Improvement suggestions for Pad/Pocket Task Dialog

Mods Part Design
1

Hi, I have an idea for improving the task dialog for pads / pockets:

  • Currently the order of the dialog doesn’t make sense in my opinion, for instance the second length is at the bottom of the dialog and not close to the first length. Regarding this, I made a mockup, see the comparison screenshot.
  • The widget to select a face is disabled / enabled, I would change this to hiding it.
  • The options for reversed / symmetric are checkboxes which are programmed to be exclusive. I would change this to radio buttons with the additional option “normal” or “default” or something similar.

What do you think about the three proposals? If you agree on some of them, I would be happy to implement these low hanging fruits (I hope they are) :slight_smile:

Best regards

2

Just a pure guess, but I suspect the current arrangement places the least used items at the bottom. I almost never use a 2nd length, and it is rare to see one in postings in the Help forum. I use the taper even less.

This is another one of those things that becomes second nature with experience. I hardly need to look because I know where everything is. A new arrangement probably changes nothing except that experienced users need to re-learn their automatic behavior.

Some task panels are long and complicated. This one is not.

Your proposal might be “better” in some manner, but not really worth the change.

Gene

3

I like the position of 2nd length.
I don’t see the radio buttons you are talking about, but I guess I wouldn’t have liked hem anyway.
I’m missing the “Symmetric” checkbox.

If someone has a good idea how to hide/show the rather rarely used taper stuff, I would like to see a proposal.

4

I agree that second length should be placed as you suggest.

It should be visible only when type is 2 dimensions so it shouldn’t be a “re-learn” problem for veterans.

The tapper option is very nice for me as I made a lot of injection molding parts where you need to tap everything. So hidding it may not be ideal.

5

Good point!

6



+1

7

Just a pure guess, but I suspect the current arrangement places the least used items at the bottom.

I agree, this is at least how it should be :wink:

This is not displayed since I selected “Two Lengths”.

What do you think about hiding the “Select Face” widget if not necessary?

8

Sorry, I had missed that.

What do you think about hiding the “Select Face” widget if not necessary?

If the Symmetric checkbox is hidden when not applicable, then this should be hidden as well.

9

Based on your feedback, I made my first PR :slight_smile:
https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/pull/10392

I hope, I haven’t made too many things wrong :smiley:

10

Thanks and congratulations.

11

And it merged ! Congrats.

12

This has probably been answered somewhere else but I can’t find it
Its was asked

geolta wrote: ↑Tue Aug 22, 2023 7:31 pm

chrisb wrote: ↑Sun Aug 13, 2023 10:17 pm
I’m missing the “Symmetric” checkbox.

This is not displayed since I selected “Two Lengths”. .

Is there a reason why symmetric isn’t just included as a ‘type’ in the pull down menu?


While on the subject of the options available for pad(pocket)

Is there a reason why ‘Up to face’ cannot be bidirectional, either two seperate faces, ?

Also why there isn’t an option to extrude to a vertex
(where the vertex is not attached to a parallel first or last face)?

BW

13

It’s sensible to have this separated, because in can be combined with different types.

14

chrisb

It’s sensible to have this separated, because in can be combined with different types.

I am not sure I understand, there seem to be 5 types

Dimension
To last*
To first*
Up to Face
Two Dimensions

but Dimension is the only one that shows the ‘Symmetric to plane’ option or am I missing something (apologies)


[ * Very pedantic!, but would it be nicer to have ‘To first’ before ‘To last’ in the menu ]
BW

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15

You are indeed missing “Through all” for the pocket. Pad of course doesn’t have this, but I’d like as far as possible to see the same types in both features.

[ * Very pedantic!, but would it be nicer to have ‘To first’ before ‘To last’ in the menu ]

On first sight I thought a clear yes, but it may depend on the frequency of use cases.