Feature Request - Minor UX improvement - "Sketch Tools" always appearing when not needed

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sceptre357
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Feature Request - Minor UX improvement - "Sketch Tools" always appearing when not needed

Post by sceptre357 »

Been using FreeCAD for the last year or so and the most frustrating thing i encounter is when exiting sketcher after a modification (and possibly other situations); the "Combo View" frame switches from "Model" to the "Tasks" tab and shows "Sketch Tools" .

I abhor this and have never used it. I find myself having to click back on the model pane HUNDREDS of times per day and its now beyond annoying. Furthermore, it breaks concentration and focus. Despite this persistent switching, my mind still anticipates seeing the Model pane when exiting the skether etc but sadly i'm presented with the "Sketch Tools" task pane.

This feature brings absolutely no value whatsoever; all the buttons needed are already sitting just right there on the screen, there is no reason to re-present them in a disruptive manner. This creates discontinuity in the workflow, breaks concentration and wastes time switching back to the model pane. PLEASE make this an option or remove it altogether.

Also, sometimes files with minor issues can cause repeating warnings or errors and sometimes you just have to live with it so you can finish your work and get on with your day. However the "Report View" has other plans. In theory it might seem like a good idea to have the Report Viewer barge into the scene every time there is a warning or error but in reality it should be optional behavior.

Again, its very disruptive and clicking hundreds of times a day to close it is not working for me. I have to buy another monitor just to get the Report Viewer out of my face. There is already a Red Letter text appearing in the status bar in the event of an error. This is sufficient notification in the event Report Pane switching would be disabled (for example). Also, letting the Red Letter status bar indication duration should probably be user configurable.

The User Experience will be much better without these disruptions. Thank you!
Last edited by sceptre357 on Wed Jun 22, 2022 3:03 am, edited 2 times in total.
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adrianinsaval
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Re: Feature Request - Minor UX improvement - Task pane switching - Report View

Post by adrianinsaval »

sceptre357 wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:51 am Been using FreeCAD for the last year or so and the most frustrating thing i encounter is when exiting sketcher or when double clicking a body (and possibly other situations); the "Combo View" frame switches from "Model" to the "Tasks" tab.
what's your setup? on a default config I don't get the combo view after exiting a sketch, the behavior is supposed to be to switch to that when you enter Part Design, I also don't like this behavior.
PLEASE make this an option or remove it altogether.

Also, sometimes files with minor issues can cause repeating warnings or errors and sometimes you just have to live with it so you can finish your work and get on with your day. However the "Report View" has other plans. In theory it might seem like a good idea to have the Report Viewer barge into the scene every time there is a warning or error but in reality it should be optional behavior.
Both are optional but if you're seriously getting interrupted by the report view that much you really should consider correcting your workflow.
The task view stuff is basically a hidden option, see Fine-tuning and look for the SwitchToTask parameter. If this isn't enough for you I would rather recommend you to go to edit->preferences->general->general and change the tree view mode to tree view and property view, this way all tree panels are independent and you can place them on the opposite side of the task view so they don't get obscured by it.

The report view can be configured at edit->preferences->general->output window, I will agree it was previously too aggressive but in 0.20 it defaults to showing up only on errors.
Also, letting the Red Letter status bar indication duration should probably be user configurable.
A setting for this duration seems overkill to me but I guess it could be useful to have it displayed for a longer time, specially when the report view is not configured to pop up.
sceptre357
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Re: Feature Request - Minor UX improvement - Task pane switching - Report View

Post by sceptre357 »

Thanks for the reply. Combo View is basically the whole left side of the screen where the Task/Model pane is. In my version .20 build 29192, every time i create a new sketch OR open an existing sketch and add or modify anything, upon exiting the sketch it automatically switches to the tasks pane, presenting you with "Sketch Tools". Also i see as you said it switches to the tasks when you switch to Part Design workbench, annoying but not nearly as annoying as getting the "Sketch Tools" every time exiting a sketch after a modification.

If you open a sketch and not modify anything, after you close the sketch, you are not switched to the "Sketch Tools" task pane, only after a modification it appears.

This is an issue for me because frequently i will modify a sketch that has already had a tool used on it, no reason to see "Sketch Tools". Typically ive had to hide something in order to do my sketch properly and therefore need to immediately un-hid it but i stumble over the "Sketch Tools" pane on the way. This is disruptive to my workflow because its constantly showing me a window/information/choices i dont need. this happens all day long and im a bit frustrated with it.

I think the intention with this is that when you create a new sketch, add items to your sketch and close, you then get "Sketch Tools" because obviously you need a tool at the point right? Well *maybe* if it were the first sketch of a body possibly but if its an additional sketch to an existing body, i always need to verify its position and association before using any tools, rotating my model etc. I loose track of what im doing and what body is where because i first need to close "Sketch Tools" and move back to the model view so i can orient myself.

If the "Sketch Tools" never popped up anywhere ever, it would be an improvement. Please at the very least someone make it an option.

thanks for the tip about the "show report on errors" settings, i couldnt find it before. and yead, time delay for error notice is a bit overkill. At least there is already enough time to just see if there was an error at all that you need to check the log, its good enough already.
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adrianinsaval
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Re: Feature Request - Minor UX improvement - "Sketch Tools" always appearing when not needed

Post by adrianinsaval »

more than knowing where you put your combo view I'd like to know what option you have selected in edit->preferences->general->general->tree view mode also, please post full freecad info not just version number (see the guidelines)
upon exiting the sketch it automatically switches to the tasks pane
I doubt this is the case, the task panel should be activated when you open a sketch as that's were all the controls and info is placed, what may be happening is that it doesn't automatically go back to the model tab when you exit, this probably happens if you don't have your "tree view mode" set to "combo view" or "both", if you can't find a way to fix your settings I suggest resetting your freecad configuration and see if the default panels and behavior suit your needs. it could be that there is some addon interfering too.
sceptre357 wrote: Wed Jun 22, 2022 2:57 am If the "Sketch Tools" never popped up anywhere ever, it would be an improvement. Please at the very least someone make it an option.
Sketch tools is not an issue, it's just a widget in the task panel, your issue is that you don't go back to the model panel after getting into the task panel, and you need the task panel for a lot of operations so not showing it is not an option.
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adrianinsaval
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Re: Feature Request - Minor UX improvement - "Sketch Tools" always appearing when not needed

Post by adrianinsaval »

if possible please make video/gif of your issue to make it clearer for everyone.
sceptre357
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Re: Feature Request - Minor UX improvement - "Sketch Tools" always appearing when not needed

Post by sceptre357 »

I have narrowed down the issue. I typically press the Escape key to exit a sketch rather than clicking on the close button just out of preference. In this case, if you open a preexisting sketch and change nothing, pressing the escape key returns you to the model view as expected. However, if you open a preexisting sketch and change anything or even just open a constraint (and make no change to the constraint); pressing the escape key causes the Task pane to come up. This is probably a bug, however the escape key is very useful because it helps you to go into a sketch, check a constraint or something, then rapidly back all the way out to the model view again. it would easily take 4 times longer if you had to click all around rather than rapidly just pressing the escape key.

Attached is a video, rename the .txt extension to .mkv
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2022-07-06 08-09-59.txt
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thyssentishman
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Re: Feature Request - Minor UX improvement - "Sketch Tools" always appearing when not needed

Post by thyssentishman »

Hi,
sceptre357 wrote: Wed Jul 06, 2022 12:11 am However, if you open a preexisting sketch and change anything or even just open a constraint (and make no change to the constraint); pressing the escape key causes the Task pane to come up.
I believe this is FreeCADs default behaviour. When the Part Design WB starts it switches to the Task panel.

There is however a parameter that you can change to avoid this:

1. Go to Tools --> Edit Parameters
2. On the left panel go to Preferences --> Mod --> PartDesign
3. On the right panel look for the parameter SwitchToTask (I don't remember if I added it manually or if it was there by default)
4. If it is not there, right click on an empty area on the right panel and click New Boolean item and name it SwitchToTask (no spaces)
5. Double click the parameter value and change it to false
6. Press Save to disk, then Close and restart FreeCAD

Let me know if it helps. You can find out more about these parameters in Std_DlgParameter and Fine-tuning. There might be some that you have to add manually though.

Kind regards,
Johannes

EDIT: Linked to additional Wiki page for more information regarding the Parameter Editor
sceptre357
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Re: Feature Request - Minor UX improvement - "Sketch Tools" always appearing when not needed

Post by sceptre357 »

yes this does fix the issue and thank you for that. Moreover though i wanted to draw attention to this as maybe this should be the default behavior rather than needing to manually set configs. Its seems to be the opinion of most people that the Sketcher Tools Popup thing is more of an nuisance than being actually useful. I personally find it to be very disruptive to my workflow. Anyway just my input thanks
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adrianinsaval
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Re: Feature Request - Minor UX improvement - "Sketch Tools" always appearing when not needed

Post by adrianinsaval »

I don't get why it would be different if you use esc or close button
Looks like this is the only line that really needs to be changed to make this parameter off by default: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/blob ... h.cpp#L442
Also, changing that parameter was the first thing I suggested to you :roll:

opinions? Does anybody want to keep this feature around? I vote for removal too. Alternatively it should be possible to disable in the GUI preference page.
Last edited by adrianinsaval on Wed Jul 06, 2022 1:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
drmacro
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Re: Feature Request - Minor UX improvement - "Sketch Tools" always appearing when not needed

Post by drmacro »

I have never seen this behaviour...

I have no setting addressing it in Parameters.

So, what caused it to behave in this manor for the OP?
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