Union tool, or Combine Tool

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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: User interface review update

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Totally agree about the UI, it needs some love

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@Douglas you may find this old discussion of interest particularly since a new user (@mrlemurboy) has asked a related question

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Ich würde gerne einen Anwendungsvorschlag machen und hoffe, dass ich hier an richtiger Stelle bin. Oft ist es so, dass beim Zeichnen von Belägen oder einem Futter lediglich die Nahtzugaben geändert werden müssten. Zur Zeit ist es so, dass im Zeichenmodus immer ein neues Detail gezeichnet werden muss - das heißt alle Punkte für das Detail müssen nocheinmal eingefügt werden. Ist oder wäre es möglich, das man im Detail Modus ein Detail einfach kopieren kann und dann unabhängig die Nahtzugaben ändert? Da ich mit den Möglichkeiten der Umsetzung in diesem Programm nicht vertraut sondern außschließlich Anwender bin, hoffe ich das diese Frage nicht zu blöd ist:) Im Detail Modus kann ich die Details unabhängig verschieben, indem ich die linke Maustaste gedrückt halte. Im Zeichen Modus geht das nicht. - deswegen hat sich mir die Frage gestellt, wenn verschieben geht, geht vielleicht ja auch kopieren - habe dann ein neues Detail indem ich entweder Nahtzugaben verändern oder besten Falls sogar Punkte ausklammern kann und somit das Detail ändere…

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Warum erscheinen die Texte anders, als sie geschrieben werden?

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Hi, @Scholli

We are trying to sort the forum out into fewer topics so that we can find the past posts easily. It would be wonderful if you could start a thread under Developer for posts like these that are program related.

Yes, I currently use the groups for this so that I can hide all the other things that go into getting the outline of the pattern. It would make life a lot easier :slight_smile:

Do you mean the size of the characters in the labels? These work as a % (goodness knows of what) rather than the points in a word document and they resize according to the size of the label and the longest sentence length.

If you mean the font, you can select your label font under preferences.

Nein, ich meinte den Text, den ich hier im Forum schreibe. Wenn ich auf Antworten drücke, werden Wörter verändert:(

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So arbeite ich auch. Wenn aber damit extra ein neues Detail angefertigt werden muss, muss ich alle Pin, Label usw. auch neu anlegen - das würde man sich im anderen Fall sparen:)

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Wow! no, I have no idea. Perhaps @Pneumarian can help? She knows much more than I do on the forum.

LOL, I hear you.

Perhaps @Douglas will come by later and tell us if we should create a new post under the Developers topic, whether it will be a viable topic.

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In the near future I will upgrade the functionality of “groups”. It will be easier to create and add / delete / move objects to groups. In fact the work flow will change in that you can add a newly created tool (object) in it’s dialog box. Also groups will have their own line color and type… so in essence a group can really be considered a “style” - such as construction lines, seam lines, etc. And of course as usual you will be able to hide or show a group.

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If I followed correctly… what we want is a "Copy Pattern Piece (Detail) ? Yes. Very much doable and should be added as a suggestion… where ever that cat / topic ends up. Discussion of the feature could then be conducted there.

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Thank you, @Douglas :star_struck:

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Ihr seid ein tolles Team - vielen Dank dafür:)

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