Hello, I just bought the professional version of QCAD yesterday and am excited about its ability to express spatial constraints for precise/clean drawings.
Thank you for all your hard work on it and for making this wonderful software available!
Anyway though, so far two things have continually appeared as interfering greatly with the speed of the workflow for me so far:
1. There's no apparent option for controlling how much time has to pass when hovering over a button in the user interface before the tooltip explaining the tool's name and hotkey will show up. I want to set the tooltip delay to be zero or almost zero, but there doesn't seem to be an option for that. Such an option should be added and would help a lot for speed! I searched online for a solution to this and didn't find one. Correct me if its there and I've just missed it.
2. Even more ideally, it would be great if there was also an option to display a tiny label that shows the current assigned hotkey to each of the main user interface buttons that shows the hotkey sequence that activates that button. Such labels are great for being able to quickly see the hotkeys in what few programs I've encountered that have them.
Someone might say (as a counterargument) that the user should memorize all the hotkeys, but that doesn't account for the fact that people are often spread thin across many different pieces of software and there may often be gaps of time between uses of any given program. Having better tooltip delay control and the ability to automatically label every button with the corresponding hotkeys would greatly improve the speed and usability for all such people.
For example, I plan to use QCAD for multiple different things. The current intended use is for creating schematics/blueprints for precise/clean linework and planning for later drawing/painting conventional artwork on top and for other things like laying out an intended scene or relationship (etc) for things like game dev and pure art and technical diagrams for my own use (I have a computer science degree and a diverse range of things I'm interested in).
I find myself constantly being spread thin by the half dozen to dozen different software packages and languages I must constantly keep memorized and juggle back and forth between depending on whatever I'm currently working on. The above mentioned suggestions would likely help a lot.
In any case, the QCAD software seems awesome regardless.
These two above suggestions would be really helpful though and also seem like they'd be easy to implement too!
Thank you for your time and efforts and for reading! Have a wonderful day/night/week everyone!
Two Suggestions: Add an option for controlling the tooltip delay and to show hotkey labels near every button.
Moderator: andrew
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WraithGlade
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Re: Two Suggestions: Add an option for controlling the tooltip delay and to show hotkey labels near every button.
Hi,
1. Can't reproduce that on my Windows system. My tooltip delay is already zero or almost zero.
2. Every CAD application should have one main goal: Keep drawing canvas (Model_Space) as large as possible! Every tiny area spent in the toolbar etc. for e.g. a shortcut info will reduce the working area for a drafter.
1. Can't reproduce that on my Windows system. My tooltip delay is already zero or almost zero.
2. Every CAD application should have one main goal: Keep drawing canvas (Model_Space) as large as possible! Every tiny area spent in the toolbar etc. for e.g. a shortcut info will reduce the working area for a drafter.
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."
Re: Two Suggestions: Add an option for controlling the tooltip delay and to show hotkey labels near every button.
There are methods but these are not exploited.WraithGlade wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 7:43 pm1. There's no apparent option for controlling how much time has to pass when hovering over a button in the user interface before the tooltip explaining the tool's name and hotkey will show up.
Standard Qt behavior is that any tool tip text is displayed from the moment the QWidget has the focus for a short period of time.
The default delay is very short but not zero, meaning that you must almost stand still over it or hover over it rather slow.
At best you need to wait a fraction longer for the first tip to show up ... The mouse events are used for all kinds of coordinate tracking.
Info: https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qwidget.html#toolTip-prop
https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qtooltip.html
For 2: Each standard tool of QCAD that has a keyboard shortcut lists that in the tooltip.
Including the standard tool text and if it requires a selection when there is none.
The ambiguous thing here is that when you hover over it with the cursor to see the shortcut ...
... You can just as well start the tool with hitting the tool button.
So ... Why not pre-arrange the toolbars with most used tools ...
... Populate one or both custom toolbars with frequently used tools ...
... Exploit the tool matrix ... ?
I agree that when displaying larger icons like in the CAD Tools toolbar adding the 2(3) letters is an option.
Although that would require to be larger text to be readable what will mask out much of the image or take up extra screen space for each button.
Remark that this are exactly the same button image files used in menus or on other toolbars.
For a visual overview of all standard QCAD shortcuts I once printed out this:
https://www.ribbonsoft.com/archives/sho ... uts_en.pdf
Only it's hidden away in a drawer somewhere.
Regards,
CVH
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WraithGlade
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Re: Two Suggestions: Add an option for controlling the tooltip delay and to show hotkey labels near every button.
To Husky:
1. That's interesting Husky. Perhaps there is a hardware or software difference.
I should clarify that I mean the delay time for when the mouse moves from working in the main schematic area to hovering over the tool buttons. After the first tooltip shows up then all the others show up almost instantly, but only until you move the mouse away from the tool sidebar long enough for the tooltips to fall back asleep again.
I consistently have about 1 whole second of delay every time I move my mouse away from working on something actively in the canvas to hovering over the tool buttons for a tooltip.
2. I was thinking that the displayed hotkeys should just be small and/or in a color that isn't ever used on the button icons and/or partially transparent. That would be more than adequate for the purposes. With partial transparency for example (a faint but readable transparency of a different color) you could even have the letters cover almost the entire button. It could actually be extremely easy to read and not even ever cause the slightest change in the button sizes or layout if you implement it right.
I think having the hotkeys displayed all the time would make it much easier to instantly know most of the hotkeys even without memorization and would be great for the workflow. Small/subtle details like this matter a lot. I think it would be a big workflow improvement for anyone (like me) who wants it.
To CVH:
1. Ah, that'd be unfortunate if the tooltips aren't really fully controllable.
2. I actually coincidentally found the exact same PDF earlier today. Thanks for mentioning it though.
However, having to look down at a sheet or to the sides to a wall is still much more awkward than if the hotkeys were able to be printed everywhere visibly.
I think that the best solution would be to choose a color that isn't used in any of the button icons and then display the text of each hotkey sequence transparently (just enough to be clearly legible but no more opaque than that) over each of the buttons, perhaps almost in as large a font as to cover the entire button or at least large enough to be easily readable.
Alternatively, you could write the text in small font in a corner or the middle-bottom of each button.
I really think it could be a great efficiency and memorability improvement, especially for people who have to deal with too many software packages (like me). It just requires some slight finesse to make it work right, but the transparent colored approach I mentioned above I think would be enough.
It can be disabled by default of course.
1. That's interesting Husky. Perhaps there is a hardware or software difference.
I should clarify that I mean the delay time for when the mouse moves from working in the main schematic area to hovering over the tool buttons. After the first tooltip shows up then all the others show up almost instantly, but only until you move the mouse away from the tool sidebar long enough for the tooltips to fall back asleep again.
I consistently have about 1 whole second of delay every time I move my mouse away from working on something actively in the canvas to hovering over the tool buttons for a tooltip.
2. I was thinking that the displayed hotkeys should just be small and/or in a color that isn't ever used on the button icons and/or partially transparent. That would be more than adequate for the purposes. With partial transparency for example (a faint but readable transparency of a different color) you could even have the letters cover almost the entire button. It could actually be extremely easy to read and not even ever cause the slightest change in the button sizes or layout if you implement it right.
I think having the hotkeys displayed all the time would make it much easier to instantly know most of the hotkeys even without memorization and would be great for the workflow. Small/subtle details like this matter a lot. I think it would be a big workflow improvement for anyone (like me) who wants it.
To CVH:
1. Ah, that'd be unfortunate if the tooltips aren't really fully controllable.
2. I actually coincidentally found the exact same PDF earlier today. Thanks for mentioning it though.
However, having to look down at a sheet or to the sides to a wall is still much more awkward than if the hotkeys were able to be printed everywhere visibly.
I think that the best solution would be to choose a color that isn't used in any of the button icons and then display the text of each hotkey sequence transparently (just enough to be clearly legible but no more opaque than that) over each of the buttons, perhaps almost in as large a font as to cover the entire button or at least large enough to be easily readable.
Alternatively, you could write the text in small font in a corner or the middle-bottom of each button.
I really think it could be a great efficiency and memorability improvement, especially for people who have to deal with too many software packages (like me). It just requires some slight finesse to make it work right, but the transparent colored approach I mentioned above I think would be enough.
It can be disabled by default of course.
Re: Two Suggestions: Add an option for controlling the tooltip delay and to show hotkey labels near every button.
Honestly, I think you are looking for a software/GUI supported cheat sheet. 
Shortcut user are amazingly good in memorizing those shortcuts. 40 - 50 shortcut keys are no problem for them. Because of that they will most likely hide most of the tool icons.
Other user like me use on a regular base up to 10 shortcuts. I depend on tool icons! For that reason most of the Qcad icons are arranged on my monitor. The nice thing is that the pictogram on the icon tells me exactly what this tool will do.
However - you are now asking to present a tool icon with the info which shortcut can be used to launch that tool via keyboard? Why? You are already hovering the tool icon - just click it.
Getting the info from the icon and then using the keyboard is kind of counterproductive and will slow you down.
Just my 2 cents.
Shortcut user are amazingly good in memorizing those shortcuts. 40 - 50 shortcut keys are no problem for them. Because of that they will most likely hide most of the tool icons.
Other user like me use on a regular base up to 10 shortcuts. I depend on tool icons! For that reason most of the Qcad icons are arranged on my monitor. The nice thing is that the pictogram on the icon tells me exactly what this tool will do.
However - you are now asking to present a tool icon with the info which shortcut can be used to launch that tool via keyboard? Why? You are already hovering the tool icon - just click it.
Getting the info from the icon and then using the keyboard is kind of counterproductive and will slow you down.
Just my 2 cents.
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."
Re: Two Suggestions: Add an option for controlling the tooltip delay and to show hotkey labels near every button.
This is standard Qt behavior as described above.WraithGlade wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 3:18 amTo Husky:
1. That's interesting Husky. Perhaps there is a hardware or software difference.
I should clarify that I mean the delay time for when the mouse moves from working in the main schematic area to hovering over the tool buttons. After the first tooltip shows up then all the others show up almost instantly, but only until you move the mouse away from the tool sidebar long enough for the tooltips to fall back asleep again.
I consistently have about 1 whole second of delay every time I move my mouse away from working on something actively in the canvas to hovering over the tool buttons for a tooltip.
About size ... Consider all users, worldwide, with all kinds of displays.
There are users with high resolution displays, multi-screen Ultra HD (4K) systems, next up is 8K but QCAD also support SVGA (800x600px).
Most QCAD icons are HD SVG images, still meaningful in SVGA.
To be fairly readable at glance, text should be at least 9-12px high.
You don't specify where: menus, toolbars, panels, widgets, ... But they share the same icon files.
Toolbars default icon size is 24x24px, for menus that is even 10-12px
About color ... Consider Standard vs Dark Theme and the additional Themes by Pete (petevick).
Further consider fully tailored Themes, also by Pete.
https://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic. ... 958#p39526
The contradiction that I detect in your request is that you want:
- All buttons ... What requires a lot of screen area.
- List the associated shortcut ... What requires more screen area at least for lower resolution.
- Not for using the button itself ... = Graphical User Interface
- Only for having a visual reference about the shortcut key sequence ... = Textual
But we don't want to hold you back ... As with many things, QCAD button images are customisable:
https://www.qcad.org/rsforum/viewtopic. ... 653#p42653
A good list for *.svg files to alter can be sourced from a recent commit:
https://github.com/qcad/qcad/commit/cc2 ... 9db38e5b2b
That are 273 image files to start with.
Many can be sourced directly from GitHub, except PRO or CAM related files.
Regards,
CVH
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WraithGlade
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Re: Two Suggestions: Add an option for controlling the tooltip delay and to show hotkey labels near every button.
Hello again guys! Sorry for the delayed response to this thread, as I was busy with other things.
Anyway, to address the replies:
To Husky:
The amount of time required to move a mouse over to a button to see a tooltip or to click on it is far greater than the time required to instantly see what hotkeys are on each of the buttons just from looking at them. Of course, hypothetically, having the keys memorized and not even needing to look is the fastest method of all, but that requires memorization. The point of my suggestion was that users no longer would have the barrier to entry of having to first memorize the hotkeys. You'd get maybe 70% or 80% of the value of the hotkeys (in terms of speed) and you'd get it instantly just because of the UI design (having the option I'm suggesting enabled) instead of having to spend a prolonged time memorizing the hotkeys and potentially forgetting them later as you move between different contexts and situations for your work, such as different software (each of which has often very different hotkeys).
The happiest I've ever been with any hotkey system has been on software that displays the keys overlaid somewhere on every single button. There's no faster workflow for hotkeys I've ever found, except perhaps a grid-based system where the instead of mnemonics you have a positional grid that always exactly corresponds to the rows of buttons of the keyboard.
The workflow speed improvement I've seen in what few cases I've been lucky enough to see and use that has always been huge.
I think you guys may be underestimating how useful this kind of UI display can be.
Always-visible hotkeys are slightly slower than memorization but still much much faster than clicking buttons with a mouse or especially waiting for hover-triggered tooltips.
Nonetheless, I am as always very happy to have found this software and it is perhaps one of the most intelligently designed user interfaces and software packages I've yet encountered and I'm excited to continue using it regardless of my suggestion outcomes.
To CVH:
Thank you for the information about customizing QCAD. I wasn't aware of that.
My suggestions to this forum have had the primary purpose of trying to contribute helpful ideas to the software so that all can benefit from those ideas though.
I can of course work around any current issues in any software. I am quite accustomed to that, both as a computer programmer myself and as a regular user.
However, it would be far better and far more scalable if these kinds of things were taken care of automatically by the software, especially since it is likely to benefit many users who otherwise may not be able to always keep all the hotkeys in mind as they move between different programs.
I've already memorized some hotkeys, but I know from experience that no amount of wishful thinking on my part will stop many hotkeys from fading form my memory if I don't use the program for several weeks or months.
Every single time I pick up Blender again for example I have to relearn all the basic hotkeys over several days every single time.
The more can be done in a software program to reduce the upfront overhead and costs of users using any piece of software the more likely that software is to become more widely popular and more widely used and useful.
Wouldn't you want to make the software even more attractive to a wider range of users?
Where is the harm in simply programmatically displaying whatever the current mapped hotkey is overlaid on top of the button, whether large and transparent or small and at a boundary or corner?
I'm not going to manually customize every single image for the program when I could one day decide to change some of the bindings or the developers may one day change those bindings, especially when the software has a built in system for displaying text and by definition knows what its own corresponding hotkey bindings are and could be made to display those bindings automatically everywhere based on what the keybinding currently are.
The scalable and programmatically smart solution is to automate the process in the form of a simple user interface option, like what I suggested in my idea.
There would be a big benefit in it I think.
If you can get it to look good enough, you might even be wise to make it the default setting, so that the lack of a hotkey learning barrier is made immediately apparent.
I think it would make a huge improvement in the average speed of the average user.
Not everyone has time to perpetually memorize every hotkey for every piece of software they use.
Why not eliminate that overhead by simply making a way to always display the hotkeys? It would be great.
In any case though, I will say that I love the two-button hotkey system and the wonderful speed and expressiveness that it enables!
QCAD seems really wonderfully designed, perhaps one of the most well-designed user interfaces and drawing constraint features sets I've ever seen, and I am really excited to use it going forward.
I really appreciate all the work that's been put into it.
PS: I'm curious: Are you two (Husky and CVH) on the core development team or are you just well informed users/experts?
Have you two made contributions to the source code of QCAD?
Anyway though, thanks again for reading my verbose text. Sorry for length again (it comes naturally to me).
Have a wonderful day/night/weekend!
Anyway, to address the replies:
To Husky:
The amount of time required to move a mouse over to a button to see a tooltip or to click on it is far greater than the time required to instantly see what hotkeys are on each of the buttons just from looking at them. Of course, hypothetically, having the keys memorized and not even needing to look is the fastest method of all, but that requires memorization. The point of my suggestion was that users no longer would have the barrier to entry of having to first memorize the hotkeys. You'd get maybe 70% or 80% of the value of the hotkeys (in terms of speed) and you'd get it instantly just because of the UI design (having the option I'm suggesting enabled) instead of having to spend a prolonged time memorizing the hotkeys and potentially forgetting them later as you move between different contexts and situations for your work, such as different software (each of which has often very different hotkeys).
The happiest I've ever been with any hotkey system has been on software that displays the keys overlaid somewhere on every single button. There's no faster workflow for hotkeys I've ever found, except perhaps a grid-based system where the instead of mnemonics you have a positional grid that always exactly corresponds to the rows of buttons of the keyboard.
The workflow speed improvement I've seen in what few cases I've been lucky enough to see and use that has always been huge.
I think you guys may be underestimating how useful this kind of UI display can be.
Always-visible hotkeys are slightly slower than memorization but still much much faster than clicking buttons with a mouse or especially waiting for hover-triggered tooltips.
Nonetheless, I am as always very happy to have found this software and it is perhaps one of the most intelligently designed user interfaces and software packages I've yet encountered and I'm excited to continue using it regardless of my suggestion outcomes.
To CVH:
Thank you for the information about customizing QCAD. I wasn't aware of that.
My suggestions to this forum have had the primary purpose of trying to contribute helpful ideas to the software so that all can benefit from those ideas though.
I can of course work around any current issues in any software. I am quite accustomed to that, both as a computer programmer myself and as a regular user.
However, it would be far better and far more scalable if these kinds of things were taken care of automatically by the software, especially since it is likely to benefit many users who otherwise may not be able to always keep all the hotkeys in mind as they move between different programs.
I've already memorized some hotkeys, but I know from experience that no amount of wishful thinking on my part will stop many hotkeys from fading form my memory if I don't use the program for several weeks or months.
Every single time I pick up Blender again for example I have to relearn all the basic hotkeys over several days every single time.
The more can be done in a software program to reduce the upfront overhead and costs of users using any piece of software the more likely that software is to become more widely popular and more widely used and useful.
Wouldn't you want to make the software even more attractive to a wider range of users?
Where is the harm in simply programmatically displaying whatever the current mapped hotkey is overlaid on top of the button, whether large and transparent or small and at a boundary or corner?
I'm not going to manually customize every single image for the program when I could one day decide to change some of the bindings or the developers may one day change those bindings, especially when the software has a built in system for displaying text and by definition knows what its own corresponding hotkey bindings are and could be made to display those bindings automatically everywhere based on what the keybinding currently are.
The scalable and programmatically smart solution is to automate the process in the form of a simple user interface option, like what I suggested in my idea.
There would be a big benefit in it I think.
If you can get it to look good enough, you might even be wise to make it the default setting, so that the lack of a hotkey learning barrier is made immediately apparent.
I think it would make a huge improvement in the average speed of the average user.
Not everyone has time to perpetually memorize every hotkey for every piece of software they use.
Why not eliminate that overhead by simply making a way to always display the hotkeys? It would be great.
In any case though, I will say that I love the two-button hotkey system and the wonderful speed and expressiveness that it enables!
QCAD seems really wonderfully designed, perhaps one of the most well-designed user interfaces and drawing constraint features sets I've ever seen, and I am really excited to use it going forward.
I really appreciate all the work that's been put into it.
PS: I'm curious: Are you two (Husky and CVH) on the core development team or are you just well informed users/experts?
Have you two made contributions to the source code of QCAD?
Anyway though, thanks again for reading my verbose text. Sorry for length again (it comes naturally to me).
Have a wonderful day/night/weekend!
Re: Two Suggestions: Add an option for controlling the tooltip delay and to show hotkey labels near every button.
The sole developer is Andrew, Husky is a moderator, I am but a simple user.WraithGlade wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 3:16 amPS: I'm curious: Are you two (Husky and CVH) on the core development team or are you just well informed users/experts?
Overlaying Shortcuts can best be entered as a feature request on Bugtracker:
https://qcad.org/bugtracker/
You need a separate account there or create a new one.
Regards,
CVH
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WraithGlade
- Junior Member
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- Joined: Tue Feb 13, 2024 7:26 pm
Re: Two Suggestions: Add an option for controlling the tooltip delay and to show hotkey labels near every button.
Thanks again for all the useful information CVH!
I wasn't aware that the Bugtracker page was the page for this, since so many suggestions seem to be posted here to this forum. That's good to know!
You have my gratitude taking the time to talk to me so extensively and to read my very verbose posts and share your thoughts on these matters.
Have a wonderful weekend and upcoming week!
I'm excited to have found this awesome software and the associated community too.
I very much wish that vector art programs had the kinds of constraint specification capabilities that QCAD has. There's an immense amount of untapped potential in that prospect I think. Precise shape specification is so much easier in the kind of environment that QCAD provides.
I wasn't aware that the Bugtracker page was the page for this, since so many suggestions seem to be posted here to this forum. That's good to know!
You have my gratitude taking the time to talk to me so extensively and to read my very verbose posts and share your thoughts on these matters.
Have a wonderful weekend and upcoming week!
I'm excited to have found this awesome software and the associated community too.
I very much wish that vector art programs had the kinds of constraint specification capabilities that QCAD has. There's an immense amount of untapped potential in that prospect I think. Precise shape specification is so much easier in the kind of environment that QCAD provides.