Red, green and blue axes

pdonner

Hi. I've just had the first session with a group of local sketchup students.

The 'drawing axes' is one of the first things to speak about in introducing new people into SU concepts. So I told about the red, green and blues axes. The short demo was followed by the students' hands-on activity, where they were familiarizing themselves with the newly learned idea of drawing axes. - After a while one of the students told us that he was color-blind and that he had difficulty in handling the color system. He could see that the three axes differed in brightness, but it was rather hard for him to distinguish them from one another.

As color-blindness is a rather common problem, this is probably a FAQ. So, dear fellow community members: Be so kind and indicate where we can find ways of tackling this issue. Thanks.

Philip

Gaieus

A couple of years ago I encountered with someone with the same issue - than later again. The solution was some kind of external software, let me try to find in the old, retired Google Groups.

mitcorb

I see your problem.
Perhaps a plugin or extension could be crafted, but more likely this is in SU behind the curtains.
It would be great if SU had some accessibility features, that is, if they don't exist now. If so, hopefully the SU team has seen your post and will reply.

I am picturing axes lines interrupted every so often by x's, y's and z's in lieu of, or accompanying the colors so that both you, the teacher, and the student can work together.
Just some thoughts.
Best regards,
mitcorb

EDIT: This would be right at home in the SU8 wishlist forum, if something doesn't happen sooner.

Gaieus

Ah well, it was indeed years ago:
http://groups.google.com/group/sketchupsuggestions/browse_frm/thread/fcc093d41edf2024/b7efc0d7c31a9edf?hl=en&lnk=gst

I hope this can help him, too - I can obviously hardly place myself into his situation.

Edit - so I re-read the thread and it seems it was "Eye Pilot":
http://colorhelper.com/tutorial.php

pdonner

Thanks for all the good advice.

To sum up some of the ideas proposed, it seems that a feature request of some kind of an 'accessibility' scheme could be an easy remedy: The user should be able to replace the colors of the axes with various grades of grey. This is actually in line with what the student proposed himself. He said that he can see those differences in brightness, but it would be easier for him if the differences would be a bit more marked.

One doesn't have to be programmer to know that implementing this kind of an idea is a trivial program development task. So as proposed: If no one comes up with a better idea we'll have to make a SU8 feature request.

Gaieus

@pdonner said:

...If no one comes up with a better idea we'll have to make a SU8 feature request.

Please, do and keep bouncing the idea.

Back then I did make that request and ever since I have repeated it again - the more voices are heard, the bigger the chance is. Not because otherwise they wouldn't hear but they cannot fulfil every feature request obviously so it must be made apparent.

Jean Lemire

Hi Gaieus, hi folks.

Maybe a template can be made with a single component in it, using dashed line that would be using different dashed pattern for each axis. Longer for X, medium for Y and shorter for Z.

Just ideas.

Gaieus

If you follow that 2.5 year old link to the Groups, Jean, I suggested something similar then, too. Even guide lines would be okay for the representation of the axes BUT what about axis inference?

Jim

Maybe the construction line stipple can provide enough of a visual clue to differentiate?

(I'm making a test now...) Test Complete. So I drew 3 infinite construction lines along each axis, and turned off the View > Axes option.

It is hard to see in the image (click it to enlarge), but the 3 construction lines have different stipple. Then, the lines are Grouped and Locked so they can't be accidentally moved, and yet still provide inference.

One draw-back is that the "axes" get deleted when you use Edit > Delete Guides!

cline_axes.skp

Gaieus

In the Ruby Depot there is a colour 3D grid, too. Maybe that could also help (although the depot seems to be down now)

pdonner

Thanks Jim for the nicely presented alternative suggestion.

Selecting pen style is as easy as changing color. The Windows API offers five alternatives - solid, dash, dot, dash-dot, dash-dot-dot. - Unfortunately the SU inference engine will also need a way of showing axis hints.

The only real pain is generated by the effort of adding yet another ('Accessibility') property page to the Preferences dialog.

TIG

Here's a short script that might help... goes in the Plugins folder.
accessibleaxes.rb

'Accessible Axes'

Shows Axes labeled XYZ, in heavier colored/patterned lines, intended to assist color-blind users.
Shortcut to it in Plugins menu, e.g. shift+A, press <Esc> to close.
Reverts to 'Select' tool.

Put this into the Plugins folder...

Jean Lemire

Hi Gaieus, hi folks.

Axis inferences would still give a pop-up message giving a clue about the axis color

Just ideas.

pdonner

I tried Tim's elegant scripted solution. Was surprised to see how well it worked while orbiting and panning. But zooming was rather sticky. But that's not too bad because the axes don't change direction while zooming. Maybe you could tune the script to bypass your routine during zooming, Tim. Would that give a performance advantage?

This flexibility was for me a piece of additional proof that SU is a well designed program. I believe that if we can produce a usable scripted solution then it would be easier to achieve an accessibility update in next version.

Tim: Are you sure about using the Escape key to end 'accessible axes'? It is an accelerator for other things too. Or do you think that color-blind user would primarily toggle quickly into the 'a-a' mode and back to selection whenever they need to orient themselves in the coordinate system.

TIG

@pdonner said:

I tried Tig's elegant scripted solution. Was surprised to see how well it worked while orbiting and panning. But zooming was rather sticky. But that's not too bad because the axes don't change direction while zooming. Maybe you could tune the script to bypass your routine during zooming.
This flexibility was for me a piece of additional proof that SU is a well designed program. I believe that if we can produce a usable scripted solution then it would be easier to achieve an accessibility update in next version.
Tig: Are you sure about using the Escape key to end 'accessible axes'? It is an accelerator for other things too. Or do you think that color-blind user would primarily toggle quickly into the 'a-a' mode and back to selection whenever they need to orient themselves in the coordinate system.

ESC is used within this tool to exit it - it shouldn't affect other things ?
The idea is you use a shortcut key like shift+A to activate the tool, you move around to check your orientation and finally press <Esc> to close it... Hitting the <spacebar> has a similar affect...

pdonner

Sorry TIG if I couldn't follow your line of thought. I was thinking like this: Assume that the user is drawing with the line tool. That's certainly a situation where drawing axes (and inference colors) are needed. So then the user would like to have an idea of the coordinate system. Have a quick look at 'a-a', then bail out by pushing Es... Eek. Escape also interrupts rubberband drawing. - Just to state an example of a potential conflict. But thanks for your nice contribution that I tried to improve.