[GRASS-dev] Re: wxNviz toolbar

[Michael Barton]

Anna,

Some misunderstanding of my suggestions. I try to clarify below

Michael
____________________
C. Michael Barton
Director, Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity 
Professor of Anthropology, School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Arizona State University

voice: 	480-965-6262 (SHESC), 480-727-9746 (CSDC)
fax:          480-965-7671 (SHESC),  480-727-0709 (CSDC)
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton, http://csdc.asu.edu




On Aug 20, 2011, at 8:20 AM, Anna Kratochvílová wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> 2011/8/19 Michael Barton <Michael.Barton at asu.edu>:
>> Anna,
>> 
>> I agree about the duplication. We don't really need the page switch buttons.
>> 
>> The 3D mode view tools do not work AFAICT. They may be a placeholder for future plans. But if so, they should be deactivated until they are functional to avoid user confusion IMHO.
>> 
> 
> If you mean the zoom tools they are disabled in 3D mode. By
> deactivating you mean to hide them completely? If so, I wouldn't do
> that, disabling is better (not so confusing) in my opinion.

No. I do not mean the zoom tools. We are only referring to the buttons on the special nviz toolbar.

I mean the button with an icon that looks like a gear wheel or cog wheel. It opens up a set of notebook pages for nviz 'view tools'. It is possible to type in values for view parameters that are controlled by sliders and the display puck in the main interface. **BUT** these are not updated with the current values, and typing something in the text boxes has no effects on the view AFAICT. These have been around in one form or other for quite a while. I fixed an older version once so that they actually updated when the view changed, and changed the view when values were entered. But it looks like they do not do anything now. I suggest disabling these until they are working. Otherwise, a user will try to put in values and wonder why nothing happens.

> 
>> The generate NVIZ command could be useful, as is help.
>> 
>> I'm not sure that the quit button does anything different from switching back to 2D mode. If not, it too could be removed.
>> 
> It does the same and I'm not against removing it. It has only one
> advantage - one mouse click instead of two when switching to 2D by
> combobox.

Not much difference in motor actions.

> 
>> If the help on the layer manager could be made sensitive to context so that it went to 3D help when the 3D view page is active, we're down to one.
> 
> I don't think it should be context sensitive. If user would like to
> change GUI settings he would need to quit 3D view (if active) first
> which doesn't make sense.

This is not what I'm talking about. There is a button with a 'life preserver ring' icon that activates wxNVIZ help. There is also an identical-looking help button on the main layer manager button bar that brings up general GRASS help. What I suggest is that when you are in the '3D view' page of the main notebook (tabs at the bottom of the layer manager), pressing the help button in the layer manager would bring up wxNVIZ help. When you are on the "Map layers" page, pressing this button would bring up general layer manger help (or GRASS help), etc. 

> 
> I suggest to change the toolbar like this: remove tools for switching
> pages, remove quit, the rest would be moved to layer manager (to
> second row of toolbars) and the icons for settings and help could be
> changed a little bit to differ from the GUI settings and help.
> 
> Please tell me if you agree.

Like the current wxNVIZ toolbar in the display window, it would be best if any special 3D display button bar only appear when the 3D display is active. That may not be possible. If not, they should be disabled when switching pages to the map layer, command console, or other non-3D view pages.

Michael

> 
> Thanks in advance
> 
> Anna
> 
> 
> 
>> 
>> Michael
>> ______________________________
>> C. Michael Barton
>> Director, Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
>> Professor of Anthropology, School of Human Evolution & Social Change
>> Arizona State University
>> Tempe, AZ  85287-2402
>> USA
>> 
>> voice:  480-965-6262 (SHESC), 480-727-9746 (CSDC)
>> fax:          480-965-7671(SHESC), 480-727-0709 (CSDC)
>> www:    http://csdc.asu.edu, http://shesc.asu.edu
>>                http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
>> 
>> On Aug 19, 2011, at 7:26 AM, Anna Kratochvílová wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> I would like to ask you what do you think about the wxNviz toolbar and
>>> its placement. Toolbar consists of two parts - one part controls
>>> current page (like surface data) in Layer Manager's 3D view tab. The
>>> other part consists of tool for generating nviz_cmd command, settings
>>> and quit 3D view.
>>> 
>>> Toolbar is now located in Map Display window. The main advantage is
>>> that there is plenty of space for it. Problem is that it is actually
>>> not related to Map Display, it mainly controls Layer Manager window.
>>> So one option is to move this toolbar to Layer Manager window although
>>> I think it's not the best solution. As you can see from the attached
>>> screenshot, there would be too many toolbars. And the tools for
>>> switching pages are quite pointless here I think. So this leads me to
>>> the question: are these tools useful and if so than where should they
>>> be located? Another option could be splitting the toolbar in those two
>>> parts I mentioned above and one part can be located in Map Display and
>>> the other in Layer Manager.
>>> 
>>> I would be glad if you tell me what do you think about this problem,
>>> if I should change the toolbar somehow.
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> Anna
>>> <nviz_toolbar.jpg>
>> 
>>