[Qgis-developer] Measure tool persistence.

[G. Garibaldi]

Bug report #9703

The line thickness is good. The endpoints could be improved. Crossmarks 
would be better than dots. If dot endpoints are easiest to program, then 
put a smaller white dot in the middle of the larger red dot. This will 
help measurement accuracy. The most desirable quality of the tool would 
be for the markers remain on screen until cleared by the user. This 
includes remaining on screen while other commands are selected and new 
data entered. This onscreen persistence should also be applied to the 
angle measure tool.

With robust CAD tools this would not be an issue because the operator 
can quickly draw temporary measure lines on screen and erase them at his 
leisure. With QGIS the CAD tool functionality is clumsy and inefficient. 
Data point creation with other systems is fast and well developed. Most 
CAD systems allow inputting a data point, then drawing the next point 
using a relative angle and distance at the keyboard or visually with 
onscreen angle and distance display controlled by snap settings. Perhaps 
what I'm really asking for is better CAD tool functionality.

I have many *thousands* of points to calculate and enter by hand. Months 
worth of work. If I were a programmer perhaps this would not be 
necessary. Unfortunately I don't think I have the time to spend a month 
or two getting up to speed programming in the QGIS environment, not that 
I would not like to. I just spent 7 months learning a foreign language 
to translate documents for my project. When the functionality of the 
measure tool changed after QGIS 2.1(1.8, 2.1 something like that), and 
the measure tool lost its persistence I despaired.

I am pressing for this functionality because I need to finish my project 
and put food on the table.

Anyway, this is my project, analyzing ships navigation data:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCWZzqHc8ow

In this project QGIS is merely a tool to develop a better understanding 
of historical events. What will really be significant is when QGIS goes 
3D and I am able to visualize aircraft and ships data simultaneously in 
an animation using the animation plug-in.

On 10/19/2014 4:48 PM, Tim Sutton wrote:
> Hi
>
> On Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 9:51 PM, G. Garibaldi <digitalmaps at cox.net 
> <mailto:digitalmaps at cox.net>> wrote:
>
>     The measure tool onscreen markers are not persistent and are
>     therefore not useful. Why have tools that have no useful function?
>     I've complained about this before, filed a ticket and was argued
>     down by a developer.
>
>     It is frustrating to try to contribute to a project when nobody
>     wants to cooperate.
>
>
>
> I don't think it is fair to characterise QGIS as a project where 
> nobody wants to cooperate. People are busy, may have differing 
> opinions to you, may not have noticed your ticket etc. We are a 
> community of people trying our best to cooperate and sometimes we 
> fail, but it certainly isn't through a lack of desire to cooperate. My 
> advice is keep trying (in a friendly way) to get your request noticed, 
> and if others don't always agree with your ideas, don't take it 
> personally.
>
> Regards
>
> Tim
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Tim Sutton
> Visit http://kartoza.com <http://kartoza.com/> to find out about open 
> source:
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> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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