PR 687 discussion: Optionally generate FEM mesh on OK

[kkremitzki]

I figured there might be some discussion about this pull request so I wanted to preemptively contain it in a forum thread here.

PR Link: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/pull/687

The original PR is here: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/pull/652
but I screwed up that branch so the PR is pretty messy.

There's some associated discussion on this tracker issue: https://freecadweb.org/tracker/view.php?id=2988
which was created to address a related bug.

[ian.rees]

As Kurt and I discussed a bit in gitter - the root issue here is that the Ok/Apply/Cancel buttons don't conform with common conventions. The main reason behind the non conformance, is the case where it is desired to make a mesh object or change mesh settings without creating a very big mesh. Do we think that this is a common scenario?

Currently in the PR is a checkbox "Store parameters without calculating mesh on OK" - would it be reasonable to keep this checkbox, but have it always default to off, and remove the FEM preference that sets the default? My feeling is that the preference adds complexity (and maintenance and documentation burden) for a rather small benefit (removing one click in the scenario described above).

In other words, I feel like the cost of maintaining and explaining that preference, is likely higher than the benefit that the default setting provides.

[kkremitzki]

ping

Ping just to get your thoughts on this.

[bernd]

I have been off for a few days ... Sounds good do me. It is just compiling ... Hopefully it does not take to long to compile.

[bernd]

works great here. But ...

We gone face a problem I haven't been aware of. If a shape has an FEM mesh, the user opens the mesh dialog, changes the parameter presses ok, the parameter changes, but the mesh stays at the old one. Afterwards the parameter do not fit to the mesh. This is not user friendly. If one opens the mesh dialog one would think the mesh has been generated with the parameter shown, but this is not true. This is a problem in this new implementation and in the up to date master.

What do you guys think about this ?

[HoWil]

After editing the input could change its color to red, showing that it was not updated and after applying it will get black/green again?
BR,
HoWil

[Kunda1]

Any chance we can get issue #5691 addressed before v0.20 release? ("FEM, GUI, Netgen and GMSH FEM mesh creation buttons don't clean up on error or cancel"