I was on vacation and I'm just catching up with my emails. The reason why there are steps and frames is because LeoCAD used to have an animation mode where you could create simple animations using key frames and you could create animations and instructions in the same file. I've decided to remove it because it's not the main focus of the application (building instructions) so it adds to confusion and feature bloat.
Groups are something that I never finished implementing, it's weird to have objects that are not visible be part of a group because it's not clear what should happen when you move the group. If you don't move the hidden objects the group will be wrong later but if you move them then you're moving something that's not visible. To be honest I think groups shouldn't exist in their current form, having a parenting system could be a better way solve the problem because pieces would always be relative to their parent so moving the parent automatically moves its children, even if they are hidden and more complicated groups that need multiple steps would be sub-models instead. I was actually implementing this system in my current work branch ( svn.leocad.org/branches/model). BTW, I usually develop new features in a separate branch so please post something if you plan on writing big features so we can try to avoid conflicts. On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 8:11 PM, Rodney Rushing <[email protected]>wrote: > 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 >
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