All menus visible and customizable

Hi!

I've worked in technical drawing (architecture) for nine years, so I'm opening a suggestion from my experience. Mainly I worked with Nemetschek Allplan, since version FT 16 to 2009, and a bit of AutoCAD 14 to 2010.

First of all, I'm glad to see how LibreCAD has been improved. It's really getting serious, and it's a real alternative.You did a very good job here: LibreCAD has a lot of functions to make the work faster and easier.

However, it would be nice if all menus were always visible, so we would skip one click most of the times (the click to access internal menus or the click needed to go back to the main menu). Why so many clicks? I suppose it's a thing dragged from QCAD.

In my opinion, to have too many buttons in the GUI is not a problem in that kind of software, on the contrary, it helps being productive. In a normal day of work we can make thousands of clicks, so reducing them is always a good improvement. Like you did with the Snap toolbar, putting it at the top.

Actually, I wouldn't force the menus position. Simply, create toolbars (Draw, Dimension, Modify) so we can put them where we wish: in the left side, right side, top or bottom. Sometimes, the simpler, the better; and it's the case.

I really think this change would be an important improvement.

Regards!

I've already solved these problems in 2.1.0...

There is now a right-click action history menu, a custom double-click menu
and you can make as many custom toolbars as you want.

What operating system are you using?
We have alpha versions available for Windows, OS X and Ubuntu.

As there is talk about this, @ ravas:
I found the way in the earlier version of custom toolbar to add or remove functions directly after use quite comfortable. Can this be brought back in as an additional possibility?

dellus

It's a totally different system now,
and with multiple custom toolbars
it's more complicated to implement.
I didn't think it was worth the effort.

It's undoubtedly possible... it's just a matter of finding the motivation. ;-]

ravas said: There is now a right-click action history menu.

this is the best idea since slice bread, a real blessing.
 I use this floating card almost exclusively, but it is a pain to find it emptied when opening a new session.
would it be possible to keep its content somewhere ?

note: One of the beauties of the Librecad interface is its legibility on the diminutive screen
of laptop computers, it saves us from the clutter of indistinguishable icons of Autocad.
--jp

It's possible to make the action history persistent;
although, I would also need to implement a list size option.
I've considered doing that anyhow.

Another idea is a top 10 menu
https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/issues/615

I'm probably going to implement another custom menu triggered by ctrl + right-click.

Hello ravas,
on the left of the screen is the floating card of my last session (corrections of an existing drawing)
on the right, having your request in mind, is the one I am prepping for my next session.

Since the extensively used 'Window Zoom' is highly accessible in the upper view toolbar
its recording is a waste of one slot.

I would not limit the slot number to 10, please allow 16 in your future Preferences store.

How to eliminate a no longer used item?  I made one blue and then shift+ctrl and many
other double keying to no avail  ;-)

"Since the extensively used 'Window Zoom' is highly accessible in the upper view toolbar
its recording is a waste of one slot."

You could say that for any action, because you can make custom toolbars.
https://github.com/LibreCAD/ChangeLogs/blob/master/developers/r-a-v-a-s/2-1/2-1-0/2-1-0.md

"I would not limit the slot number to 10, please allow 16 in your future Preferences store. "

There is currently no limit to the action history.
The top 10 widget would be an alternative to the action history, not a replacement.

"...I am prepping for my next session."
"How to eliminate a no longer used item?"

You want a custom menu (like the double-click menu), not an action history menu.
I'm already working on allowing users to create custom menus for right-click and ctrl+right-click.

Thanks, I am OK with your answers :)
Since I am not a programmer, is there a way to moneywise support
the fantastic reactivity of your team?
--jpb

PS:
This morning I installed 2.0.10 but had to revert to 2.1 because of the old GUI
in which I am lost, all my layouts and prefs fotgotten !!

The 2.0 branch will only receive bug fixes; it won't receive new features.
2.1.0 is almost feature complete; and I hope to officially release it by the first solstice of this year.

LibreCAD as an organization isn't accepting donations (as far as I know).
I guess Ries doesn't want to manage the donation money; although, I can't say for sure.

PPal redirects me to acceptingwhatis, if it's not an error would you explain
to:  jp at aatium dot com, what is the correlation?

After carefully selecting a custom color on the Properties color wheel, I discovered
it can't later be reused for other entities.  If it's impossible to store it in the last selected
custom patch, is there a way for the user to make a note of its RGB values,
and manually re-enter them?
--jp

Thank you both for helping the project!

It's not easy for Ries to handle the donation without a non-profit organization, for taxing and regulations.

Logically, it's not reasonable to accept donation without knowing exactly how to use the donation to improve the software.

Any help is welcome in this direction.

Cantar4 wrote

PPal redirects me to acceptingwhatis, if it's not an error would you explain
at  jp at aatium dot com, what is the correlation?

After carefully selecting a custom color on the Properties color wheel, I discovered
it can't later be reused for other entities.  If it's impossible to store it in the last selected
custom patch, is there a way for the user to make a note of its RGB values,
and manually re-enter them?
--jp

Thanks, @ravas. I'm using Kubuntu 14.04. I installed the version 2.1.0-alpha and it's totally awesome. It is better than I imagined, to be honest. For first time I feel freedom editing DXF files on Linux, I can do everything in the way I'm used to. I can say goodbye to the Windows partition.

First thing I'm gonna do is to export my own projects from Allplan to DXF format, distribute them in folders and enjoy the future I wished since I started using Linux (2008).

Thanks for the job you're doing on it.

Yes that is the correct email.
Merci beaucoup! J'apprécie vraiment cela.

I've thought about recreating the color system for a while.
I've considered an alternative dockwidget
that is a list of a user's 'favorite' colors.
That avoids entering the drop down menu.

It's on my list of possibilities for 2.2.0 features.

I appreciate the feedback. Enjoy!

I'll be organizing the offered actions into categories (probably in a combobox).

Maybe you could think of an icon for the action that opens the toolbar creator window.
Then you can add that action to a toolbar if you want quick access.

[UM]: To Move/copy selected elements, "specify a reference point"
then "specify a target point" to drag/drop them onto it.

If you want to move an element by say +0.08 /x and -0.2 /y, either you key the relative
x/y coordinates of the target in the command line, e.g.<@0.08, -0.2>
or you create an intersection of two construction lines.

Since LibreCad already embeds small numeric windows for Bevel insert 
and Length adjust  in the option toolbar, a third method would be to use these windows
to set the Target distance while keeping the same paradigm.

[future UM]: Drag the sticky selected elements over the screen, fly outside the frame toward
the two numeric windows, enter the x/y values of the target distance, fly back
to the drawing and drop the elements on the green blinking target point.
Snapier than all other around, almost a black hole, this target point eliminates the need of
a precision landing zoom+.

I've added categories to Widgets -> Toolbar Creator.

The Menu Creator will make a menu triggered by
double-click and ctrl+right_click (or command+right_click).
This is temporary until I implement a full system for creating multiple menus
and assigning them to various hotkeys.

Ctrl+right_click is slightly different, because you could use it to change snap modes without affecting the current tool.

I've also been considering creating a special snap mode menu
that would disable all but the selected mode.
I find myself disabling one mode and then enabling another often.
Free snap helps somewhat, but I prefer the immediate snapping with it off.

Another option would be to make a keycode or hotkey that disables all snap modes.