Union tool, or Combine Tool

drawmode
groups
combination
#1

This thread is to discuss the use of the union tool. This may be the tool that @picholine needs when she asked:

Hi kmf, The curve tool would indeed be a great help, But I wonder if it would be possible to be able to join different parts in drawing mode (for example joining the back and front legs of a pant to make a legging) and also to copy a piece of pattern to make a new pattern piece in the same file and make some changes (for example a different neck or collar); May be it is possible yet and it is because I did not find how to do it. Thank you Jeanne

Many users do not create a separate drawing for each pattern piece, they instead use the same drawing and select specific points to create the pattern pieces. The union tool allows multiple “details” (pattern pieces) to be joined to form a unified pattern piece.

#2

I think the request was to have this capability in Draw mode. The request may have been to select two Draw pieces, or subsets of Draw pieces, then join them to create a new Draw piece.

The Union tool can join workpieces in Detail mode.

#3

yes, the request was for one in DRAW mode, however I think if one took a look at the timo trouser pattern and the way the detail was derived from the drawing, it would make more sense to use the union tool as is.

If Jeanne (picoline) still wants the feature in draw mode then it might make sense to use the same feature as a basis and expand to work in either mode.

I believe this is at least worth discussion.

#4

The ability to create a new draw piece from other pieces has come up peripheral to other discussions, so a tool to do this may be worthwhile.

We could create a tool which allows the user to combine two groups in Draw mode to create a new Draw piece. We could name it “Combine Group”.

The user selects the Combine Group tool from the Operations tool tab in Draw mode.
Then the user selects two groups from the side menu.
Then selects the four “combine” points.
And it works like the Union tool, except it creates a new draw piece. The points are renamed with the prefix letter of the new draw piece. If the next available draw piece letter is X, then the point A10 in the new draw piece will be XA10.

#6

investigating this leads me to some comments on the user interface. I will start a new thread for that.

One specific comment on the user interface that I think belongs on THIS thread is that the icon for the Union tool appears in both the draw mode and the detail mode. It makes sense to me that this icon should apply to the “combine group” tool in in the operations tool tab draw mode and also to the union tool which in my opinion should be moved to the operations tool tab in detail mode.

The more general discussion about which tools appear in which mode and how the UI makes it apparent to the user which are available belongs in the new thread which can be found HERE: https://forum.seamly.net/t/user-interface-review-update/3169

#7

Totally agree about the UI, it needs some love