Dialogs getting ridiculously big, LOTS of wasted space, even on large screens.

[VanessaE]

Describe the bug / To Reproduce

Nothing specific needed. Examples here, with each dialog shrunk as small as I can get them without cutting-off any content, and this is on a 1600x1200 display:

Here you can see large amounts of whitespace that can be condensed-out, either by shrinking widgets, or by re-positioning them.

I realize that presenting the settings as tabs instead of popup windows alleviates some of this, but that surely won't work for some users' workflows, and it does not address the underlying issue. Plus there is a secondary issue here: if you dock the settings dialogs into tabs, the settings dropdowns and their edit icons are still visible on the right, making them redundant (since they are also present in their respective tabs).

For the plater issue, create any random profile with any random settings, and a long filename as suggested in the screenshots. Load and slice any model. This image is within a few pixels of 1280x1024, what I would assume would be a pretty common display size:

3D Model and Slic3r Configuration Export

None needed.

Expected behavior

Here are some suggestions for formatting changes that will allow for more reasonable window sizes without impacting usability:

Print:

• Layers and Perimeters:
  • Perimeters field is way wider than it needs to be.
  • The "Solid layers" fields are wider than they need to be. Also, they should be stacked one above the other, not side by side.
  • The two "minimum shell thickness" fields are also wider that needed.
• Infill
  • The two external infill pattern dropdowns should be stacked one above the other.
  • "Solid infill every n layers" is wider than it needs to be
• Multiple Extruders
  • All fields are wider than they need to be.
• Output Options
  • The two fields for extruder clearance should be stacked one above the other.. Were these width/height, I would have suggested combining them into a single field, but I'm not sure if that makes sense for Radius x Height, (unless you add a "cylinder" reference to the labeling?).
  • The output filename format and Post-processing scripts fields do not reduce in width below a certain point as the window size changes, perhaps this should be considered.
• Shortcuts
  • The main list box does not shrink down below a certain point as the window size changes -- it should go as small as the user desires.

Filament:

• Filament
  • the temperature fields are far too wide, and have unnecessary up/down buttons (some of which are cut-off)
  • There's a little too much space between them and their labels on the left
  • Perhaps put "first layer" and "other layers" labels above the temperature fields instead of inline, turning the four temperature fields into a table.
• Cooling
  • Fan speed and disable-for-n-layers fields are all too wide and have unnecessary +/- buttons
  • "approximate seconds" should either be condensed into just "s" after each field, or get rid of them entirely and put something like "time is in approximate seconds" below the two

Printer:

• General
  • the "USB/Serial connection" items should be arranged in a vertical stack, not spread out horizontally
  • "Vibration limit" has been marked as deprecated for years. Just get rid of it.
  • "Has heated bed" checkbox is redundant -- instead, in the Filament profile, interpret a bed temperature setting of 0 as "no heated bed" -- to the printer, the result will be the same.
• Extruder 1
  • The "Only Lift Z" items should be stacked one above the other
  • The "Retraction when tool is disabled...." label is way too long -- wrap it into two or three lines. This option should be hidden entirely if there's only one extruder defined.

On all three dialogs: the dropdown to select a profile, and the save and delete buttons, should all be re-parented a level or two up, so that they can span the width of the window. Each window should then have a movable vertical divider (depicted as a red ">|<" in the images above), so that the user can change the widths of the left and right sections.

In general, Settings and Object dropdown boxes and other large widgets should adjust to fit the window, if they can't be moved/rearranged.

In the plater, the three profile dropdowns probably ought to be moved above the plater section, perhaps arranged side by side, since invariably the user will want the plater area to be as wide as possible, especially when examining a large model's slicing result. And they should not be shown at all if Slic3r is configured to show profiles as tabs.

The sidebar below the existing dropdowns could then be turned into some kind of info-and-shortcuts pop-up that would show up after slicing, with a button to manually call it forth placed at the top of the window, among the "add, delete, ..., setttings" buttons, allowing the plater to take up the entire width of the window. Estimated print time should be included in that pop-up, when available, or put it in the status bar at the bottom of the window.

Here's a mock-up of how I think the plater should be. The button that would call forth the "Info/Shortcuts" dialog is missing from this image, and should be among the others at the top of the window, but one assumes it would only be shown if the plater's "3D" tab has focus, since that's the only tab where you can even select an object -- perhaps the button to call it forth ought to be an item in the object's right-click menu.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

Debian 10, XFCE 4.12, Slic3r commit 66af505d5d9bcde5e62f829ef74d7b46a111f801

[VanessaE]

EDIT: Description rewritten with specific suggestions, Screenshots revised, mock-up of plater screen added (no, I wouldn't actually use that much infill on a Benchy, let alone turn on supports :stuck_out_tongue: )