But as for keyboard shortcuts, CC3+ already allows you to define your own. They are set up through the menu files. They only allow Ctrl+? type shortcuts, plus the F-keys, but you can set up what you want here.
Personally, I never manage to remember a bunch of shortcut keys anyway, so I am pretty satisfied with the current system where you can just type the command on the command line, I find it easier to remember an actual command rather than an abstract key combo.
Wouldn't mind seeing the shortcut system improved with more possibilities in CC4, but just wanted to point out what can help people today in the current version.
I can better memorize shortcuts than commands... If you group all shortcuts correctly, double shortcuts are real time savers. It really depends on your feelings :)
Some ideas about selection... Actually, to select entities, you have multiple choices... But most of the time, you select them using a rectangle selection tool. I would like to see some more possibilities:
lasso selection tool
expand the selection to everything that is touching the currently selected symbols.
expand the selection by a certain radius
paint selection tool: just "paint" over symbols to select them.
I would like to see also some more "filtering" possibilities, like "from the current selection, keep only 30% of the symbols selected". This would allow to select a group of "random trees" in a forest for example and change their color or size.
I hate shortcut keys other than CTRL+Z, CTRL+C, CTRL+V and CTRL+S
Those stay the same in any app. Everything else is different between apps, and it's a complete nightmare having to remember them for all the apps I use. Worse, I get the apps confused because they are all black and charcoal these days, so I can waste a lot of time by using using the right shortcut key but in the wrong app.
I'm with @Shessar on hoping CC remains a CAD program. That's mainly what I meant about the UI. I love the "do that to this" (e.g. click on Erase and then select what to erase and Do It) style of interface. Like others, I struggled with it at first, but now I see how efficient it is. How the buttons look is of lesser importance to me, but I'm also not a huge fan of the ribbon+dark theme scheme. I see how that does present PF with a bit of a quandary though -- given the prevalence of the Photoshop/Illustrator UI visual style, new users might come in expecting it, but (many) current users have come to appreciate the way things are.
One thing I really would like to see is an unbreaking of the in-app Help file. At the moment, as I understand it's a hangover from the CC3 (no +) days and the clickable links for dialogs don't work. While the manual, the Tome, the forums, the videos and blogs are fantastic references and will always be, the Help file often has some valuable info that is pertinent to the matter at hand and can be easier to browse mid-session. I can see what a mammoth task it would be to update it, though. Crowdsourcing could help, but then QA issues could creep in. Not a must-have, but a definite nice-to-have.
Are you using Designer to make the icons for your upcoming style? If so, then maybe I need to play around with Designer to make my own or modify existing ones. I usually just use a bitmap program instead of a vector one.
I use a combination of different software depending on the workflow, but I won't go into detail here on a suggestion thread. Suffice it to say that I use Affinity Photo and Designer for about 80% of everything I do, as far as making new stuff goes. You don't need both, though. Photo will do.
I also would like an easier way to delete unwanted fills - at present you have to do them one at a time.
It would be good to have a few more options for buttons when right clicked, especially on the right hand side.
Although I agree with Sue on shortcuts, that is just a personal thing, so i would take notice of what the pro-shortcut people have to say. but if this is the case, can either their be an easy list of shortcuts available from the help menu - and perhaps a list of command like instructions grouped by type via the Help menu. And up-to-date help.
Although I agree with Sue on shortcuts, that is just a personal thing, so i would take notice of what the pro-shortcut people have to say. but if this is the case, can either their be an easy list of shortcuts available from the help menu - and perhaps a list of command like instructions grouped by type via the Help menu. And up-to-date help.
What would be nice is a "commands/keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet" of all command keywords and corresponding shortcuts. This way, everyone will be happy !
And what would be important is:
the shortcuts should be editable (it's already the case I think, but you have to dig into the menu files). A way to modifiy the shortcuts directly in the application would be great.
Maybe allow users to create "aliases" for some commands.
the "cheat sheet" should be generated by CC4 by the user. This would guarantee that the commands are all displayed, with their corresponding shortcuts, aliases, etc...
Just an idea that emerges with the previous posts... Actually, the command line tool is displayed at the bottom and is a single line...
What if this command "line" could be a complete panel (docked on the right or the left). This panel would be divided in three parts:
The top (line) is a textbox where the users starts typing a command.
The middle part is the list of all commands. It gets filtered while the user types in the top part. The user can then select the command or, if it has been filtered to just one, select it automatically (as it is currently).
The bottom part, which should be collapsible, could have some instructions or various parameters for the currently selected command.
Curiously, there is a command line in quite a few bitmap and mixed bitmap/vector apps. They just don't call it that. Look at this in the same place in Affinity Photo. It serves much the same purpose - giving instructions on how to use the selected tool, and what modifiers you can use. So to change the command line and put it somewhere else would actually be giving CC3 yet another difference from other graphics apps.
The only difference here is in colour and emphasis, and the fact that the command prompt text is not visible.
My personal feelings on the command prompt are that I think the command prompt is useful, but not so critical that it should take up even more space than it already does.
The difference with the command line you mention is that you don't have to type the command manually: Photoshop display the help for the currently selected command.
With CC3, it seems that some people (a lot ?) use these commands as shortcuts. So having at least an autocomplete feature would be a great plus ?
Yes - you don't have to manually type any command. They are all executed by selecting tools from the menus or by clicking the buttons instead. But the line otherwise has the same purpose as CC3s Command Prompt - to provide instruction and information.
An autocomplete would be nice. I hadn't thought of that before, but that's probably because I am a relatively good touch-typist and think nothing of typing whole words in less time than a non-typists might take to find a single letter.
Whatever features or interface CC4 might have, one thing I REALLY want to see is an improved up-to-date inline help system! It seems a bit ridiculous that I have to rely on outside documentation, the forums or the blog to get accurate advice on features I'm unfamiliar with. I don't click Help anymore because if it works at all I'm likely to get a help page that is broken, inaccurate or out of date (as in CC2). This is one of my long term pet peeves but since we are discussing the future of the software I thought I'd add my two bits (once again ) in the hopes that history will not repeat itself.
Concerning the help and inline system, I agree with you. It would be really nice that some "tutorials", either as videos, step by step, ... are included directly in CC4, without the need to go through forums... This is part of the idea I gave 5 posts above...
I'm with @Shessar on hoping CC remains a CAD program. That's mainly what I meant about the UI. I love the "do that to this" (e.g. click on Erase and then select what to erase and Do It) style of interface. Like others, I struggled with it at first, but now I see how efficient it is.
Sorry... but I do not agree ? or at least partially. The fact that it should stay a CAD program, I'm with you. But the "do that to this", I can't see why it's "efficient".
If you want to scale some objects and change their colors:
@basilgass This is not the thread to debate workflow, however, do your above process on 3 objects. Now imagine if it were 20 objects at which point the bounding box might come into play. The current workflow allows for ease of multiple object manipulation.
This is not the thread to debate workflow, however, do your above process on 3 objects. Now imagine if it were 20 objects at which point the bounding box might come into play. The current workflow allows for ease of multiple object manipulation.
If the workflow might change, it should be discussed to know which direction the dev should take ?
When I wrote the message, I forgot to mention one thing ? In most application, when you select the items and make some modifications, the items keep selected. This means the usual system come to:
Select multiple items
Choose edit command (the items are still selected)
Choose color command (the items are still selected)
By the way, between your step 6 and 7, you have to select again your items... Or maybe I'm missing something...
I noticed someone commented about "old eyes." I feel your pain. GIMP (as an example) is difficult for me to work with because of both the color and the size of the 300 or so floating windows and tiny icons. I find myself using MS Magnifier just to be able to both find and use some of the tool features. There has to be a better way.
Really, the selection method is a personal choice. If you prefer the select, select, action method then you can of course change it in Tools>Options: Selection Method. It's why the debate here isn't the thing (unless of course they plan to take out settings that are already part of the base software). I personally just don't want to loose the action then selection method. ?
The basic workflow probably isn't going change any time soon because it's heavily ingrained into how CC3 is designed. There may be some refinements, but it's effectively a complete rewrite (literal and philosophical) to change the basic workflow.
The basic principle of interaction in CC3+ is action-object, as in English when you tell somebody to do something: [{you} do this action] [to these objects] [any clarifications] [now]. For example, in CC3, you might give the command "ROTATE [pick objects to rotate] [where to rotate them around] [Do It]". This operation sequence is common in classic precision workflows like CAD programs. The Left-preselect mode of operation is more object-action and reads as "[pick objects to rotate] [Do It] ROTATE [where to rotate them around] [Do It]". There is still the need to end the selection and specify the ROTATE command in that sequence, which is a little clumsier than using straight action-object.
In a simpler draw-style program, the basic principle is always object-action, often with direct manipulation handles providing onscreen context-sensitive shortcuts to operations like MOVE, SCALE and ROTATE. There may be some modal modifications that control which handles are visible (e.g. "move" mode won't allow scaling or rotation), but it's the handles that do the bulk of the work for most people. Performing precise rotations around a point, for example, require more complex interactions that may involve various windows.
Neither of the two styles of interaction (action-object or object-action) is necessarily "better", but one of the two is more likely to be familiar to users first encountering the program. Which is more familiar will largely be a matter of previous experiences.
Just wanted to resume what has already been mentioned. Feel free to let me know if I'm missing one :) Next version of the list might be by grouping them by categories...
Dimension line tools for floorplans: I like putting dimension lines in on floorplans and can obviously do it manually, but it'd be great having an automatic tool to do it.
When doing Line to Path, there looks to be a set number of segments that an arc or circle will translate to as a path. I'd like the option to choose how many segments the resulting path will be
Binary operations! I'd LOVE unions, differences, intersections, exclusions and so on.
64-bit support
Multi-processor support
Graphic card support
More choice in anti-aliasing algos when in it comes to export
gradient fill
more built in macros (?)
Line of Sight Export
Being able to add guides to the map
While it would through current users for a loop, it would help new users if you reversed the sheets.
One thing that is still a bit easier to "play around with" in GIMP are the hue/saturation and the equivalent of the RGB matrix values, because in GIMP it is a bit more visual with sliders that give immediate feedback in a preview window as you adjust them.
Updated graphics for the user interface
Text to path that updates (when modifing the path, the text, ...) without having to create it again
A river and a road tool, that would allow to add "branches" with a way to reduce or increase the river/road size.
gradient between 2 colours - it is in FT3, would be great to have it in CC4
I'd like to see refinements in linking between maps.
I would love the ability to purge unused fill styles from the fill style properties selector.
I would love to be able to export with a transparent background.
The abillity to open more than one view of a map with effects active in one view and inactive in the other.
The abillity to put the sidebars, tools on my second screen, similar to how it can be done in ft3, giving more screenspace to the map
I would like to see most (all) of the available commands in menus or buttons or menus that appear when you right click on a button.
Command autocomplete
New overland map wizard update
Update shortcuts, with cheat sheet for shortcuts and commands.
It would be great if in a future version the rotation of selected objects could be done e.g. around the center of each selected symbol as an option (and not only all symbols around a given point, which of course also is very useful.).
For those who like rivers to be graded from thin to thick (see 16. above), and even with different shades of blue, here is an old macro (I think from Joachim de Ravenbel's page - correct me if I am wrong), plus an example, at different zoom levels. I usually group all the elements together.
MACRO:
MACRO Riv
SELSAVE
SAVESETTINGS
GV lw1 2
GV lw1 ^DEnter first width: (2)
GV lw2 0.2
GV lw2 ^DEnter last width: (0.2)
GN c1 78
GN c1 ^DEnter first color: (78 ligh blue)
GN c2 65
GN c2 ^DEnter last color: (65 dark blue)
GV bk 0
GP P0 ^DClick first point
IFERR MacroDone
GP PT P0
GOLAYER TOERASE
GN PointNb 1
:Clickloop
GP PL @0,0
GP PT ^DClick next point
IFERR PointsDone
LINE PL PT;
GL comm GP
APND comm
APND comm P
APND comm PointNb
APND comm
APND comm PT
APND comm
comm;
GN PointNb PointNb+1
GO Clickloop
:PointsDone
GOLAYER WATER/RIVERS
SHEET MYRIVERS
GN LineNb 1
GP PI P0
:LineLoop
GL comm GP
APND comm
APND comm PJ
APND comm P
APND comm LineNb
APND comm
comm;
GV lw lw1+(lw2-lw1)*(LineNb-1)/(PointNb)
LWIDTH lw
GN col c1+(c2-c1)*(LineNb-1)/(PointNb)
COLOR col
FPATH PI PJ;
GN LineNb LineNb+1
GP PI PJ
IFP PointNb-LineNb LineLoop
LAYER TOERASE
HIDEA
SELBYA
ERA
SHOWA
LAYER WATER/RIVERS
:MacroDone
GETSETTINGS
SELREST
ENDM
Examples:
You can get to set your own beginning width and colour, and your end width and colour, then rust click a route as for a normal river. It is composed of small V shaped entities, which is why I group them all together. I chose the default settings, but no real need to stick to these
Thanks @Quenten - it would be nice if this kind of macro would be implemented directly in CC4 with a "gradient stroke" ! It just needs now to have an "affluent" tool (hope it's the correct english word): click a part of the river, grab the color (and width?) of the clicked part and make the river using these parameters.
I whole heartedly agree. The ability to make a good map, without having the drawing skills is why I bought cc3+ in the first place!
Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer, nor am I an engineer, so a lot of what is being said here, is going way over my head. It's getting too technical for me to comprehend. It also sounds like some of what others want, may make this program too technical for most people to use. So with that in mind, I do have a couple of 'wants' 'suggestions' what ever you want to call them.
Perhaps a 'scroll over' feature could be implemented? What I mean is: Take the effects, for example. I only use about half of them - the inner/outer edge fades, the glows, the bevels, transparency, blur effects. I understand what they do. But what does texture overblend do? RBG matrix - what's that? Blend vs Alpha blend? I don't use these effects, because I don't understand what they do, and more importantly, how they work. Now Remy has done an excellent job helping users that aren't as savvy as computer programmers to understand how to utilize each of the different programs through the Tome, but obviously he wasn't able to explain everything. I would love to be able to put my cursor over an effect in the list, and have a little window (attached to the cursor) open up to give a brief explanation of what the the effect does and how it works : ' Blend Alpha produces [thus] effect, it can be used to do [thus and such]'.
This is for a specific function of the program, the fractal line drawing tool for land masses. I don't know if there is a way to implement this, but I think it could do with a bit of fine tuning (or perhaps I need to be shown how to do the fine tuning). I've noticed that when you are drawing a large land mass, the drawing tool does give a decent fractalized coastline. But if I have to zoom in and draw smaller islands, the drawing tool can't give as many node points to make the coastline look natural. You end up with 'boxy' looking tiny islands. I would love to get the same fractalization when zooming in, as we do normally.
Border designing options: Sometimes, when I finish a map, I want to 'frame' it/ create a nice border for it... something to make the map really stand out. Now most people will go to a secondary program, like GIMP, or photoshop, or something like that, to create intricate, beautiful borders and frames. Well after 4 or 5 years, I'm STILL learning the intricacies of cc3+. I don't want to have to learn a whole other program, just to give my maps those finishing touches. I would love to have it all come together in one program.
Okay, sorry for the long drawn out explanations, I do tend to be wordy. But hopefully you can figure out what I'm asking for.
Oh! I almost forgot, there is one other thing I would LOVE to see... a 'point to point' fractalization option. We've all created regional maps where we are mapping a smaller portion of a greater land mass, so some of the land mass is past the border of the map. You create the land mass, pushing some of it right up against the map border. You then hit the fractalize button, click on the land mass... and it fractalizes not only the edge of the land mass that's easily visible, but also the landmass that isn't, ie. that portion that is up against the map border. You then have to hide the border and map screen, then go in and move each node, until you get it back to what it was before the fractalization.
It would be nice to be able to do, maybe a right click on the fractalize button, and do a point to point fractalize, where I can click on specific points of my landmass that I want fractalized, and it only works between those points, leaving the rest of my land mass alone.
I think the too technical is part of the problem with CC3+. Many of the new competiors are essentially a WYSWG type. That is very user friendly. Now, pretty much all of what those programs can do can be done in CC3, plus a lot more and often better. The problem is that things are too technical. By that, I mean it seems deisgned by and designed for experienced CAD users rather than a general audience.
For example if I want to copy one sheet to another, I cannot just select items, copy, switch sheets, and paste. Instead I have to right click sheets. Of course this is not the sheet listing at the top, but the icon on the left. Things are spread out in multiple places and hidden behind right clicks.
I had a problem with connecting corridors to walls. I learned the problem is that I did not have the floor background checked. This also, oddly enough, meant if I drew a corridor, turned it and added another part, the walls of the corridor disapeared. The top and bottom had lines, but not the walls. After that was fixed, I learned is that if I tried to connect a corridor to just a wall I drew, it would not do that. It would go to closet room I drew.
I am calling this technical, but 90% of the time I cannot tell if the issues I have are bugs or working as intended. This is because so many of the options are not user friendly.
CC4 needs to keep its eye on the comptitors. I needs to make CC4 less designed for the technical audience and more for the casual audience. At the same time, it needs to keep its robust/advanced features and make sure experienced users are not lost with a new UI. That is going to be a difficult task. I recommend at least part of the solution to be two different UI experiences. A basic new user UI and then something similar to the current UI. However, without things being in so many different places.
Comments
Double shortcuts are a pain to remember though.
But as for keyboard shortcuts, CC3+ already allows you to define your own. They are set up through the menu files. They only allow Ctrl+? type shortcuts, plus the F-keys, but you can set up what you want here.
Personally, I never manage to remember a bunch of shortcut keys anyway, so I am pretty satisfied with the current system where you can just type the command on the command line, I find it easier to remember an actual command rather than an abstract key combo.
Wouldn't mind seeing the shortcut system improved with more possibilities in CC4, but just wanted to point out what can help people today in the current version.
Good god, woman, you've read my mind.
Double shortcuts are a pain to remember though.
I can better memorize shortcuts than commands... If you group all shortcuts correctly, double shortcuts are real time savers. It really depends on your feelings :)
Some ideas about selection... Actually, to select entities, you have multiple choices... But most of the time, you select them using a rectangle selection tool. I would like to see some more possibilities:
I would like to see also some more "filtering" possibilities, like "from the current selection, keep only 30% of the symbols selected". This would allow to select a group of "random trees" in a forest for example and change their color or size.
I hate shortcut keys other than CTRL+Z, CTRL+C, CTRL+V and CTRL+S
Those stay the same in any app. Everything else is different between apps, and it's a complete nightmare having to remember them for all the apps I use. Worse, I get the apps confused because they are all black and charcoal these days, so I can waste a lot of time by using using the right shortcut key but in the wrong app.
Give me buttons and menu commands any day.
I'm with @Shessar on hoping CC remains a CAD program. That's mainly what I meant about the UI. I love the "do that to this" (e.g. click on Erase and then select what to erase and Do It) style of interface. Like others, I struggled with it at first, but now I see how efficient it is. How the buttons look is of lesser importance to me, but I'm also not a huge fan of the ribbon+dark theme scheme. I see how that does present PF with a bit of a quandary though -- given the prevalence of the Photoshop/Illustrator UI visual style, new users might come in expecting it, but (many) current users have come to appreciate the way things are.
One thing I really would like to see is an unbreaking of the in-app Help file. At the moment, as I understand it's a hangover from the CC3 (no +) days and the clickable links for dialogs don't work. While the manual, the Tome, the forums, the videos and blogs are fantastic references and will always be, the Help file often has some valuable info that is pertinent to the matter at hand and can be easier to browse mid-session. I can see what a mammoth task it would be to update it, though. Crowdsourcing could help, but then QA issues could creep in. Not a must-have, but a definite nice-to-have.
Are you using Designer to make the icons for your upcoming style? If so, then maybe I need to play around with Designer to make my own or modify existing ones. I usually just use a bitmap program instead of a vector one.
I use a combination of different software depending on the workflow, but I won't go into detail here on a suggestion thread. Suffice it to say that I use Affinity Photo and Designer for about 80% of everything I do, as far as making new stuff goes. You don't need both, though. Photo will do.
The software I refer to above had triple layers. Egad.
I also would like an easier way to delete unwanted fills - at present you have to do them one at a time.
It would be good to have a few more options for buttons when right clicked, especially on the right hand side.
Although I agree with Sue on shortcuts, that is just a personal thing, so i would take notice of what the pro-shortcut people have to say. but if this is the case, can either their be an easy list of shortcuts available from the help menu - and perhaps a list of command like instructions grouped by type via the Help menu. And up-to-date help.
Although I agree with Sue on shortcuts, that is just a personal thing, so i would take notice of what the pro-shortcut people have to say. but if this is the case, can either their be an easy list of shortcuts available from the help menu - and perhaps a list of command like instructions grouped by type via the Help menu. And up-to-date help.
What would be nice is a "commands/keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet" of all command keywords and corresponding shortcuts. This way, everyone will be happy !
And what would be important is:
Just an idea that emerges with the previous posts... Actually, the command line tool is displayed at the bottom and is a single line...
What if this command "line" could be a complete panel (docked on the right or the left). This panel would be divided in three parts:
Curiously, there is a command line in quite a few bitmap and mixed bitmap/vector apps. They just don't call it that. Look at this in the same place in Affinity Photo. It serves much the same purpose - giving instructions on how to use the selected tool, and what modifiers you can use. So to change the command line and put it somewhere else would actually be giving CC3 yet another difference from other graphics apps.
The only difference here is in colour and emphasis, and the fact that the command prompt text is not visible.
My personal feelings on the command prompt are that I think the command prompt is useful, but not so critical that it should take up even more space than it already does.
The difference with the command line you mention is that you don't have to type the command manually: Photoshop display the help for the currently selected command.
With CC3, it seems that some people (a lot ?) use these commands as shortcuts. So having at least an autocomplete feature would be a great plus ?
Yes - you don't have to manually type any command. They are all executed by selecting tools from the menus or by clicking the buttons instead. But the line otherwise has the same purpose as CC3s Command Prompt - to provide instruction and information.
An autocomplete would be nice. I hadn't thought of that before, but that's probably because I am a relatively good touch-typist and think nothing of typing whole words in less time than a non-typists might take to find a single letter.
Concerning the help and inline system, I agree with you. It would be really nice that some "tutorials", either as videos, step by step, ... are included directly in CC4, without the need to go through forums... This is part of the idea I gave 5 posts above...
From @OverCriticalHit
I'm with @Shessar on hoping CC remains a CAD program. That's mainly what I meant about the UI. I love the "do that to this" (e.g. click on Erase and then select what to erase and Do It) style of interface. Like others, I struggled with it at first, but now I see how efficient it is.
Sorry... but I do not agree ? or at least partially. The fact that it should stay a CAD program, I'm with you. But the "do that to this", I can't see why it's "efficient".
If you want to scale some objects and change their colors:
With actual:
With usual system:
Basically, 6 clicks vs 3 clicks...
@basilgass This is not the thread to debate workflow, however, do your above process on 3 objects. Now imagine if it were 20 objects at which point the bounding box might come into play. The current workflow allows for ease of multiple object manipulation.
With usual system:
This is not the thread to debate workflow, however, do your above process on 3 objects. Now imagine if it were 20 objects at which point the bounding box might come into play. The current workflow allows for ease of multiple object manipulation.
If the workflow might change, it should be discussed to know which direction the dev should take ?
When I wrote the message, I forgot to mention one thing ? In most application, when you select the items and make some modifications, the items keep selected. This means the usual system come to:
By the way, between your step 6 and 7, you have to select again your items... Or maybe I'm missing something...
I noticed someone commented about "old eyes." I feel your pain. GIMP (as an example) is difficult for me to work with because of both the color and the size of the 300 or so floating windows and tiny icons. I find myself using MS Magnifier just to be able to both find and use some of the tool features. There has to be a better way.
Really, the selection method is a personal choice. If you prefer the select, select, action method then you can of course change it in Tools>Options: Selection Method. It's why the debate here isn't the thing (unless of course they plan to take out settings that are already part of the base software). I personally just don't want to loose the action then selection method. ?
The basic workflow probably isn't going change any time soon because it's heavily ingrained into how CC3 is designed. There may be some refinements, but it's effectively a complete rewrite (literal and philosophical) to change the basic workflow.
The basic principle of interaction in CC3+ is action-object, as in English when you tell somebody to do something: [{you} do this action] [to these objects] [any clarifications] [now]. For example, in CC3, you might give the command "ROTATE [pick objects to rotate] [where to rotate them around] [Do It]". This operation sequence is common in classic precision workflows like CAD programs. The Left-preselect mode of operation is more object-action and reads as "[pick objects to rotate] [Do It] ROTATE [where to rotate them around] [Do It]". There is still the need to end the selection and specify the ROTATE command in that sequence, which is a little clumsier than using straight action-object.
In a simpler draw-style program, the basic principle is always object-action, often with direct manipulation handles providing onscreen context-sensitive shortcuts to operations like MOVE, SCALE and ROTATE. There may be some modal modifications that control which handles are visible (e.g. "move" mode won't allow scaling or rotation), but it's the handles that do the bulk of the work for most people. Performing precise rotations around a point, for example, require more complex interactions that may involve various windows.
Neither of the two styles of interaction (action-object or object-action) is necessarily "better", but one of the two is more likely to be familiar to users first encountering the program. Which is more familiar will largely be a matter of previous experiences.
@Shessar : Tools>Options: Selection Method
I didn't knew this one ? Will check it !
@jslayton : this makes sense. So let's continue this thread with other ideas / improvements !
Just wanted to resume what has already been mentioned. Feel free to let me know if I'm missing one :) Next version of the list might be by grouping them by categories...
@jslayton named the command ROTATION
It would be great if in a future version the rotation of selected objects could be done e.g. around the center of each selected symbol as an option (and not only all symbols around a given point, which of course also is very useful.).
For those who like rivers to be graded from thin to thick (see 16. above), and even with different shades of blue, here is an old macro (I think from Joachim de Ravenbel's page - correct me if I am wrong), plus an example, at different zoom levels. I usually group all the elements together.
MACRO:
MACRO Riv
SELSAVE
SAVESETTINGS
GV lw1 2
GV lw1 ^DEnter first width: (2)
GV lw2 0.2
GV lw2 ^DEnter last width: (0.2)
GN c1 78
GN c1 ^DEnter first color: (78 ligh blue)
GN c2 65
GN c2 ^DEnter last color: (65 dark blue)
GV bk 0
GP P0 ^DClick first point
IFERR MacroDone
GP PT P0
GOLAYER TOERASE
GN PointNb 1
:Clickloop
GP PL @0,0
GP PT ^DClick next point
IFERR PointsDone
LINE PL PT;
GL comm GP
APND comm
APND comm P
APND comm PointNb
APND comm
APND comm PT
APND comm
comm;
GN PointNb PointNb+1
GO Clickloop
:PointsDone
GOLAYER WATER/RIVERS
SHEET MYRIVERS
GN LineNb 1
GP PI P0
:LineLoop
GL comm GP
APND comm
APND comm PJ
APND comm P
APND comm LineNb
APND comm
comm;
GV lw lw1+(lw2-lw1)*(LineNb-1)/(PointNb)
LWIDTH lw
GN col c1+(c2-c1)*(LineNb-1)/(PointNb)
COLOR col
FPATH PI PJ;
GN LineNb LineNb+1
GP PI PJ
IFP PointNb-LineNb LineLoop
LAYER TOERASE
HIDEA
SELBYA
ERA
SHOWA
LAYER WATER/RIVERS
:MacroDone
GETSETTINGS
SELREST
ENDM
Examples:
You can get to set your own beginning width and colour, and your end width and colour, then rust click a route as for a normal river. It is composed of small V shaped entities, which is why I group them all together. I chose the default settings, but no real need to stick to these
Thanks @Quenten - it would be nice if this kind of macro would be implemented directly in CC4 with a "gradient stroke" ! It just needs now to have an "affluent" tool (hope it's the correct english word): click a part of the river, grab the color (and width?) of the clicked part and make the river using these parameters.
I whole heartedly agree. The ability to make a good map, without having the drawing skills is why I bought cc3+ in the first place!
Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer, nor am I an engineer, so a lot of what is being said here, is going way over my head. It's getting too technical for me to comprehend. It also sounds like some of what others want, may make this program too technical for most people to use. So with that in mind, I do have a couple of 'wants' 'suggestions' what ever you want to call them.
Okay, sorry for the long drawn out explanations, I do tend to be wordy. But hopefully you can figure out what I'm asking for.
Oh! I almost forgot, there is one other thing I would LOVE to see... a 'point to point' fractalization option. We've all created regional maps where we are mapping a smaller portion of a greater land mass, so some of the land mass is past the border of the map. You create the land mass, pushing some of it right up against the map border. You then hit the fractalize button, click on the land mass... and it fractalizes not only the edge of the land mass that's easily visible, but also the landmass that isn't, ie. that portion that is up against the map border. You then have to hide the border and map screen, then go in and move each node, until you get it back to what it was before the fractalization.
It would be nice to be able to do, maybe a right click on the fractalize button, and do a point to point fractalize, where I can click on specific points of my landmass that I want fractalized, and it only works between those points, leaving the rest of my land mass alone.
Anyway, it's just a thought.
I think the too technical is part of the problem with CC3+. Many of the new competiors are essentially a WYSWG type. That is very user friendly. Now, pretty much all of what those programs can do can be done in CC3, plus a lot more and often better. The problem is that things are too technical. By that, I mean it seems deisgned by and designed for experienced CAD users rather than a general audience.
For example if I want to copy one sheet to another, I cannot just select items, copy, switch sheets, and paste. Instead I have to right click sheets. Of course this is not the sheet listing at the top, but the icon on the left. Things are spread out in multiple places and hidden behind right clicks.
I had a problem with connecting corridors to walls. I learned the problem is that I did not have the floor background checked. This also, oddly enough, meant if I drew a corridor, turned it and added another part, the walls of the corridor disapeared. The top and bottom had lines, but not the walls. After that was fixed, I learned is that if I tried to connect a corridor to just a wall I drew, it would not do that. It would go to closet room I drew.
I am calling this technical, but 90% of the time I cannot tell if the issues I have are bugs or working as intended. This is because so many of the options are not user friendly.
CC4 needs to keep its eye on the comptitors. I needs to make CC4 less designed for the technical audience and more for the casual audience. At the same time, it needs to keep its robust/advanced features and make sure experienced users are not lost with a new UI. That is going to be a difficult task. I recommend at least part of the solution to be two different UI experiences. A basic new user UI and then something similar to the current UI. However, without things being in so many different places.