Rendering_options pause start_timer?

[Aerilius]

I want to call a messagebox when the user clicks. On the mouse click, I first want to draw something on the screen (not included in this example code), but since the messagebox is modal, I have to keep some time in between to update the view before the messagebox appears. So far it would work by using UI.start_timer.

But it seems changing the Sketchup.active_model.rendering_options pauses the timer until the cursor hovers the UI (toolbar etc.).
If you disable the lines marked with ###, the messagebox appears like normal. Why could that be?

class TestTool
  def initialize
    @ip = Sketchup;;InputPoint.new
    @model = Sketchup.active_model
  end

  def onMouseMove(flags, x, y, view)
    @ip.pick(view, x, y)
    view.invalidate
  end

  def onLButtonDown(flags, x, y, view)
    @ip.pick(view, x, y)
    #@model.select_tool(nil) # no good workaround
    id = UI.start_timer(1, false){ 
      UI.stop_timer(id)
      UI.messagebox("When did this messagebox appear?", MB_YESNOCANCEL)
    }
  end

  def draw(view)
    if @ip.valid? && @ip.display?
      @ip.draw view
      text = "text"
      c = @model.rendering_options['ForegroundColor']
      @model.rendering_options['ForegroundColor'] = Sketchup;;Color.new("white") ###
      view.draw_text( view.screen_coords(@ip.position), text )
      @model.rendering_options['ForegroundColor'] = c ###
    end
  end
end

Sketchup.active_model.select_tool(TestTool.new)

[thomthom]

This is odd.

When I click on empty space the timer triggers as expected. (No text is displayed then.)

But when I click on geometry things get delayed. (Text is displayed.)

Don't know why this is.

But - I wouldn't set @model.rendering_options['ForegroundColor'] in the draw event. The operation adds to the undo-stack. So if you do that in the draw event you're flooding the undo-stack and effectively zaps it.

Because it adds to the undo stack I decided not use set forground colour to control the draw_text colour - because adding these events to the undo stack will just confuse the user and he/she tried to go back in the stack - even if you set it at the activation and deactivation of the tool.

[Dan Rathbun]

The id reference should be @id, otherwise it's local to the method and may get GC'd.

The first arg to start_timer should be a Float.

[Aerilius]

Thanks for the replies and for the correction about @id. I changed both, but it doesn't solve the problem.

It seems the timer starts correctly and counts until the end, only the action (code block) isn't executed until the user hovers empty space or give focus to other UI elements.

@unknownuser said:

I wouldn't set @model.rendering_options['ForegroundColor'] in the draw event.

I agree (I didn't think about that), although I didn't notice it in Edit → Undo... I now chose to get along without text color.