Fix UI Oddities

podperson

podperson

0
Fix UI Oddities

1) Hidden image file format support

You can currently save renders as png or jpg simply by typing the extension. This should be made explicit via a popup menu (for instance) in the Save dialog.

Ideally it should remember your choice and default to the format you last picked (between sessions even) so that I can always save as PNG.

1a) Allow JPG compression quality to be set.

Enough said.

1b) Ideally, just use QuickTime Image Format options.

2) If you press "command-s" when editing a non .jas file which will not retain all the information in the current file, it should be treated as "Save As..." (which is more Mac-like).

Currently, if you open a model file (e.g. .sia) and add lights to it and then press command-s, it doesn't save your lights and when you close the document or quit, your changes are lost without warning.
 
I have to agree with all of podperson's fix suggestions.

What I'd like to see is an option to set a default drawer side for the render manager window.
It always pops up from the left side. But left-side drawers simply are teh suck, imho.
 
DaVinci said:
I have to agree with all of podperson's fix suggestions.

What I'd like to see is an option to set a default drawer side for the render manager window.
It always pops up from the left side. But left-side drawers simply are teh suck, imho.
Click to expand...

I hate that too. But Cocos decides on which side the drawer opens. I can just set a preferred side. If Cocoa "think" there is to less space on that side it opens on the left side. That's probably more a feature request for OS X to allow developers to hard code that.

Bye,
Martin
 
podperson said:
1) Hidden image file format support

You can currently save renders as png or jpg simply by typing the extension. This should be made explicit via a popup menu (for instance) in the Save dialog.

Ideally it should remember your choice and default to the format you last picked (between sessions even) so that I can always save as PNG.

1a) Allow JPG compression quality to be set.

Enough said.

1b) Ideally, just use QuickTime Image Format options.

2) If you press "command-s" when editing a non .jas file which will not retain all the information in the current file, it should be treated as "Save As..." (which is more Mac-like).

Currently, if you open a model file (e.g. .sia) and add lights to it and then press command-s, it doesn't save your lights and when you close the document or quit, your changes are lost without warning.
Click to expand...

1) will come for sure. 2) probably not since I would personally hate that. It is very annoying. I trust that users know what that do.

Bye,
Martin
 
Martin said:
I hate that too. But Cocos decides on which side the drawer opens. I can just set a preferred side. If Cocoa "think" there is to less space on that side it opens on the left side. That's probably more a feature request for OS X to allow developers to hard code that.

Bye,
Martin
Click to expand...

Well for me it's okay that Cocoa opens the drawer oon the other side when there ain't enough space on the prefered side.

My problem is that C3D even opens the drawer left-sided when there is plenty of space on both sides. The prefered side/edge can easily be changed with Cocoa using "(void)setPreferredEdge:(NSRectEdge)preferredEdge".
A small option in the app's preferences would be more than enough for me.
 
DaVinci said:
My problem is that C3D even opens the drawer left-sided when there is plenty of space on both sides. The prefered side/edge can easily be changed with Cocoa using "(void)setPreferredEdge:(NSRectEdge)preferredEdge".
A small option in the app's preferences would be more than enough for me.
Click to expand...

You are right. But you can also set it in Interface Builder. I set it there to right and it worked fine in older builds. Now I opened the .nib file and it is set to "left" but I can remember that I did any changes there ever. If I open the .nib file form older versions of Cheetah3D it is set to right. :confused: Very strange. :frown:

To make a long story short. I set it back to right and in the next version of Cheetah3D the drawer should have "right" as the prefered site again.

Thanks for the tip.

Bye,
Martin
 
Okayyy, When I open the render manager drawer, it always opens on the right. When I move it over to the right side of the screen, yeah, it opens on the left, but usually it opens on the right. Maybe theres just never enough room on the left side.:rolleyes:
 
DaVinci said:
My problem is that C3D even opens the drawer left-sided when there is plenty of space on both sides. The prefered side/edge can easily be changed with Cocoa using "(void)setPreferredEdge:(NSRectEdge)preferredEdge".
A small option in the app's preferences would be more than enough for me.
Click to expand...
That is when you first move the render manager and then open the job manager.


The "open job manager" button recognizes where first is enough space, unless it´ll miss space on one side it takes the opposite side.
 
DaVinci said:
Well for me it's okay that Cocoa opens the drawer oon the other side when there ain't enough space on the prefered side.

My problem is that C3D even opens the drawer left-sided when there is plenty of space on both sides. The prefered side/edge can easily be changed with Cocoa using "(void)setPreferredEdge:(NSRectEdge)preferredEdge".
A small option in the app's preferences would be more than enough for me.
Click to expand...

Picky, Picky Picky. Sooo, uh, why does it suck?
 
DoctorStrange said:
Picky, Picky Picky. Sooo, uh, why does it suck?
Click to expand...

Picky, yeah ^^
Actually I don't really know why. I just don't like left-side drawers. It's about the feeling I'd say. :rolleyes:


But there is one other thing that really annoys me:

I have an iMac with a german keyboard.
On a german keyboard you have a comma instead of a period on the numpad.
But as C3D of course uses periods for floats you have to
move your hand to the real period key for every single float.
Would it be possible to allow users to enter both comma or
period for float values? It could then just convert commas into periods.
It's just about the input. It really slows down your workflow.

We have a few german users on this forum, how do you handle this?
 
Last edited:
I don't have any problem with Cheetah's drawers that I don't have with drawers in general :-/

I totally see the comma / period thing.

I note Martin seems to agree with item (2) here but disagrees with it in the thread in general (citing Photoshop's similar behavior as "unbelievably annoying").

In my latest post on the matter I put forward three alternatives each of which deal with this issue and don't require huge amounts of development:

a) Treat "Save" as "Save As..." (.jas) for documents which didn't start out as .jas files. (Yes, it's a little annoying. But losing work is much more annoying which is why there are "Unsaved Changes" dialogs.)

b) Warn users saving non .jas files that they may lose data. (This is what Microsoft products do.)

c) Save a shadow ".jas" file in parallel with the original file (so if you edit foo.sia in Cheetah 3d and "save" you also create foo.jas or possibly foo_autosave.jas or something -- so you know that you can overwrite it).
 
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