Focus issues: focus not automatically set on command line after command

Am I missing something or should I add this to the bug list?

Windows Rel Jan-7-2015
Focus not automatically set on command line after command.
If I type "Alt+D", "L", "A" (draw angle line) focus is not set on the Command line area after "Specify position". I recall it doing so in the previous release. I need to use the mouse to click on the command line area.

If I move the mouse back to the drawing, focus is lost. (sometimes I bump the mouse) If I click on the parameter boxes "Angle:" or "Length:" and the mouse drifts back to the drawing window, focus is lost as well. In the previous version, this happened with some parameter boxes but not all.

It didn't happen with the previous release. Although, in the previous release, a few parameter boxes such (but not specifically) Angle: and Length: did behave like this. Though not all parameter boxes behaved the same (strangely).

It would be nice to have it behave like the previous version as that required less mouse work. One can use Alt+D / L / 2 from the keyboard to start drawing a line, but you still need to click on the command line. Tabbing doesn't work either as one would expect in Windows.

Also, menu items Draw and Dimension both have "D" underlined. I notice that typing "Alt+D" appears to alternately select Draw, then Dimension. So there is a work around. One does need to release the Alt key before typing D a second time. Perhaps change this to D<u>i</u>mension or Dime<u>n</u>sion?

Thanks -Jim

For command line focus, I once changed to make all keyboard events in the drawing area to be forwarded to the command line, and keep command line in focus. However, this caused lots weird bugs, losing "Enter/Esc" in drawing, just for example. Therefore, I reverted my changes, but the issue is still open for new proposals. Any help is welcome.


one the Alt-D part, I think we should change the one of the shortcuts. Any suggestion?

Sparkado wrote

Am I missing something or should I add this to the bug list?

Windows Rel Jan-7-2015
Focus not automatically set on command line after command.
If I type "Alt+D", "L", "A" (draw angle line) focus is not set on the Command line area after "Specify position". I recall it doing so in the previous release. I need to use the mouse to click on the command line area.

If I move the mouse back to the drawing, focus is lost. (sometimes I bump the mouse) If I click on the parameter boxes "Angle:" or "Length:" and the mouse drifts back to the drawing window, focus is lost as well. In the previous version, this happened with some parameter boxes but not all.

It didn't happen with the previous release. Although, in the previous release, a few parameter boxes such (but not specifically) Angle: and Length: did behave like this. Though not all parameter boxes behaved the same (strangely).

It would be nice to have it behave like the previous version as that required less mouse work. One can use Alt+D / L / 2 from the keyboard to start drawing a line, but you still need to click on the command line. Tabbing doesn't work either as one would expect in Windows.

Also, menu items Draw and Dimension both have "D" underlined. I notice that typing "Alt+D" appears to alternately select Draw, then Dimension. So there is a work around. One does need to release the Alt key before typing D a second time. Perhaps change this to D<u>i</u>mension or Dime<u>n</u>sion?

Thanks -Jim

Thank you for the reply.

Any change to the Draw and / or Dimension would be fine by me.

How have others solved this problem? I notice that Inkscape allows one to type in edit boxes while moving the mouse over the drawing area.

Would this work? If the mouse cursor were automatically snapped off the drawing area, would that prevent focus being lost? The tab key could cycle through the command line and all the edit boxes. In the case of draw/angle, cycle through command line, angle, and length.

Thanks -Jim

Although the topic is rather old, ths is how I do :

my LibreCAD is
Version: 2.2.0-rc1
Compiler: GNU GCC 4.9.1
Compiled on: Feb 16 2018
Qt Version: 5.4.1
Boost Version: 1.53.0
System: Windows 7

to draw an angle line : alt+t   l  a spaceBar

and the focus is in the command line