User enhancement requests

[jpsa]

Not good enough. You just get a layer of the same name with a "Copy of" prefix that then has to be individually renamed. Not a productivity aid at all. Might as well just drag all the layers into a new window and use Clone from the window editor. This technique has to offer the same functionality as the Clone command to be useful.

That's not what it does for me. What version of MicroGDS are you using?

You are kidding, right? You don't see a reason why users should be prevented from making certain layers editable and that they would understand this? There really are many reasons. And I would have thought it really easy to add a symbol (a padlock in the layer list and window editor?), a colour (greyed out in the layer list?), a letter "L" shown in the status column, or some other feature to let users know that they cannot edit certain layers. As it stands, we have to use Windows file properties to make specific LYR files read only, and that is nowhere near as good a solution as managing the issue from within MicroGDS. In the same way that a message is displayed when a user tries to open a layer that is currently owned by someone else, could they also not get a message that "Layer XXX is locked by the Project Administrator?"

Ah... I had interpreted your request as asking for a way to"pre-own", within a session, a layer without making a phase editable. Instead, you seem to be asking for a way to disable write access to a layer which lasts beyond a session.

As you suggest, windows file protection is the way to go here, though I appreciate that being able to set (and have feedback on) this protection from the Document Organiser (& perhaps Window Editor too) would assist with identifying the right layer files to protect.

--
Cheers,
John

[johnwarburton]

That's not what it does for me. What version of MicroGDS are you using?

MicroGDS Plus version 10.0.5 (Apr 8 2009).

... but I just re-tried and THIS time I got the message dialog about the name not complying and the option to go straight to rename. I must be going daft as I get older, but I would swear that this did not happen the first time that I tried it.

[johnwarburton]

I'd like MicroGDS to offer the ability to produce a 3D mesh or solid from a bump map. The user would set the maximum and minimum elevations.

[johnwarburton]

The Get command needs a companion - a Fetch command.

With Get, selected objects are moved to a different layer, or selected primitives are moved to a different object.

I'd like a Fetch where I can be working an one layer and the Fetch objects from other layers. The distinction between Fetch and Get is that I'd like Fetch to be able to bring objects from owned hittable layers, so it would be necessary to give the command and then snap on the objects to be Fetched.

Similarly, I'd like to be able to create a new object (or select and existing object) and Fetch primitives from other objects, even if they are on owned hittable layers.

If a Fetch is attempted on an unowned layer, the user should be prompted with the option to take ownership where this is possible, and then complete the command.

Incidently, Get is really not an intuitive name - perhaps Send would have been better!

[johnwarburton]

When a window is renamed, MicroGDS should automatically identify any photos that would be affected (at least within the individual projects or MAN file) and offer the opportunity to automatically update them.

[johnwarburton]

There is a great deal of scope for finally bringing the MicroGDS up to data and into the 21st Century. The current interface is archaic and unattractive.

One suggestion would be to give users the option to use the entire screen for their drawing and only display menus, toolbars, panels as they are needed.

A free application called Faststone uses this technique. Faststone is an image management tool. When an image is being displayed full screen, all the suer needs to do to access the controls is to move the pointer to the edge of the screen. Depending on which edge, a different set of toolbars and panels are displayed.

I can see a similar approach being very appropriate for working with CAD data.

Incidentally, Faststone is a brilliant little application - much better than Picasa in my opinion. http://www.faststone.org/

[johnwarburton]

I'd like to be able to have the Hide Mode as a Phase over-ride. That way, different phases could be set to wireline or one of the hidden options. This would make a number of editing tasks on complex models much easier to manage.

[johnwarburton]

It would be nice to have an option to show full shdows when rendering section views. I appreciate that most of the time people probably want to see the shadows from the section cut, but there are examples when it would be an advantage to see the full shadow effect.

For example, if we cut a building model so that we can see the interior, shadows that fall across the walls, floors and furniture should probably be from the full model so that the true effect of light through openings can be properly assessed.

[johnwarburton]

I'd like to see an advanced version of the Snip command. The user would be allowed to select either a single primitive as the snipping tool (as now) or an object as the snipping tool.

When an object is selected, all of the graphical primitives within the object would simultaneously snip the selected graphics. The user should be able to specify if only the closed primitves should snip or if all primitives should snip.

[johnwarburton]

I'd like to see a facility to link a photo to a specific object so that if that object is moved, the photo adjusts its view parameters so that it maintains the object in the same relative position within the photo.

For example, for detail drawings I overlay details on the GA so that editing can be coordinated - it keeps the GA and Detail accurately synchronised. Say for example, if I have a large scale detail of a staircase. If I move the staircase, the detail graphics move correctly, but the photo on the plot sheet no longer shows the required view. If the photo were linked to the detail object this problem would be solved.