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Rotation by defined degrees


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I submitted issue #4496 as I saw the want for a rotation-by-degrees on the rotation widget several times on the subforum. What greebo says in the comment is true, holding down shift constricts it by increments of 5 degrees, but I still feel a little unsatisfied by that. If anyone wants to chime in and give their opinion on how useful an arbitrary degree rotation for the widget would be, that'd be great. I'm bringing this here since the forum obviously gets more traffic than the bugtracker.

My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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I submitted issue #4496 as I saw the want for a rotation-by-degrees on the rotation widget several times on the subforum. What greebo says in the comment is true, holding down shift constricts it by increments of 5 degrees, but I still feel a little unsatisfied by that. If anyone wants to chime in and give their opinion on how useful an arbitrary degree rotation for the widget would be, that'd be great. I'm bringing this here since the forum obviously gets more traffic than the bugtracker.

 

Agreed.

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There are a couple of possible approaches to implement this, I'll just throw out some suggestions, let me know which one might come closest to what people envisioned. (Note that I've not been following any discussions about this, so I'm not aware of any arguments or wishes put out there before this thread.)

 

Right now the rotation tool can rotate freely or by multiples of 5 degrees, printing the actual rotation amount in the xy view.

 

Option 1: When holding down the constraint (Shift) key, the rotation will not be locked to multiples of 5 degrees but to a different amount. The amount is specified by hitting a key combo which asks the user to enter the amount of degrees. The amount of degrees is remembered even if you switch to a different mouse tool (like drag or the clipper tool).

 

Option 2: As Option 1, but the tool adheres to the degree amount specified in the Rotation & Scale dialog. On top of that, it could be respecting the X, Y and Z values separately - i.e. when rotating around the Z axis the value in the Z-Axis Rotate entry box is used.

 

Option 3: When holding down the constraint (Shift) key, the rotation tool always increments in steps of 1 or 0.5 degrees. No need to enter a specific value since you can reach any needed value, checking the actual degrees against what is printed in the xy view.

 

Option 4: Leave the current tool as it is, and add a new rotation tool that is fixed to a certain amount of degrees. The amount of degrees can be specified by using a shortcut which prompts the value from the user (which is remembered in between tool switching). Alternatively the value in the Rotation & Scale dialog could be used.

 

Option 5: Leave the current functionality with free and constrained (shift key) rotation mode as it is, and add another key to enable "fixed degree mode", possibly by holding down the Ctrl or Alt key. The amount of degrees can be specified by using a shortcut which prompts the value from the user (which is remembered in between tool switching). Alternatively the value in the Rotation & Scale dialog is used.

 

I'm open for suggestions. It should be kept in mind that the tool usage should be fairly intuitive, that's why I'm rather not leaning towards storing the value in the Rotation dialog since that dialog might not be the first one for users to check for the value. There are not terribly many places to display a help text and how-to instructions either.

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As I've mentioned in the ticket, I'm a fan of option 2 since it folds every new feature into ones already in the editor, without adding new ones. I agree about new user visibility however and I believe nowhere is it written that you can press shift to constrain the rotation widget (or unconstrain the new model scale one for that matter). Another button to the top or sidebar could be added, like the one for snapping rotation origin to grid. The amount of buttons is already plenty though, with this change I could happily see the X/Y/Z axis rotate buttons on the sidebars go away and that would free up some space. I still know some people use them, however.

 

Personally I'm leaning towards the rotation and scale dialogue because I have it bound to a shortcut key and I remember it doesn't have a default one. Perhaps putting in a default binding and advertising it as this new dialogue (even though it isn't) where you can input your angles for the rotation widget on release would inform people.

 

As greebo said, please weigh in as it's more or less just me theorizing here. I remember at least two other people mentioning this but I don't remember names. Kingsal, perhaps? Epi? NeonsStyle? I dunno.

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My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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I've been thinking some more about this in terms of least amount of steps possible and the rotation and scale dialogue isn't exactly the fastest. Suppose you have a shortcut for it, that's one keypress, then you have to select the old value (click and drag, or click and backspace several times), type in the new one (two to three keypresses) then either click out of the dialogue so it loses focus or close it. If you're in a situation where you need to switch degrees often, it might be a bother. Of course, it's all solved if you just have a low degree like 5°, but that's how the shift key already works. I think I'm for Option 5 now, because it'd be nice to have two sets of arbitrary rotation depending on which modifier key you press.

My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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