose to turn the scrollbars off and / or resize the scrollbar width from 8-20 px. The duration and updatte interval, along with a scroll speed can be set to change the speed at which the view will scroll with the mouse wheel. The zoom via mouse wheel can now be used with or without the Ctrl key, and like the scrolling you can set the zoom speed. Disregard the Constrain pref… it’s inactive at the moment. And lastly you will find an option to turn on / off the ability to zoom to a selected draft block or a pattern piece with a double mouse click.

gfx_prefs2

And lastly… other than a few other changes you can’t see - I fixed the missing flags for the US and Czech language combobox choices.

flags

Cheers.

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Test build for zoom updates…

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@Douglas I downloaded and tested the test build with zoom. Thank you and kudos. This is such a major improvement.

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Let me know if you find any issues / bugs.

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I have not found any new bugs yet. I have a specific praise about something that makes this more useful.

Previous builds had many issues with choppy or unpredictable results when attempting to move an entire pattern piece (by selecting the origin point and dragging it). Many times I would accidentally move one or more pieces far enough apart that it was nearly impossible to find them. The addition of the “Fit” option helps greatly. I have attached a .val and .vit file that illustrates the problem that exists in older versions that is solved nicely by the rework of the zoom feature. testzoom.val (41.3 KB) testzoom.vit (4.1 KB)

I intentionally moved the two pattern pieces far apart. In prior versions of Seamly2D it seemed difficult to find other pieces once one had “run away”. The problem with a piece “running away” seems to also have been solved even though I have never seen the problem described anywhere.

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Hmmm… I assume you’re referring to moving a piece when in draft mode… I wasn’t even thinking about that. I was more aware of the issue of a runaway pattern piece in the piece mode. Still could use a little more work to have more control as a piece nears the edge of the view window.

I think the best zoom addition is the double left mouse click to selected piece.

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Hola, Muchas gracias por su aporte con el zoom , realmente se nota la diferencia!! Es importante para trabajar con comodidad. Sobretodo un 10/10 con la opción zoom área.:ok_hand::ok_hand:, súper útil. El único problema que le veo, es que, cuando hago girar la rueda del ratón siempre va hacia arriba, aunque lo este haciendo en la dirección contraria. Por lo demás, en los pocos minutos que lo probé todo Ok :+1:. Si aparece otro problema lo reporto. Muchas Gracias por todo. Saludos

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You just need to open up the Application Preferences and save them so the new scrolling default settings take effect. If you just save and make no changes the scrolling speed will be set to the slowest value. If the preferences are not saved the speed is read as zero so the scrolling does not function correctly. Will be fixed in next update.

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As novas ferramentas de zoom ficaram fantásticas! Obrigada Douglas! Parabéns pelo trabalho! Uma sugestão que teria para a interface GUI seria poder ocultar os labels dos pontos, somente os labels não os pontos como acontece quando usamos o agrupamento. Ou então de poder diminuir o tamanho de alguns labels. Em algumas peças incomoda um pouco os pontos auxiliares terem labels do mesmo tamanho dos pontos principais. Não queria que eles sumissem, só que os labels pudessem ser modificados de alguma forma. Desde já agradeço a atenção e mais uma vez parebéns pelas implementações novas.

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Hi Aline,

Just some info for you - I 've been working on my own fork from the original Valentina for about 2 years… and I’ve just recently started to bring some of the features I’ve added to Seamly2D. Showing / hiding the point name (labels) is one of them.

Heres a question… would you find it useful to be able to show / hide as a group option - where you could hide all the objects in a group or just the point names of a groups objects? This would be in addition to showing / hiding ALL point names.

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Hi Douglas,

Great! Thank you very much for your fast response.

Answering your question: Yes it would be great to be able to hide all the objects in a group or just the point names of a group’s objects.

Best regards

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Regarding the SeamlyMe dialog which pops up when “Add known” is clicked:

Or come up with a different name for the button that better reflects that it is accessing the “Measurement data base,” such as… um… I guess “Add from database” would take more space than we’d like.

On a different set of rails; if we were to combine the two “Add…” buttons into one “Add Measurements” button & put a button beside the searchbox of the “Add measurements dialog” to “Add this measurement” or somesuch…

Actually, it would probably work better to ditch the “Add known” button, change “Add custom” to “Add Measurement,” & have the “Measurement database” be accessible via a button next to the “Name” line, a button which is similar to the formula button on most of the formula lines.

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Hello tous,

D’accord avec Aline je pense que ce serait bien de pouvoir masquer tous les noms de points si besoin. Ca permettrait de rendre les pièces plus lisibles une fois le travail terminé. Bonne journée

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This will be implemented soon… it will be an item under new “view” menu with a keyboard shortcut, as well as an item in the right mouse button (drop down) context menu.

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I just pushed a fix for the context menu issue… I basically just fixed the crashing issue, added a clear button in the search field, ad changed the Dialog title to ME Database - Add known measurement. Oh… and set a minimum window size.

We’ll have to look at cleaning up the ME ui… in testing the context menu fix I found the “Add custom” button kinda of weird. I’d kinda agree with combining the 2 into one “Add measurement” dropdown with “known” and “custom” items. Also I’d add shortcuts to the existing menu items.

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