Desired improvements.

Hi Forum,

in the last weeks I used LibreCAD "seriously" for the first time; as a long-time user of AutoCAD, it was great for me to work on free software and discover all its potential. To all the developers, thank you for your work.

In my opinion, there are one or two things that would make LibreCAD even better. For example:

- "Keep original / Delete original" windows shown after some Modify commands: this window contains important options, but really slows down the workflow and I think it should be bypassed, someway, at least if one doesn't have particular needs. "Move" and "Copy" should be separated as commands, so that there is no need to declare every time if one wants to keep or delete the original object. In AutoCAD "Copy" is a command on its own right: you paste the object in the new position, then you can continue pasting infinite times the same object wherever you want. Right-click ends the command. I know we have Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and Ctrl-X, but they aren't so comfortable: Ctrl+V, at least, should make you able to paste the object multiple times, till you right-click or press Return.

The problem of this windows is that the user has to select the option and click/press Enter every time; it would be easier, at least, to be able to use the right-click to confirm the last used option.

- "Fn" keys should be customisable; in particular, I think it would be fantastic if one could toggle "Restrict Orthogonal" with a simple keypress. In AutoCAD, F8 (toggle Ortho) is one of the most used keys. "Fn" are comfortable because you can press them whenever you need, even when you have a tool temporarily activated and you can't right-click or left-click so easily.


Version: 2.2.1_rc2-11-g933d5378
Compiler: GNU GCC 12.2.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Boost Version: 1.75.0

I am thinking about whether it's possible to skip the window, if entities already selected, before triggering the actions.

The default should be deleting the original, for modification actions.

Of course, if we can figure out a way to get script support, it's even better.

Shortcuts should be customizable. Sounds like a reasonable feature to add.

myCAD wrote

Hi Forum,

in the last weeks I used LibreCAD "seriously" for the first time; as a long-time user of AutoCAD, it was great for me to work on free software and discover all its potential. To all the developers, thank you for your work.

In my opinion, there are one or two things that would make LibreCAD even better. For example:

- "Keep original / Delete original" windows shown after some Modify commands: this window contains important options, but really slows down the workflow and I think it should be bypassed, someway, at least if one doesn't have particular needs. "Move" and "Copy" should be separated as commands, so that there is no need to declare every time if one wants to keep or delete the original object. In AutoCAD "Copy" is a command on its own right: you paste the object in the new position, then you can continue pasting infinite times the same object wherever you want. Right-click ends the command. I know we have Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and Ctrl-X, but they aren't so comfortable: Ctrl+V, at least, should make you able to paste the object multiple times, till you right-click or press Return.

The problem of this windows is that the user has to select the option and click/press Enter every time; it would be easier, at least, to be able to use the right-click to confirm the last used option.

- "Fn" keys should be customisable; in particular, I think it would be fantastic if one could toggle "Restrict Orthogonal" with a simple keypress. In AutoCAD, F8 (toggle Ortho) is one of the most used keys. "Fn" are comfortable because you can press them whenever you need, even when you have a tool temporarily activated and you can't right-click or left-click so easily.


Version: 2.2.1_rc2-11-g933d5378
Compiler: GNU GCC 12.2.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Boost Version: 1.75.0

Yes, these are that kind of little things that tuly can make the difference, in terms of agility.

For example, imagine that you need to copy an object lots of times in several different, non-aligned, positions. To me, the process should be something like:

- Select that object left-clicking on it;
- Activate the "Copy" command with a click of the mouse on the proper button, or, better, with a quick shortcut on the keyoard, for example typing "cc" or "Shift+c";
- Click on your desired reference point on the drawing and paste the object wherever you want, lots of times, with left-clicks or Enter, as many times as you need;
- Right-click, or Esc, (or even Enter, customising in the Settings its role, that could be either a confirm-command or an escape-command), to escape the command.

In my opinion, the "Keep/Delete" window should appear as little as possible; I understand the importance of the options it contains, but on the other hand I see it as a critical obstacle to the workflow. Its options, as I said, are important; but I think it should be possible to "imply" them, one (Keep) or another (Delete), within the commands themselves, being able to do without the window at all.

I'll try to explain.

Most of the times, tools taken from the "Modify" section, like Scale and Rotate, simply mean that you just want to 'modify' the object (deleting the original). In these cases, "Delete original" can be the defaul with no extra-windows nor extra-worries.

Then, If sometimes you really want to modify an object keeping a copy of it in its original position, it'll be enough to copy that object on itself, first, then to modify one of the two with no need of a "delete original" added option, that in fact has been made the default.

If you enlighten and speed up the "Copy" command, putting it aside from the "Move" command (i.e. making "Move" and "Copy" as two separate commands), the "Keep original" option (and so the  Kep/Delete window) for all the other tools can be eliminated at all.

§

About customising the keyboard: Fns should be customisable, as well as the modifier-combinations. For example: Shift+r for Rotate, Shift+m fo mirror. These are only examples; but being able to customise Ctrl, Alt and Shift-modified keys would be also something exciting.

Currently, we do have ctl-c/ctl-x (or, just copy/cut shortcuts for macros).

Not really flexible enough, but you may also want to look into command files: collect commands into a file, and can be used to get complex automated macro tasks.

I do agree with your suggestions, and we will try to improve accordingly.

myCAD wrote

Yes, these are that kind of little things that tuly can make the difference, in terms of agility.

For example, imagine that you need to copy an object lots of times in several different, non-aligned, positions. To me, the process should be something like:

- Select that object left-clicking on it;
- Activate the "Copy" command with a click of the mouse on the proper button, or, better, with a quick shortcut on the keyoard, for example typing "cc" or "Shift+c";
- Click on your desired reference point on the drawing and paste the object wherever you want, lots of times, with left-clicks or Enter, as many times as you need;
- Right-click, or Esc, (or even Enter, customising in the Settings its role, that could be either a confirm-command or an escape-command), to escape the command.

In my opinion, the "Keep/Delete" window should appear as little as possible; I understand the importance of the options it contains, but on the other hand I see it as a critical obstacle to the workflow. Its options, as I said, are important; but I think it should be possible to "imply" them, one (Keep) or another (Delete), within the commands themselves, being able to do without the window at all.

I'll try to explain.

Most of the times, tools taken from the "Modify" section, like Scale and Rotate, simply mean that you just want to 'modify' the object (deleting the original). In these cases, "Delete original" can be the defaul with no extra-windows nor extra-worries.

Then, If sometimes you really want to modify an object keeping a copy of it in its original position, it'll be enough to copy that object on itself, first, then to modify one of the two with no need of a "delete original" added option, that in fact has been made the default.

If you enlighten and speed up the "Copy" command, putting it aside from the "Move" command (i.e. making "Move" and "Copy" as two separate commands), the "Keep original" option (and so the  Kep/Delete window) for all the other tools can be eliminated at all.

§

About customising the keyboard: Fns should be customisable, as well as the modifier-combinations. For example: Shift+r for Rotate, Shift+m fo mirror. These are only examples; but being able to customise Ctrl, Alt and Shift-modified keys would be also something exciting.

You're right, thank you for your support and for having considered my impressions seriously.

 :-)

Thank you for your suggestions - and just a couple of comments:

1)  "Keep Original/Delete original" - well, actually these options are indeed used by several Modify commands, so if we'll have separate command for keep and delete case, that will double the amount of modify commands. That may be confusing to the user and will overload UI.
Plus, please note that all these dialogs includes additional options - say, multiple copies, angles and so on.

In general, the last choice user is saved, so if you need to perform several "move" operations - it's not necessary to select that each time.

However, regarding skipping displaying dialog for modify actions - that's work is currently in progress, I suppose in nearest couple of week I'll push update with corresponding functionality.

2)"Copy" operation - yes, adding infinite pasting is really good idea, thank you for your suggestion. I'll add support for this.

3) "Fn" keys should be customizable" - well, I can say that the overall shortcut management should be improved, so the user should be able to specify shortcuts for various actions.  This feature in my todo list, yet probably not with the highest priority, yet let's see.

If you have any suggestions regarding some specific default shortcuts (say, ones that may be familiar to AutoCAD users) - please report a list of them (shortcut / desired action)

Thank you.