Re: [Kicad-developers] Indication of modifier buttons to tools and dialogs

2017-03-15 Thread Kristoffer Ödmark
I like this. This seems like a good way. Althougt there are a lot of unused space in my status bar ( the one that shows z: x and y, adn dx and dy. Which was where i wanted some small tool status indication. On 03/15/2017 03:22 PM, Wayne Stambaugh wrote: Why not just use the current message

Re: [Kicad-developers] Indication of modifier buttons to tools and dialogs

2017-03-15 Thread Jon Evans
It's a thought, I will play with it to see. I think there might be some situations where the suggested help we would want to show is different when no objects are selected vs. when one or more objects are selected, so it would conflict in that case. But, I know there is an object properties

Re: [Kicad-developers] Indication of modifier buttons to tools and dialogs

2017-03-15 Thread Wayne Stambaugh
Why not just use the current message panel? You could show the modifier keys and hotkeys for the current tool immediately after the tool is selected before any object action takes place. Once an object is selected by the current tool, it will just replace the tool help with the object properties

Re: [Kicad-developers] Indication of modifier buttons to tools and dialogs

2017-03-15 Thread Jon Evans
Yes, that's what I meant, it would be for the current mode, and would change based on what you are doing. It would also be hide-able so that advanced users get the screen real estate back. There are no problems with combined modifiers, you just list each action in a different box. In fact, you

Re: [Kicad-developers] Indication of modifier buttons to tools and dialogs

2017-03-15 Thread Kristoffer Ödmark
Yes, you are correct, but putting the buttons and their function in the same box would get problems with combined modifiers shift+ctrl options etc. But I was thinking of only showing current mode and not all possible modes at the same time. Mostly you would learn them anyway kinda quick, you

Re: [Kicad-developers] Indication of modifier buttons to tools and dialogs

2017-03-15 Thread Jon Evans
Hi Kristoffer, I didn't show in my mockup, but you could easily use a UI like this to show modifier keys info as well. -Jon On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 8:36 AM, Kristoffer Ödmark < kristofferodmar...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello Jon, > > I do not think that the hotkeys are a problem. The right-click

Re: [Kicad-developers] Indication of modifier buttons to tools and dialogs

2017-03-15 Thread Kristoffer Ödmark
Hello Jon, I do not think that the hotkeys are a problem. The right-click menu shows how they are bound already and the right click menu is adaptable. I personally like the way that works a lot. It is more a problem regarding the modifiers, Ie buttons that must be held while doing

Re: [Kicad-developers] Indication of modifier buttons to tools and dialogs

2017-03-15 Thread Jon Evans
Hi Kristoffer, John, I agree this is an important problem to solve. I am not convinced that this is the perfect solution, but I wanted to share a way a commercial tool does it. Here's a screenshot from Mentor Graphics Xpedition showing what I mean: http://i.imgur.com/H0wDK0F.png At the bottom

Re: [Kicad-developers] Indication of modifier buttons to tools and dialogs

2017-03-15 Thread Kristoffer Ödmark
Yes, the status line is way to small it. However it could maybe be used to show which modifiers are in use. Not what they do. I believe that knowing which modifiers are in use would be enough, because many modifiers would probably be very self explanatory once activated, for example the

Re: [Kicad-developers] Indication of modifier buttons to tools and dialogs

2017-03-15 Thread John Beard
Hi Kristoffer, I agree that the "secrecy" of KiCad shortcuts is a pretty major issue. It serves to make people good at KiCad think it's great, while new users struggle (probably in silence) because they don't know there's a better way. Expanding documentation is important here (he says, not

[Kicad-developers] Indication of modifier buttons to tools and dialogs

2017-03-15 Thread Kristoffer Ödmark
Hello all! I just wanted to highlight an emerging problem to catch it in its cradle. The new tool and dialog patches that has been merged are great. But they also introduce secret functionaly, examples: Ctrl + click: highlights net ( modifier to select tool ) ctrl + drag:snap angles in