France
Joined: Nov 7, 2005
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Re: Modification Inside a Group
The main problems are to: - add a new behavior for the user to let him select an individual item in a group and/or a subgroup - find a way to show the selection of an item of a group, in the plan and in the furniture list - decide what modifications are allowed on an item that may alter its group (only rotations, moves or any change)
I just tested in MS Word and OmniGraffle how selecting an item in a group is handled:
- in MS Word drawing module, selecting an item in a group is done by clicking on its group, then after a delay longer than the one used for double-clicks, by clicking on the item (possibly using shift to select one more item). The selected group and the item selected in that group use similar rectangles drawn in the same color, but the rectangle shown around the group is larger than the limit of the group:
so in case the selected item is the same size as the group itself, you can make the difference between a selected item and its group if he wants to move or resize either ones:
Once the item you want to change is selected, you may change it location, size and rotation with the mouse, and other parameters like color with other tools.
- in OmniGraffle, selecting an item in a group is done the same way as in MS Word, but a selected group and an item selected in a group are displayed differently (white vs grey background around the selected group, and light blue line vs dark grey dotted line, like in the following screen captures):
Once the item you want to change is selected, OmniGraffle lets you resize it with the mouse but not move or rotate it (you can still edit its location and angle with a separate dialog).
MS Word doesn't handle changes of subgroups and you can subselect only final drawings (but changing the size of such an item will alter the size of the subgroup it belongs too). OmniGraffle lets you select a subgroup by clicking on it like other items. Then, if you want to select an item in that subgroup, you have to click again on that item (a little like if you want to unbury it). Once selected, the selection rectangles appear like in the following image where you can see that the white background is reserved for the parent subgroup:
MS Word doesn't propose a list of the drawings you made, so there's no problem about how to select and display a selected item in a group shown in a list. OmniGraffle proposes that list but you can't select an individual item in that list, and an item of a group selected in the main window isn't displayed as selected in the list (see in the following image):
I don't like too much this lack of synchronization in selection feedback between the main window and the list of drawings, because it feels a little buggy.
As you can see, this isn't as simple as it looks like, but I'm willing to improve Sweet Home 3D on this point. Please, don't hesitate to make suggestions now to choose the best solution (and the simplest to program), and later to give some feedback about this feature if it appears to ensure I didn't forget some weird cases.
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
Joined: Apr 13, 2015
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Re: Modification Inside a Group
the workaround works, but is not perfect if you want to place parts of group relative to other furniture/walls etc + you have to rename the group every time you group it.
I propose that editing inside group would internally ungroup the furniture and after editing is finished it would regroup it again preserving the original name.
France
Joined: Nov 7, 2005
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Re: Modification Inside a Group
Thanks Hans for this nice workaround
I propose that editing inside group would internally ungroup the furniture [...]
storm88, it's not how to program the change of an item that bothers me, but rather ergonomics, to ensure that all users will be able to handle the selection of an item in a group nicely. I wished that you could guess it from the long message I posted this morning. (don't worry too much, I wrote it also as reminder for myself)
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
Lebanon
Joined: Apr 12, 2015
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Re: Modification Inside a Group
Anyway thank you for you effort. I know that a small modification needs a lot of developments from your side. if this feature can be done in the future or no the software still great for me.