[Bricksmith] More feature requests

[Orion Pobursky]

Ok, I read actaully read the Help file this time so if I ask for something that's in there then I guess my short term memory sucks

- I like show/hide but it only works if the actual parts are selected. Request that if a step is selected, all the parts in that step are hidden/shown
- Request an easy way to set the zoom level for all the viewports, all at the same time. Sometimes I zoom to various levels depending on the view (e.g. front, left, etc...) and then when I'm done I'd like to just reset them all back to the same view level. - Jim's suggestion is good enough for me
- A keyboard shortcut for changing grid granularity - These exist and I am apparently blind
- I like pinch to zoom but for some reason it sometimes switches the viewport to the 3D view while I am pinching.
- OMR stuff for the file header.

[Jim DeVona]

Orion Pobursky Wrote:
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> Request an easy way to set the zoom level for all the viewports, all at the same time. Sometimes I zoom to various levels depending on the view (e.g. front, left, etc...) and then when I'm done I'd like to just reset them all back to the same view level.

This isn't a solution to the request (which is a good one), but as a keyboard tip for anyone who doesn't know, you can press tab to change focus between viewports, and Command-0 for 100%, Command-- for half size, and Command-+ for double size. (Depending on your "Full Keyboard Access" setting in System Preferences->Keyboard, tab may cycle between other controls too.)

> - A keyboard shortcut for changing grid ganularity

If I understand the request correctly, this is already present as Command-1, Command-2, and Command-3. See Tools->Grid Spacing->Fine/Medium/Coarse.

[Allen Smith]

Orion Pobursky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> - I like show/hide but it only works if the actual
> parts are selected. Request that if a step is
> selected, all the parts in that step are
> hidden/shown

I keep forgetting to do anything about this.

> - I like pinch to zoom but for some reason it
> sometimes switches the viewport to the 3D view
> while I am pinching.

This happens because the trackpad supports simultaneous zoom and rotation, and your zoom gesture has a few stray rotate events in it. I automatically switch to perspective when rotation happens; if you produce perfectly pure zooms, you will stay in orthographic.

I think this is a fixable bug; I can lock into zooms when the view is orthographic.

> - OMR stuff for the file header.

My header handling is really out of date. I seem to recall that MLCad was pretty insistent with its (not useful) header info, so I just copied that.

Allen

[Orion Pobursky]

Here's another one:

I love the favorites list. But me being a greedy child, I want more
Lego is starting to publish a BOM at the end of the instruction manual. I'd love the ability to create a custom "set list" while keeping the favorites list intact (I use it for commonly used bricks). This way I can use the "set list" and I know only the parts that are in the set will show up on the list, giving me the ability to model sets even faster...

[Ramón Figueroa-Centeno]

Aloha,

I would also like this capacity to add custom lists of parts (Jim DeVona has a partial solution: Bricksmith Custom Categories, but it has several limitations, including that "[c]ustom categories are lost when you reload the part list from Bricksmith’s Parts preferences").

I also use Peeron to MLCad through wine; but that is also not a great solution. I create a file that has all the elements in a set and then from there copy and paste to the new model, but because the elements retain their coordinates when pasted they are far from where I need them.

I would be nice to have a hybrid of the "Parts Browser" and the "Piece Count" where one could load lists of parts one owns, with color and count, which would act as a virtual bucket form which one could pull elements already in the right color and that kept count so that when I run out of a given element it gets highlighted and the count uses non-positive numbers.

A paste inside the visible part of a window command would also be very nice.

Mahalo,

Ramón

[Ramón Figueroa-Centeno]

Aloha,

Another features I would love to see in Bricksmith are:

(1) Being able to paste text, and have it parse it.
(2) Act as an external viewer to text editors, i.e. to auto refresh when a file is updated on disk (the PDF viewer Skim asks when a file is updated if one would like to leave it as is, update it once or automatically update from that point onwards).
(3) Make the application scriptable.

Mahalo,

Ramón