keyboard shortcuts for Symbol and Fill tools

[dg0yt]

justask4 reported on Sourceforge [tickets:#294]:

Need to set keyboard shortcuts for tools that are used in multiple sequences, namely Tools > Switch symbol [S] and Tools > Fill/Create border [F]

Once you have multiple objects and you go through them manually to change their symbols, there is a lot of mouse clicking to do. One shortcut would eliminate this.

Actually, the File>Setting could allow setting shortcuts for any item on the Menu or Symbol set.

[dg0yt]

Somebody posted on Sourceforge:

Note that it is possible to select multiple objects and apply these tools to all of them in one step, provided that the symbol to switch to / to fill with is the same. For assigning keyboard shortcuts, there is #101

[dg0yt]

justask4 posted on Sourceforge:

Yes, but selecting more than 10 objects removes the highlighting of the object (or the individual points). So I had to do this in groups of 10.

I was doing this for the Lidar-imported contour lines for a very large map - so there are several thousands of useful objects that need to stay on the first draft of the map. Hence the need for that simple keyboard shortcut (if not for me now, having done it all with the mouse, then for any other new user in the future).

[dg0yt]

Somebody posted on Sourceforge:

Hm, but why does the point display matter for switching/filling symbols? The objects themselves are still highlighted if more of them are selected (although it's hardly visible for lines with undefined symbol ... workaround: assign some other unused symbol to all of them instead), while the points - which are just for editing individual objects - are not displayed anymore then.

By the way, for batch editing like this, in some cases it might be an interesting alternative to save the map as .xmap file, which gives a nice XML representation of the map. You could then do some automatic replacement there, and load the map into Mapper again afterwards.

[dg0yt]

justask4 posted on Sourceforge:

Imagine contour lines - some of them are quite local (around a hill), but others continue a long way around.

I cannot use the rectangle area selection - 1) that would include the speckled noise from Lidar, which is the first reason why I want to eliminate them by replacing only important lines with a new symbol. 2) also that includes the main contours (i.e. every 5th contour uses another symbol, and I don't want to loose that detail). If over 10 of these lines are selected, and you continue selecting more and more along the map - you will hit some of those which were already selected earlier. In that case - the selection is inverted and some of those objects are deselected. So certainly easier to do in controlled groups of 10.

And what if, after selecting about 70 or 300 objects, you will forget to press SHIFT button, so then the whole selection is again reduced to one single object?!

In addition, if you start group selection - this also highlights the filled area (i.e. forest or an open area). When you are over 10 objects - the area is no longer visible - and you end up replacing those with thick contour. :)

So much text, and the solution is simple - just one keyboard button is enough.

Of course, in the long run, additional functionality like "select only objects longer that X points" or "remove all object with N symbol from selection" or "despeckle" or "simplify paths (controlled level)" would benefit all.

[dg0yt]

• labels: keyboard, shortcuts, menu --> Usability, Keyboard, Shortcuts
• Milestone: 0.6.0 --> 1.0

[dg0yt]

puzzlepaint posted on Sourceforge:

• status: new --> closed
• assigned_to: Thomas Schöps
• Milestone: 1.0 --> 0.6.0

[dg0yt]

puzzlepaint posted on Sourceforge:

S and F were taken up by other tools already, so I had to assign different keys.

[mlerjen]

Must the shortcuts keys be fixed? One might think of a concept where the user can customize them the way it suits him/her best.

[dg0yt]

• Having them fixed enforces consistency with documentation.
• Many users would probably never change the defaults.
• Developers will have to write (a little bit) more code every time they deal with a keyboard action.

I would be more willing to deal with this if we could re-use some established open source code for it. But I'm unaware of a cross platform solution.

[florianlang]

I understand the reasoning for not making the hotkeys customizable, but the placement of some hotkeys is imho quite unfavourable, e.g. when I am editing lines/bezier curves I want to switch between "Edit objects" E to "Edit lines" L regularly. Unfortunately the L is far from my left hand, which needs to be on the left side of the keyboard to operate ctrl, shift, space. The same for the hotkey P for "Draw paths".

Could the keys be customizable by some hidden config file for power users on their own risk?

Tooltips with the hotkeys would be much appreciated for learning the hotkeys - even though it does not matter so much for myself anymore.