Suggestions to improve Layout
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I agree for most things though there are some that I find much more important than others.
I fully agree with the usefulness of Layout and that it as improved greatly over this couple of years I've been using it...
For me the most important features that one should consider removing from layout are:
1 - Having to drag mouse for moving things around wich is cumbersome at best,
2 - Accidental double clicks on viewports (as in your list)
3 - Being forced to move around by dragging wich makes accidental double clicks on the viewport very prone to happen.
4 - Dragging for moving (again?:P) wich often happens accidentaly when you are trying to box select something and start by clicking on what seemed to be an empty space, but was a viewport box after all, or a text box, or shape box, or a group, or almost any object you draw on layout that might be seen as a white filled box...This are the things that are most cubersome for me in layout, making it less intuitive.
What's funny is that this is specially true for people that are used to work with sketchup, wich is everyone that works with layout and I can't thing of anyone else...
What's even more funny is that intuitiveness on command functionality is where Sketchup shines and Layout not that much, so why not have exactly the same input methods for both programs? I tend to loose 15 to 30 minutes for adapting myself each time I change from one app to the other though when I started with Layout I was expecting exactly the same intuitiveness of use...
So:
1 - I wish I could have an option to move only by pressing "M" (or an icon);
2 - Rotate only by pressing "R" (or an icon);
3 - Scale only by pressing "S" (or an icon);
4 - Use bounding box only to have a larger or smaller viewport, text boxes or to reshape dimensions, nothing else...
5 - On viewports scale through "S" should suffice and it would correspond to scaling exactly the image one sees on the viewport. I don't know why but layout has a way of making it difficult to do that either on ortho views or perspective. Checking on and off "preserve scale on resize" will make the viewport jump and recenter itself on the center of scene camera wich is VERY annoying.
6 - Have bounding boxes align to rotated dimensions as to any rotated shape even when we draw them originally rotated (wich is everytime as I guess noone rotates dimensions)
7 - Make Dimensions bounding box "stretch" instead of "scale" dimensions (the distance between reference points and reference lines increases when scaling, messing around with my dotted reference lines that distance should be kept the same when scaling dimensions).But for short:
- Lock viewport for editing while still allowing it to move
- Ability do disable drag for moving around things, replacing it for "M" or icon on the toolbar.
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@jql said:
I agree for most things though there are some that I find much more important than others.
But for short:- Lock viewport for editing while still allowing it to move
- Ability do disable drag for moving around things, replacing it for "M" or icon on the toolbar.
JQL/OTB/all
Thanks for you detailed requests...99% I agree
Please........TSU...........listen to these guys
That said.....and.....for now....I either isolate all SU viewports in LO by layer...and lock that layer. (allows free flow selections/no risk double click/etc.)
I understand that this is limited... as soon as you unlock the layer....all bets are off.That said:
Try grouping you're SU viewports per sheet(and/or incorporate layer option above).....this will isolate/mitigate the inadvertent "double click" activate/edit in SU situation.
Text/Arrows/etc may require adjustment after move...but often they will anyway.
Best,
C
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BTW... Why is this posted in the bugs section...?
@Mods... Please move to wish section...
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Done.
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and while it's being improved can we address the export issues...
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14%26amp;t=55435
Thanks.
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I was hoping that, if I put it in the bugs section, that the higher-ups might be more inclined to read it. We all know that posting in the wish list is like standing in the desert talking to yourself, haha
Thanks for everyone adding their experiences and thoughts! Let's build this to critical mass and maybe we will start to see some of these make it into the software.
JQL, your point about wanting LO to have functionality like SU is very well made. I have felt that way since the beginning of LO, years ago. I never quite understood why there was some wheel re-invention going on in LO, especially when things work so well with SU.
For me, improvements boil down to wanting less clicking, less dragging, and more keyboard shortcut control.
I hope the SU guys see this thread
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Marc, you have brought joy to my heart and hope to my soul!
Some days, I spend more time with LO than I do with my wife, so it would be safe to say I am heavily invested in improving my experience.
It is fantastic to know that the team has read these thoughts and suggestions; it can't hurt to have some insight into a "power" user's experience, right?
I eagerly await hearing your responses and thanks for taking the time to let us know that you guys are reading this thread!
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Hi Chuck and poster, great to see some meaningful discussions about LO. I like you guys use it daily and no doubt spend more time with it than my wife also so as far as she's concerned it can stay like it is!!
I am putting together a list of improvements and tweaks also; just need some extended time to put them all together along with explanations.
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Hi all-
I'm posting mostly to apologize for not responding earlier. I've been heading up a large project for the past month and haven't had much time to spare.
I have forwarded this thread to the design team for perusal. Rest assured that all of the items in this thread are on our radar, and several of them are on my personal wish list as well.
Thanks,
Marc -
Hey Marc, I got excited when I saw you posted today!
Thanks for the status report; I eagerly await further development. I am available if anyone needs clarifications, testing, etc.
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Marc! Please don't forget us!
I know base camp has probably thrown a wrench in everyone's SOP, but I really thought we were going to get some traction on improving Layout
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I'm sure the LayOut team won't forget you/us...
However, please remember that there's app. a year until next release...
I wouldn't expect much of these feature requests to make it into a possible maintenance release before SU2015...
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Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. I actually started hacking around on #10 while riding the bus up to BaseCamp on Monday. It's something I've been wanting to do for about a year but haven't managed to fit it in yet. #2 and #9 are also on my personal list.
I'd love to be able to report back that we're addressing every item, but understand that your list represents about a release's worth of effort. Multiply that by every wish-list out there (granted, there's some overlap) and I'll be busy until I retire. Which isn't a bad thing, but does explain why there are a lot of disappointed wish-listers out there.
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For clouding, would it not be better just to have a style that wrapped objects such as text? Custom edge styles would accomplish more with less I would think.
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@krisidious said:
For clouding, would it not be better just to have a style that wrapped objects such as text? Custom edge styles would accomplish more with less I would think.
This would work for objects, but what if you wanted to call attention to a portion of a SU instance? Of making notations over imported PDF's. To me, being able to manually "draw" the cloud would probably be more useful on a day to day basis. YMMV...
@marcdurant said:
Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. I actually started hacking around on #10 while riding the bus up to BaseCamp on Monday. It's something I've been wanting to do for about a year but haven't managed to fit it in yet. #2 and #9 are also on my personal list.
Awesome!! While I know that I threw out a whole release worth of wish lists , #2 is one of the ones that would have the most meaningful time savings on my workflow. Thanks for the update and I wish I was there at Basecamp to shake your hand and say thanks in person!
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You can put a line style around an inserted instance of an SU model as well. However I agree that free forming is needed. But, you can always make a rectangle or circle and then change it's style properties to be outlined...
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That's a good point! If I could draw a circle and then apply a line style of a cloud, that would be great, for sure!
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Just noticed something in Layout2014:
If I zoom to some portion of my paper in Layout, switch (click or alt-tab) to another program and switch back to Layout (alt-tab or click), it reverted to zoom all. Would prefer if Layout wouldn't change zoom. New feature in 2014?
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I am not seeing this on a Mac. When I command-tab between softwares, my zoom stays the same in Layout.
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Working on some detailed shop drawings right now and I have noticed another peculiarity.
Lets's say I have a 4 dimension string, auto scaling, snapped to sketchup geometry. And then, for whatever reason, I need to moved those dimensions further away from the model so I can add another string, or whatever. If I select all the dimensions and drag them out, it seems that randomly some of the dimensions will revert to paper space dimensions. Only some though, which is really weird to me, and only some of the time? I find myself usually erasing all the dims instead of moving them because I am paranoid that a dim will change when I move it and I won't notice.
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