[Gvsig_english] OpenCADTools - Request For Testing

Tue Jan 8 17:23:40 CET 2013

Hi Fran,

I have given OpenCAD some testing and
have attached a text file with my
findings. I have not found any critical
problems except for an issue with representing
arcs in shapefiles (see "j" in CAD-test.txt).

I have found a number of smaller things that
could be tweaked for a better user experience.

Thanks for your work on OpenCAD; it really
provides some very powerful editing tools.

Cheers,

Ben

On 01/03/2013 04:32 PM, Francisco Puga wrote:
> Sure. We can wait.
>
> Maybe one more week. January 10th.
>
>
>
> 2012/12/28 benducke at googlemail.com <benducke at fastmail.fm>:
>> Fran, thanks for you continued commitment to OpenCAD. This extension is
>> greatly appreciated by myself and, I am sure, many others. Therefore: could
>> you give us some more time for testing? Since we are in the middle of the
>> holiday season, a lot of people might not be in front of their computers.
>> Best wishes for the New Year, Ben
>>
>> Francisco Puga <fpuga at cartolab.es> wrote:
>>>
>>> (English below)
>>>
>>> Hola a todos,
>>>
>>> Desde Cartolab nos gustaría hacer una nueva release del proyecto
>>> opencadtools [1]  en un par de días.
>>>
>>> Antes de lanzar el plugin nos gustaría compartir una pre-release con
>>> las listas de usuarios para que lo probeis y nos digáis si encontraís
>>> algún error crítico que deberíamos corregir antes de la publicación
>>> final.
>>>
>>> Para probarlo simplemente haced una copia del plugin actual de vuestra
>>> instalación de gvSIG com.iver.cit.gvsig.cad y por el que se encuentra
>>> en este enlace [2]
>>>
>>> Recordad no usarlo con datos en producción y sólo, por ahora con fines
>>> de testeo.
>>>
>>> Muchas gracias.
>>>
>>> (English Version)
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>>  From Cartolab we want to make a new release of the opencadtools [1]
>>> project in a couple of days.
>>>
>>> Before launch the
>>> final version we want to share a pre-release with
>>> the users mailing lists to allow you test it, and tell us if there are
>>> any critical error that we should fix before the final release.
>>>
>>> To test it, just make a copy of your actual plugin
>>> (com.iver.cit.gvsig.cad), delete it, and put in its place this one [2]
>>>
>>> Remember that this is not a final release so you should not use it on
>>> production data.
>>>
>>> Cheers.
>>>
>>> [1] https://github.com/opencadtools/opencadtools
>>> [2] https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2131623/com.iver.cit.gvsig.cad.zip
>>>
>>> --
>>> Francisco Puga
>>> Grupo de Desarrollo
>>> Cartolab - Laboratorio de Ingeniería Cartográfica.
>>> http://www.cartolab.es
>>>
>>> ETS Ingeniería de Caminos, Canales y Puertos
>>> Universidade da Coruña
>>> Campus
>>> de Elviña - 15071 A Coruña (España)
>>> (34)981167000 ext. 5493
>>> ________________________________
>>>
>>> Gvsig_internacional mailing list
>>> Gvsig_internacional at listserv.gva.es
>>>
>>> To see the archives, edit your preferences or unsubscribe from this
>>> mailing list, please access this url:
>>>
>>> http://listserv.gva.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gvsig_internacional
>>
>>
>> --
>> Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>>
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>>
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>>
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>>
>
>
>

-- 
Benjamin Ducke
{*} Geospatial Consultant
{*} GIS Developer

   benducke at fastmail.fm
-------------- next part --------------
2012-08-01
----------

Benjamin Ducke (benducke at fastmail.fm)

-- OpenCAD extension testing: Suggestions for improvements --

(a) Disable "Symmetry", "Scale" and "Follow geometry" tools for point layers.

(b) Activate "Point" (or "Line" or "Polyline") tool instead of "Select" tool when opening the CAD editor on a newly created points layer.

(c) All digitizing tools that allow undoing of the last vertex:
	- Rename action "removePoint" in context menu to "Undo last vertex".
	- Add a keyboard shortct "Undo [U]" to the console-

(d) All digitizing tools that have "Cancel" in the context menu:
	- Move "Cancel" to end of menu and (if possible) insert a separator line before it.
	- Add a "Yes|No" question dialog before cancelling.

(e) Make sure that console keyboard shortcuts are consistent:
	- "Polyline" has "C" assigned for "Close polyline", but other tools assign "C" to "Cancel" (!)

(f) Basic digitizing tool for polygons ("Polyline"):
	- "Finish" and "Close polyline" are identical actions in this case, one of them can be dropped.
          However, a better solution would be to disable "Close polyline" for polygons. The "Multi-area"
	  tool does the same job and works better.
	- "Finish" should only be available after at least 3 vertices have been set (this works
	  fine for the new "Multi-area" tool). Otherwise, the result will be a line geometry instead
	  of a polygon geometry.

(g) Similar to (f): The "Polyline" tool would be unnecessary, since "Multipolyline" does the same job.
	However, "Multipolyline" cannot create rounded line segments (arcs). This feature should be
	added and "Polyline" then removed.

(h) For "Multiarea" and "Multipolyline" tools:
	- Change context menu item label "Next" to "New part"

(i) When the user chooses "stop" editing, a dialog asks for saving changes.
	This dialog accepts only "Yes" or "No" as an answer. There should also be
	a "Cancel" button, so that the user can resume editing without saving the
	changes and closing the layer.

(j) There is a difference between the way that arcs (rounded line segments) are
represented internally in the CAD editor and when saved to a shapefile.
E.g. for a circle the CAD editor uses only a center point and four points on
its circumference to define the geometry. When saved to a shapefile, the circle
must be approximated using line segments. However, the user will only see the
loss of geometriy precision involved in this _after_ the layer was saved and
closed. IMHO it would be better to drop the support for exactly rounded geometries
from the CAD editor and to immediately render arcs as line segments. This will
make it much easier for the user to find and appropriate setting for the "Flatness".
At the end of the day, every circle must be approximated with line segments for
use in computer graphics. So why not give the user full control over this, instead
of hiding the process?

(k) Related to (j): when trying to _delete_ a node from a circle/arc that was not 
yet saved to disk, gvSIG will throw an error:

java.lang.NullPointerException
	at com.iver.cit.gvsig.fmap.core.FGeometry.getBounds2D(FGeometry.java:182)
	at com.iver.cit.gvsig.fmap.edition.VectorialEditableAdapter.doModifyRow(VectorialEditableAdapter.java:653)
	at com.iver.cit.gvsig.fmap.edition.EditableAdapter.modifyRow(EditableAdapter.java:571)
	at com.iver.cit.gvsig.gui.cad.tools.DeleteVertexCADTool.selectHandler(DeleteVertexCADTool.java:867)
	at com.iver.cit.gvsig.gui.cad.tools.DeleteVertexCADTool.addPoint(DeleteVertexCADTool.java:181)
	at com.iver.cit.gvsig.gui.cad.tools.smc.DeleteVertexCADToolContext$DeleteVertex_Defaul
	[..]

Afterwards, the editor will be unstable: the display flickers and it is not possible
to save changes any longer. Note that adding a vertex works OK, because that tool
first breaks up the circle into line segments. IMHO, the best solution would be to
break the circle/arc into straight line segments right after digitization, to avoid
problems like this one (see above).

(l) The icons for "Snappers" and "Follow geometry" do not toggle their visual states correctly.