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Not sure if this is a feature request or just a random vent (please move as necessary if this doesn’t qualify)…
My mouse hand just isn’t steady, and every time I click on an object to select it to change the cutting depth or something, it always tends to move just a little bit.
Just that fraction of a second holding down the mouse key to click on an object seems to be enough time that a tiny jitter drags the piece just a little off position.
Is there a better way to select an object without it always being a “move” action?
Hm I’m not sure what the best solution for this would be. Any ideas @chrisbalin?
One thing that might be worth trying is to use the “rectangular selection” box, basically if you click and drag outside of a shape it will create a little purple box, which if you drag over the shape it will select.
@paulkaplan - That only works if you start in a blank section of the work area and select into an object.
If I have a pocket with some (say raised lettering) in the center, I can’t select ONLY a text object by dragging, as the cursor changes to “move” and will end up selecting and moving the pocket while trying to drag into a selection box.
If my lines in the lettering (or whatever is inside that pocket) are very thin, I often have to really hover quite close to even manage to be sure I select that object and not the larger pocket anyway. It doesn’t work to just select an area inside the bounding box of the smaller object to select it, you really have to click right onto some part of the object itself to get selected.
Of course, if you hold down that click for even a fraction of a second and twitch…it’s moved. I’ve been learning more about using the x/y positioning of an object and trying to remember it in my head in case I move it again. That at least makes it quick to re-position it if moves.
I’ve made a new category for this type of request. I find issues of accessibility particularly important, and I’d love to see Easel keep accessibility a high priority.
If Easel could be modified to have an optional “hover” mode this might resolve this.
I.e. you hold down say the space bar and move your mouse. Whatever feature lies underneath is selected when you release the space bar. Have it do the selection live as you move the mouse. No mouse click required.
That is a really clever idea! Have you ever seen any other software do that? It might be hard in terms of discoverability (how do you know that it does that).
I’ve not seen use of modifiers like this in Web apps, although we use them in some of ours at work.
The idea came from Photoshop. Doesn’t really matter what you do there, holding down the space bar turns the cursor to a grabby hand and allows to grab and scroll the view.
As for discovery, maybe the first few times through Easel you get some on screen hinting as to the controls but always have them available from the help menu.
Look at it this way. Wasn’t ever told how to pan the 3D view in Easel but guessed the Shift key would do it.
