[QGIS-Developer] Exploring the new node tool: questions and bugs(?)

[Richard Duivenvoorde]

Ah, thanks, now it makes more sense.

I've been playing a little with it, some notes from me:

- I have to hover over the outline of a polygon to see the nodes, is
there a special reason to not show the nodes already when I'm hovering
over the inside of a polygon? (maybe use selection-color for it?)
MMm,thinking about this, it is probably a rubberband you use, and that
one has no fill is it? Maybe a good moment to add it )

- when I click a node, it does not change color (only shown bigger red
with me), while if I 'drag' two nodes they become blue, but upon a click
on one of those nodes I lose the clear color notice which nodes/segment
I'm actually dragging. Would it not be more clear to keep showing which
node you are changing?

- it looks like there are also some modifier keys, but I fail to
understand which

- as Harrissou is asking: without a sort of selecting them (or give them
a alternive fill color) how would you be able to distinguish what you
are going to do in case of a shared segment of two bordering polygins?
Some brainwaving:
Is it an idea to work with selections? Like if you select 1 of the
neighbouring polygons, and click on a node, you only will move the node
of selected one. So if you want to move both nodes of both polygons you
should select both polygons first?
Or: if you CLICK you always 'select' (and show it?) own polygon/node.
and if you DRAG you always 'select' tho polygons
(thinking about one layer here.... editing more layers makes it more
complex. But I think by showing selections it would become more clear?

Last feature request:
- if I edit a huge polygon and show the node-panel it would be cool if
the node that I selected to show the nodepanel would be
selected/differently colored AND the table with the coordinates would
jump to THAT node (I think now it seems I'm supposed to read the node-id
from the tooltip and go the the right record with that id?)

Thanks for all this. I'm not an experienced digitizer, so not stuck to
some kind of working yet. But I'm in favour of streamlining digitizing
with ways other 'digitizers' work, be it Esri, AutoCAD, Blender,
Inkscape or Microstation. We all have to move some points, so it is good
to harmonize that workflow...

Regards,

Richard

On 2017-06-08 10:53, Régis Haubourg wrote:
> Hi all,
> the new node tool has an unofficial name : "click-click node tool".
>
> The new behavior is to first click a node to select it and then click
> the new position.
>
> I was also surprised at start, loosing the very common click - drag -
> release workflow was not natural to me, coming from Esri-Mapinfo world
> (a long time ago now).
>
> After using it in Martin's plugin prototype "CAD Node tool" I finally
> got convinced that it is a lot more productive in fact, and allows to
> use all the advanced digitizing options and modifiers.
>
> The node panel is raised on demand using right click, this was
> annoying to always have it before. In latest master, it indeed is
> broken, it just opens and closes immediately.
>
> It's true that the new behavior is more natural to CAD users than GIS
> at start, but I think it's much more productive this way.
>
> Double click is still here to create a node, or you can just click on
> the centerline virtual node that appears when you hover the feature.
> (It's a red cross rubber band)
>
> Moving a segment is like before but still in clic-clic mode, not
> clic-drag-release.
>
> There are also some other improvements asked by some users, and any
> improvement or feedback is welcome:
>
> - add a varying symbol to confirm what snapping type is made (segment
> / node / vertex)
> - add a better batch vertex selection method, allowing to select all
> vertices between two selected vertices
> - allow to have priorities for layer snapping
> - add advanced option to let user explicitly choose which layer and
> feature should be actually snapped to.
>
> I think this change is a heavy new feature that will need to be
> advertised and documented .
> I'm even wondering if we shouldn't even change the node tooltip until
> 3.2 from "node tool" to "node tool  /n new behavior, look check the
> doc!"
>
> Cheers
> Régis