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Old 9th October 2011, 07:12 AM   #1
Snow
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Default User Interface Problems

In the main window, I can't exit the text boxes at the left side without losing my current selection, because the only way these text boxes loose their focus is to click somewhere in the view windows.

In the TCE, the text boxes loose their focus as soon as the mouse cursor is moved away from the boxes.

The behavior of user interface elements should be homogeneous throughout the whole application.

Nonetheless both methods are bad.
Why not use the 'Return' or 'Enter' key to complete the entry in a text box and free the focus from that box? That's why some clever people invented these keys.
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Old 9th October 2011, 02:03 PM   #2
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Default Re: User Interface Problems

I usually click the 'spin' or 'pan' icon in the header of any view if I absolutely need to click my way out of an editing box. This will leave your selection intact.

The TCE window behaves a bit differently, no matter if floating or not.
I believe quite a few weird UI behaviors are caused by limitations in Tcl/Tk.
Andy may be able to explain this in more detail. On one hand the UI feels awkward because it doesn't follow Mac UI guidelines, on the other hand it made the Mac-port a lot easier.

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Old 10th October 2011, 04:12 AM   #3
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Default Re: User Interface Problems

Yes, Peter is correct in all respects. Some compromises had to be made - if you had to do a single click to just get focus in a view window, everytime you switched views, I'm sure you'd find that more annoying.

Qt is the future AC3D interface.
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Old 14th April 2012, 04:56 AM   #4
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Default Re: User Interface Problems

Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy View Post
Yes, Peter is correct in all respects. Some compromises had to be made - if you had to do a single click to just get focus in a view window, everytime you switched views, I'm sure you'd find that more annoying.

Qt is the future AC3D interface.
What kind of compromises are you talking off?
One compromise in the main window - another compromise in the TCE?

Now I found out that I can exit the text boxes in the main window by typing Ctrl-Shift-Tab.

That proves that it is possible by keyboard input.
So why shouldn't it be possible to use the Return or Enter key?

Everyone who's working with computers for some time, is accustomed to complete a keyboard input by pressing the Enter key.
So why has AC3D to be the only application on earth that has to use "compromises"?
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Old 16th April 2012, 08:54 AM   #5
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Post Re: User Interface Problems

The view windows are just that, separate windows. AC3D is set up so you don't need to click on each view to start working in it. I think an old version (i.e. very old, possibly Motif UI?) required clicking and it got in the way of the workflow and was unpopular.

You could try this:

Edit tcl/ac3d.tcl
Look for this function
Code:
"proc setting_edit { parent var { text "" } { balloon "" } { width ""} } {"
After this line:
Code:
entry $f.le$var -textvariable $var
add this line:
Code:
bind $f.le$var <Return> {focus .}
Save the file and restart AC3D.

This addition will cause the focus to leave an entry-field when enter/return is pressed in that field. This will work for the move-to/Size-to/Move/Scale UIs on the control panel but could be added to other fields if you think it would be useful.
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