How to make an app

Easel App Development
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@Andy4us Right here is fine. Which app did you want us to review?

75

i am experimenting with the object(s) that are passed in and now able to recreate the objects in svg (size is in inch!) except voor the absolute postion. seems that no matter what the offset it, the created object is always put at 0?

76

is it possible to remove the original object? (the object that was passed into the app)

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Two Apps
@EricDobroveanu

http://easel.inventables.com/apps/44/edit

and

http://easel.inventables.com/apps/32/edit

Some days I prefer metric, other days imperial, so there’s a check box to change the measurements. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to have event handlers to change the scale of the ranges, so rather than have range sliders that worked on the full width of a 1K by 1K in both inches and mm, which I need, I used text boxes.

A bit basic, but they fill in a couple of the holes for making objects that are missing from the existing interface. Using combine, it’s now possible to cut out the bulkhead shown on page 2 of http://www.spirainternational.com/study/BolsaChicaStudy.pdf

78

what apps are you looking for? my first is a wooden label maker (Easel), simpel but useful.

79

Hi Frank,

It’s currently not possible to remove the original object. Are you trying to replace the original object with a new object?

Jeff

80

hi jeff,

in this case i just want to move the object (to the center of the frame the app is making) but i can image apps that want to transform it.

another option for me would be to put the frame around the original object (but i seems not possible for the app to generate an object at a certain position other than the lower right corner?)

thanks, frank

81

ah, and related: i think it would be nice to allow apps to use both with and without selected object: if the user selects an object and then applies the app it would use the object otherwise it would go on without an input object…

82

Maybe I’m missing how to do this - but is there a way to group the objects the app creates? I tried using <g> tags to wrap the shape but it doesn’t seem to group once placed on the artboard. I would like to build a collection of shapes into a single object for easier manipulation by the user.

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I noticed that each item in a path statement is a separate object after the import. Same with rects, circles etc. Depending if what you 're trying to create, if they can all be in the same path statement they will probably all be in a single group.

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I have tried your suggestion of loading all together on a path. While it loads into Easel it will crash it shortly… looking at ways to optimize the pathing but I think there might just be overwhelming to the app :frowning:

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want to share the path, see if we can help you out ?

86

Thanks @Andy4us, I ended up rewriting it to be 1 single path element. I’ve built a simple waste board marking tool. Allows you to defined the size of boxes, ticks, crosshairs etc… and then the xcarve will surface a raw board with markings.

@EricDobroveanu would love to submit measurement pattern for diy wasteboard layout Easel for evaluation. Code can be seen: https://github.com/codearachnid/easel.inventables.apps/blob/master/MeasurementMarkings.js

One big win would be to add dependent options that could change on visibility if validation on other items meets certain values

87

@Andy4us Hey Andy, really really sorry for the delay in reviewing the app. We are always excited to get submissions like yours, and we are going to make sure we respond more quickly going forward.

I’ve taken a look at the two apps you’ve written (quad and arc), and I have a few concerns. First, I’m worried the average user will have some difficulty working with the 8 text boxes in the quadrilateral app. They might not know what the app requires to produce something on canvas before opening it, so they could end up hopping back and forth between the canvas and the app. The arc app does a better job of keeping the options simple.

My second, over-arching concern with the two apps, though, is that they are focused on basic drawing tools. Over time, Easel will include more basic drawing tools in its core UI. While we do need an arc tool, and perhaps an arbitrary-sided shape tool, we’d prefer not to lean on apps to integrate those tools—at least not at this point. We really want the main focus of apps to be creating application/design-specific tools. Two apps that fit this model are the “Wing-rib” app and the “inlay generator” app. The “Wing-rib” app is application-specific in the sense that it helps you build one very specific kind of object. When people see that app, a light bulb goes off in their heads when they realize it wouldn’t be that hard to create a model airplane frame. The “inlay generator” app is also application-specific, allowing the user to create male and female parts for an inlay in very few clicks.

We want apps to have a specific function; creating specific objects or manipulating existing objects in a specific way. For these reasons, we’re going to lean towards not promoting these apps to the public space at this time.

Thanks again for submitting your apps, we really appreciate all the effort you put in.

Do you have any ideas for apps that could help build application-specific designs?

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@TimothyWood Thanks for the submission! Kudos for submitting the source to github, I did the same for the polygon generator and it’s super helpful when I need to make adjustments or just look over the source.

First off, I’m glad you re-wrote this app to create a single path, this makes arranging the grid much easier once it’s on the canvas. It was a bit of a pain when I checked it out pre-single-path.

The spacing of tick marks is a bit confusing to me. Is it possible to let the user define their own spacing or perhaps default to a factor of what the box size is set to? 10mm spacing should be a good default, and it fits all the different permutations of machine and box size.

There are also some issues with rendering tick marks when setting the machine to 500mm and the box size to 200mm, 150mm, etc. It seems the SVG expands off screen, but once you import it, its cut off (like in the preview). I suspect this has to do with the machine size limitation cutting the SVG off as it gets too large.

The Voronoi app uses a viewbox to contain the resulting SVG, so the whole thing is visible in the preview. See:

I like the idea of the app though, people seem to be surfacing their waste boards after they do a bunch of cutting, and surfacing removes the silk screened tick marks, this would help users add tick marks back to their surfaced waste board.

Let me know when you’ve addressed the above issues, and we’ll take another look at it and go from there.

Thanks!

1 Like
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Thanks for the feedback, I will work on those items and come back with a revision… Side note. Reason I mentioned earlier about dependency options would be the very case you stated about the overflow of the design on the board. For now I am removing the option for someone to set the spacing size and rework to be the amount of blocks per side they wish… Downside being that I think a person would rather decide on the dimension vs quantity (similar to % vs time remaining arguments)