User text and Named Positions

Hello,

I have objects in a Named Position. I select them in the document, then change a Value in one Key/Value pair. However, the change isn’t taking effect in all the selected breps, only on a select few.

See below.

Thanks,

Dan

Hi Dan - what I think is happening is that only some of the objects selected from the Named Positions panel have the User text value 'Garage 'but this shows in the list of user text - it does not mean that all of the selected objects have all of the entries shown.
-Pascal

Pascal,

Ok, but then shouldn’t the Value read as ‘Varies’ then?

Dan

Hi Dan - what it looks like to me is that all keys that are PACK have GARAGE as the value - is that correct? If so then Varies is not appropriate.

-Pascal

Pascal,

That is correct, PACK is not a Key that belongs to all the objects. That clarifies things. Could there be some other cue that a particular Key is not assigned to all selected objects? Perhaps the background of the Keys’ cell turns blue, or some other colour?

Also, if you have the objects selected then overwrite the Key/Value info shouldn’t it apply it to all the selected objects?

Thanks,

Dan

@Trav - what do you think - some cue to indicate that keys and or values are not shared by all items in the current selection…?

@lignindes - I do not think, off hand, that an edit should add new key/values to ones that do not have it… That should be a much more deliberate decision.

-Pascal

Pascal,

I sincerely don’t want to sound rude, but what could be more deliberate decision than having the object selected?

Dan

Hi Dan - no worries - what I am thinking is this:
You have multiple objects selected, some, but not all, of them have a key “My Key” and a value of “My Value” I think what you are suggesting is that if you change the value to “My New value”, that all objects in the selection should now have “My Key”/“My new value” - is that correct?

-Pascal

@lignindes I can see where for your described workflow that automatic inheritance on edit could be deemed useful. For others it has been deemed a problem. So today only Key editing in a multi selection will trigger all objects to assume that key by design. Editing a value will only update objects with that values Key.

There are several mechanics in the UI and commands that allow you to copy/paste individual or multiple key/values as well as Match key/values and functions to make this process quicker.

While there is no visual indicator of what key/values belong to what objects in a multi selection. There are right click context menus to Filter To and Select which allow for fast sorting to and from objects with or without. I’m sure we could color code things but I am not 100% certain that it’s obvious to the user what this color means.

Version 7 now contains an additional column that displays which Values are driven by a text field function. So I think adding visual cues is something we should continue to refine and do as long as we’re very clear about it and you don’t need to read a help file to figure it out.

0886

@Trav thanks for the reply.

The context menu added to the User Attribute window in RH6 is very helpful. I think this was your work, correct? If so, thank you!

What if the Keys belonging to only some object in a multi-selection set were colour coded Red? Would that be an intuitive signal that ‘everything isn’t right’?

As it stands now, on multi-selection and providing all fields are populated, why wouldn’t a user think that a the list of Keys/Values apply to all objects? I’m fully aware that this is a tricky thing to design/develop, particularly if you don’t want people to need a help file. Having said that, I think a short guide on User Attributes, Document User Text and Text Fields in Text objects would be well received. This would be especially timely given the improvements being make in V7.

Thanks,

Dan

@lignindes Hey I am glad it’s been useful for you! I did spend a lot of time on it for v6 and you’re right about your observations that it could be considered confusing with multiple object selections. So let’s entertain the idea of a set of icons or check marks of such that effectively convey “all objects” or “some objects” without requiring a lot of extra wording to explain or overhead to process. We have some users that have thousands of attribute text entries on multiple items. I am going to avoid the idea of color for 2 reasons. 1) color/contrast blindness is a real thing. 2) red makes me think Error. So if we can all agree on a set of symbols that convey our message I would love to add them and can make that happen quickly for Rhino 7.

I’d keep it dead simple, symbol wise…
image

-Pascal

This is why I wear my I <3 Pascal shirt on Wednesdays. I like it!

I will not ask what you’re wearing today, but if you are chilly, I have a NY Giants sweater you can use, I mean, have.

-Pascal

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No re-gifting!

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@pascal and @Trav

Icons look good to me! I feel like a missing a bit of an inside joke there, but on the football theme I’m a fan of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the CFL (a much lesser known football league north of the border) and this one was shared around recently, I found it captured the mood well.

Dan

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I’ve created this item to track this issue.

https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-59364

@lignindes this should show up on attribute text either this week or next in the v7 WIP

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@Trav,

So cool!

This will only be in V7 though, correct?

Dan

yes that’s correct. We can only bug fix in 6 at this point. All “new” stuff goes in 7.