Subject:
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Re: Another idea
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.dev
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Date:
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Fri, 3 Aug 2001 01:46:01 GMT
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Viewed:
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441 times
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In lugnet.cad.dev, Gary Williams writes:
> For the CAD system I'm developing, I'm planning to have multiple ways of
> issuing commands:
>
> Drop-down and pop-up menus
> Speedbuttons
> Keyboard shortcuts (configurable to user preferences)
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> and...
>
> Command line interface (like in AutoCAD)
Gary, this sounds great!
The best CAD keyboard interface I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot!)
was that of the VersaCAD package of the late 80's. Every single
possible command (I think) in the system was accessible by a
single keystroke. And no, they didn't have a limit on the number
of commands. Instead the keys were context-senstive based on where
you were in the menu heirarchy.
Picture your interface having a number of top-level menus, much
like any Windows application. Each menu has a single hot letter
that will take you into it when you press that letter. Similar
to Windows apps, only you need not press ALT as well. So you
get into the "File" by just pressing F. Once in that menu, all
of the options/sub-menus also have a hot letter, again just
like Windows apps. Since the letter to access any particular
item is often the first letter of the item, it's a very
intuitive interface and extremely rapid to learn. You can
quickly fly through the menus about as fast as you can think
of what you want to do. (D)raw, (A)dd, (L)ine, (2)point...
Properly excuted like VersaCAD's design, this allows the mouse
to remain in the drawing area, where it should be, and the
commands to be 100% controlled by ketrokes. This was perfect
for the early 2-monitor CAD systems I used where one screen
contained the text menus and the other was for the CAD graphics.
The graphic screen was free of menu clutter, and you rarely
had to look at the menu screen once you knew your way around.
Today that could be leveraged by having a hot-key that toggles
the display of *all* menus on and off, to maximize screen area
for the graphics. Only a small status/prompt bar would need
be displayed. If you could pull off a system like this, I
can't see any way it wouldn't be a great hit! Leave the
user-configurable keys for jumping through several
menu options in a row (like macros).
Personally, I've always hated the AutoCAD interface with the command
line. The abbreviations were often cryptic making learning
and retention much tougher, to say the least of many more keystrokes
required. VersaCAD had them beat up and down for user interface.
They just lacked the "power" functions I guess.
I sure hope you're getting paid to do this! ;] Good luck.
KDJ
________________________________________
LUGNETer, #203, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Another idea
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| (...) That's a neat idea. It's doable. (...) I really like that idea. It had never occured to me to make the main menu invisible, but it's trivial to accomplish. (...) What if all the commands can be renamed by the user? :) My goal is to make this (...) (23 years ago, 3-Aug-01, to lugnet.cad.dev)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Another idea
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| For the CAD system I'm developing, I'm planning to have multiple ways of issuing commands: Drop-down and pop-up menus Speedbuttons Keyboard shortcuts (configurable to user preferences) and... Command line interface (like in AutoCAD) In AutoCAD I (...) (23 years ago, 2-Aug-01, to lugnet.cad.dev)
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