I use groups to create "composite parts" that need to move together. For example, an axle with wheels and tires, or an entire vehicle - a sub-model within the project. These have a hierarchical structure that you would want to manipulate via the groups toolbar, unlike the storyboard which is simply a linear sequence of "events".
I think 2 additions would make management of these easier: 1. A story board toolbar. This would be a list of story time nodes, each containing the pieces that become "present" at the respective time. You can drag pieces to different times, or at least use it to select a piece which can then be modified via the properties toolbar. 2. As mentioned in my other comments, a means by which the view panes can consistently hint at the existence of logically grouped but not yet visible parts (maybe just a /!\ symbol in the corner to suggest looking at the groups toolbar.) Both position and story operations through the view pane would apply to the entire group. If you want to manipulate only part of the group (e.g. just the visible pieces), use the groups toolbar. If you want to manipulate story times without affecting the whole group, use the storyboard/properties toolbar. By the way, what is the distinction between frames and steps? I see the animation playback is commented out - what was the original intent, and why did it need a separate frame member? It seems that you could store two completely different sequences for the model with different limits for each. - Rod ---------------------------------------- > Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2014 16:30:26 -0500 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Patch: Group Toolbar > > On 05/01/14 12:13 AM, Rodney Rushing wrote: >>> we should add to this the building steps - currently the are grayed out. >> Can you clarify? They should be greyed out if the piece is not present at >> the current story time. You can still drag them in the toolbar though. > > I think that we should have the pieces / groups grouped by building > steps. This make it hard with a group that spans building steps, but it > is doable. > This would allow moving pieces from one to the other. > > Also I think pieces should be ordered by the build order (ie the order > in which they are added to the model). > > Cheers, > > Hub > _______________________________________________ > Leocad mailing list > [email protected] > https://list.gerf.org/listinfo/leocad > _______________________________________________ Leocad mailing list [email protected] https://list.gerf.org/listinfo/leocad
