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Peter Severin Carlsen
Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 77
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
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 Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:11 pm Post subject: A few complaints |
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I've been using PC-7 more intensively in the last week or so and I keep running into irritants that make me wonder why things don't work better. Although it handles photo images much better, orther things like inconsistant tool operation seem to have been lost. So a partial list:
The program looses settings in the stationery. I set it with layers, pen settings and preferences and up comes a new file without any layers. Sometimes it comes up with snap to object off, sometimes it's on and sometimes snap to object and grid both are switched on. I don't change these things.
I use doors and windows that cover the lines under them. But when you change the color or line weight of the layer they're on, it makes the white filled rectangle, with no border have a border. This also happens when when I copy the drawing and bring it into another drawing at a different scale. Then I have to use the needle to correct the fill in each door and window in the drawing. This is not a selling point for PowerCadd.
Interestingly, once the objects have been corrected with needle tool they can be recolored, copied to another scale drawing or change their line weight and they don't change the property of the rectangle that covers the lines underneath. Since this is the case, I suspect the issue is in the program, not the system.
The wall heal tool only works on objects in the currently selected layer even if edit all layers is turned on. The line join tool works on objects as expected. I bet there is some "feature tha's been added, that I don't know about.
The move tool in wild tools is a dog if the number of objects being moved is large. Trying to get plans of a number of different floors to align I tried moving them using the move tool. What puzzled me is that the objects on diffent layers initially spread out, each one moving a diffent amount toward the target point, and then I got to wait over a minute for the program to move it back together at a new location. What I don't understand is that I can select all objects in the drawing and move it by grabbing onto to it at will, no delay, no spreading. What is with the Wildtool move tool?
I wish, and perhaps there is a way to make the selection marks that appear at the ends and corners of objects could be made larger. They are too refined for my old eyes and easy to miss.
And I still miss the ability to turn off WYSIWYG and have lines that stay thin and crisp, even when you zoom in, but I'm probably in a small, small minority.
Finally, I hope that ES will improve version 7, fixing some of the basic little things. It may be a while before everyone has a new computer.
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Peter Carlsen |
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Rob C
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 532
Location: Southern Connecticut
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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I have witnessed snap to object (which I always have on) get toggled off, and I didn't do it. I've seen no pattern, and it's not associated with starting a new document for me.
You can toggle WISIWYG on and off. I've assigned a command key to that, because I do routinely switch that back and forth.
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Rob
www.robertcoolidge.com |
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Alfred Scott
Joined: 15 Apr 2004
Posts: 633
Location: Richmond, VA
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| Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:18 am Post subject: |
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What you're seeing with the WT Move tool is the delay in updating the screen. That's all.
Peter and everyone else, please give me a maximum number of objects that you would like the tool to handle with a full display? That is, what number of objects can you move now without problems, and what number of objects give you problems.
There are a variety of ways we can work around this problem. One would be to always draw objects in the vicinity of the initial mouse points and indicate a move of other objects by just drawing a line on the screen to indicate the move.
I would also be nice to have some test files. Send to alfred@seqair.com
Alfred |
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Rob C
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 532
Location: Southern Connecticut
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| Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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Would it be possible to provide a key to hold down before/during the move that would suspend redrawing the objects during the move? That way the user can decide when it's too much for their machine.
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Rob
www.robertcoolidge.com |
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Derek
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 567
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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| Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:43 am Post subject: |
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Hang on, I thought ALL these slowness things were going to be resolved in PC8!? We have been told PC8 will be 75X faster (not 50X or 100X so I guess someone has timed it) and the redraw aspects shouldn't be a problem with the much touted move to OpenGL.
Oh, I see, everything will get faster because I'll have to upgrade my hardware to faster Intel gear.
Seems to me any discussion of how we should be managing things in the next release so that we can boost the speed is a sign we've been getting fed some dung recently. Or, Alfred, are you suggesting there will be a PC7.9 that is given all these speed boosts without the requirement for Intel processors?
Derek
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Alfred Scott
Joined: 15 Apr 2004
Posts: 633
Location: Richmond, VA
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| Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 8:40 am Post subject: |
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What I'm thinking about is timing things in the WT Move Tool, so that if it takes too long then it will throttle back. Once it throttles back then it would show the movement of the objects near the original click point and then 'fake' the rest, say by drawing lines from the objects center to the new object's center.
I think that no matter how fast you make the program, someone will always be pushing the limits on what you can put in a drawing. I think this does merit some attention.
I'm not saying anything about a "PC 7.9" at all. Ain't going to happen.
The fast drawing mode in PC 8 really is that fast, but the question is whether you will choose to use it or not. Also, it isn't used by a tool like the WT Move tool so it will not help with this situation.
I don't want to go into any more detail than that.
Alfred |
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Alfred Scott
Joined: 15 Apr 2004
Posts: 633
Location: Richmond, VA
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| Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:40 am Post subject: |
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Peter sent me the problem files. In the original file he had a large scanned image which is probably a high-resolution bitmap. This will really bring PC to its knees and we've discussed in the past how to speed things up by a factor of 100X or more (convert to bitmap, then cut into pieces).
I'm on a Mac Pro now and in PC 7, moving these objects around is a tiny bit sluggish, but nothing worth worrying about. There is a three to five second delay for PC 7 to update the screen when you finish the move. In PC 8 there, maybe a second delay before PC 8 updates the screen.
I don't see any problem worth working on in the WT Move tool. It's important to draw the objects because that's the purpose of the tool.
Alfred |
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