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Guide lines? Rulers? Pointer tool? Ending a polygon? (by Randall Lee Reetz )
Was this tool designed by someone who didn't have access to a monitor or pointing device? Seems like it was built on top of a spread sheet or data table of some sort. There isn't even a pointing affordance. There is no way to end a line tool polygon on a mac with a track pad? There is no affordance for guide lines or rulers? It can't handle points or line segments that aren't part of a closed loop? It has no concept of an object… only points and lines? The interface seems to do everything in its power to make everything as complicated as posible and as unstable as posible and as un-editable as posible. Information is presented in the property browser but one can not edit the properties there (or not in any way expectable or reasonable to anyone who has used a computer in the last 50 years). GUI people! Point and click! Direct manipulation! Hierarchical groupings and intuitive automation. This is expected in applications or has been for at least half a century. Even this web site and forum seem to be targeting HAM radio geeks from pre-1940's soviet military backgrounds. Am I in a time warp?
(no subject) (by Paul)
"There isn't even a pointing affordance."
Did we accidentally hide the mouse pointer on MacOS?
"There is no way to end a line tool polygon on a mac with a track pad?"
You can end a line with ESC key or right click. Both will add one more point, which is a bug (you can CTRL-Z it away).
"There is no affordance for guide lines or rulers?"
View->Show Snap Grid - not that we ever use it.
"It can't handle points or line segments that aren't part of a closed loop?"
You can turn off the warning, but since most people are designing real objects with closed perimeters that is the default. When extruding, it must have a closed contour to produce a solid.
"The interface seems to do everything in its power to make everything as complicated as posible and as unstable as posible and as un-editable as posible."
The small but growing user base would argue that it is a model of simplicity and elegance. Some disagree and use other tools.
"Information is presented in the property browser but one can not edit the properties there"
Most things are edited directly on the sketch. See your next point:
"GUI people! Point and click! Direct manipulation!"
Yes, you can use TAB to close the text window and can even hide the toolbar. This will leave just you and your sketch and a more direct manipulation than you are likely to find in any other CAD tool open source or commercial.
"Hierarchical groupings"
A long sought improvement that we all long for.
"Am I in a time warp?"
Yes. You've been thrown back to a time when things were simple and just worked. When web pages were light-weight and loaded quickly. Nothing here is fancy, but for what it does it gets the job done well. :-)
Did we accidentally hide the mouse pointer on MacOS?
"There is no way to end a line tool polygon on a mac with a track pad?"
You can end a line with ESC key or right click. Both will add one more point, which is a bug (you can CTRL-Z it away).
"There is no affordance for guide lines or rulers?"
View->Show Snap Grid - not that we ever use it.
"It can't handle points or line segments that aren't part of a closed loop?"
You can turn off the warning, but since most people are designing real objects with closed perimeters that is the default. When extruding, it must have a closed contour to produce a solid.
"The interface seems to do everything in its power to make everything as complicated as posible and as unstable as posible and as un-editable as posible."
The small but growing user base would argue that it is a model of simplicity and elegance. Some disagree and use other tools.
"Information is presented in the property browser but one can not edit the properties there"
Most things are edited directly on the sketch. See your next point:
"GUI people! Point and click! Direct manipulation!"
Yes, you can use TAB to close the text window and can even hide the toolbar. This will leave just you and your sketch and a more direct manipulation than you are likely to find in any other CAD tool open source or commercial.
"Hierarchical groupings"
A long sought improvement that we all long for.
"Am I in a time warp?"
Yes. You've been thrown back to a time when things were simple and just worked. When web pages were light-weight and loaded quickly. Nothing here is fancy, but for what it does it gets the job done well. :-)
(no subject) (by Andrew)
If you are drawing a polygon, end your last segment on the first point, it will turn yellow when you are in snap range, and a click will snap to it and end the line drawing.
(no subject) (by ruevs)
@Paul an admirable response :-)
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