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CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 5:22 pm
by andrew
The Traditional CAD Toolbar

On new installations, QCAD features a compact CAD Toolbar at the left to access the various CAD related tools for drawing, modifying or selecting entities or to select the current snap mode.
The CAD Toolbar offers a very compact and comprehensible way to access the various tools available. Tools are structured into categories and snap tools are only shown when relevant.
Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 16.06.44.png
Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 16.06.44.png (232.83 KiB) Viewed 62865 times
The Tool Matrix

Starting with QCAD 3.12.6, an alternative widget can be used instead of the CAD Toolbar to access tools: the Tool Matrix. The Tool Matrix lists all tools available in one single widget without the need to click through a hierarchy. The tools are shown in a (scrollable) list with collapsible categories. A filter can be applied to the Tool Matrix to list all tools related to a certain keyword (e.g. 'tangent') or to search for a specific tool. The Tool Matrix can list tools as icons or as texts.

Displaying the Tool Matrix
To show the Tool Matrix instead of the CAD Toolbar, right-click into one of the tool bars at the top and choose Toolbars > CAD Tools. This hides the CAD Toolbar. Then right-click into one of the tool bars at the top again and choose Widgets > Tool Matrix to show the Tool Matrix.
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Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 16.31.39.png (289.08 KiB) Viewed 62865 times
List / Icon Mode
To switch the display mode to list the tools as text, right-click into the tool matrix and choose 'List View':
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Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 17.09.46.png (25.84 KiB) Viewed 62865 times
Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 16.31.57.png
Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 16.31.57.png (300.68 KiB) Viewed 62865 times
Searching for a Tool
To search for a specific tool or list only those tools you are momentarily interested in, type a search text into the Filter text edit at the top of the Tool Matrix. This way, you can for example list all tools related to tangents:
Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 17.16.24.png
Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 17.16.24.png (223.96 KiB) Viewed 62865 times
Other Configurations
Here's another configuration with snap tools at the bottom instead of the Tool Matrix (panels can be added or removed from the Tool Matrix in Edit > Application Preferences > General > Tool Settings):
Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 19.57.54.png
Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 19.57.54.png (333.31 KiB) Viewed 62844 times
And a configuration which uses the Tool Matrix for all tools, including the tools from the File, Edit and View menus:
Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 20.03.06.png
Screen Shot 2016-01-28 at 20.03.06.png (342.26 KiB) Viewed 62844 times

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 6:42 pm
by Tiggr
Hi!

Great Feature! I'm allready loving it from the screenshots!

Thanks!

Bye
Marcus

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 7:54 pm
by andrew
Tiggr wrote:Great Feature! I'm allready loving it from the screenshots!
Thanks! QCAD 3.12.6 is now online.

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 1:35 am
by 0xdeadbeef
That's a pretty cool new option. Actually I think I like it much better than the tool bar.

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:21 am
by tukuyomi
Great feature indeed ! Already customized to my tastes :D
Also Tool History from right-click is awesome :D
Thank you for this software !

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:28 am
by andrew
tukuyomi wrote:Already customized to my tastes :D
OK, great. Feel free to post your own screenshots to inspire other users :)

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 11:58 am
by tukuyomi
Sure thing ! Here is it :) (click for full size)
Image
Most useful tools (for me, that is) on the Tool Matrix, tabbed with Layer and Block lists ;
Snap bar to the left ;
Command line tabbed with Script Shell and Selection filter ;
File tools with Tool Option (with enough space to the right) on top.
Also MyScripts menu that contains home-made scripts from which you can see "The Skelton ®" in the middle of the screen (that I use to start a new script ;) ), thanks, btw, to a post you made a while ago that showed me how to create dialogs ^^
Enjoy :)

PS : Also if anyone new to Qcad scripting is interested in "The Skelton ®" and wants to start learning how to script, feel free to ask, I'll gladly make a post to upload and explain the script.

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 1:45 pm
by andrew
tukuyomi: Cool - very compact but complete, I like it!

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 4:18 pm
by Clive
Very Nice work Andrew, the matrix tool is much better for me too :wink:

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2016 6:39 pm
by Clive
tukuyomi wrote:PS : Also if anyone new to Qcad scripting is interested in "The Skelton ®" and wants to start learning how to script, feel free to ask, I'll gladly make a post to upload and explain the script.
Yes please, it would be interesting to see how you went about this :)

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:08 am
by tkmbi
Dear Andrew,

great Job, perfect working. :D

Would it be possible to arrange with customized keywords, like "simple", advanced" and "expert"
to show only a minimum for user there are begin with CAD, advanced for CAD-User, and expert for construction.

greatings tkmbi

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:00 am
by tkmbi
Dear Andrew,

any news here ?

Re: CAD Toolbar vs. Tool Matrix

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:36 am
by andrew
It sounds like a good idea. Feel free to post a feature request at:
http://www.qcad.org/bugtracker/index.ph ... 1&do=index
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