Context sensitive editing of objects in a hierarchy

Flesh out your ideas for new or improved Inkscape features before submitting a request.
Jelle
Posts: 78
Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2010 11:25 am

Context sensitive editing of objects in a hierarchy

Postby Jelle » Fri May 11, 2012 5:29 pm

I just found out since 0.48 I can edit clippaths,.. hooray! Until today I was still releasing the stuff and fiddling with the hierarchy.

However, it would be great as well if we'd be able to add objects to the clipped object and manipulate the object hierarchy of clipped objects.

The same goes for editing properties of objects that are linked. In order to be able to rename an object or a group that I've linked, I have to destroy the link and recreate it or dive into the XML.

Wouldn't it be an idea to have an option in the right mouse button menu to display ALL or certain objects by name at a given mouse location and be able to select this object from that context?

I.E.
Select Objects
- ALL
- Group ID
- Gr_Button (when selected)
- Gr_Button.Links
- Gr_Button.Animations (for future reference)
- Gr_Background
- Link ID
- Animation ID (for future reference)
- Clipath
- Mask

Maybe with a number of filter options to make the list smaller or context sensitive (selecting only the available properties of the object selected)

That would make selecting any given object a lot easier and intuitive.

~suv
Posts: 2272
Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 2:07 am

Re: Context sensitive editing of objects in a hierarchy

Postby ~suv » Fri May 11, 2012 5:50 pm

Jelle wrote:However, it would be great as well if we'd be able to add objects to the clipped object and manipulate the object hierarchy of clipped objects.
Group the object and clip the group (Inkscape 0.48 has an new setting in the preferences to handle such grouping automatically). Once you have a clipped group, you can enter it ('Ctrl+Enter'), paste new objects inside, edit existing ones, etc. without needing to release the clip (same is possible for masks).

~suv
Posts: 2272
Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 2:07 am

Re: Context sensitive editing of objects in a hierarchy

Postby ~suv » Fri May 11, 2012 5:58 pm

Jelle wrote:The same goes for editing properties of objects that are linked. In order to be able to rename an object or a group that I've linked, I have to destroy the link and recreate it or dive into the XML.

Wouldn't it be an idea to have an option in the right mouse button menu to display ALL or certain objects by name at a given mouse location and be able to select this object from that context?
When you say 'name', do you actually refer to the (autogenerated, unique) ID or to the optional custom inkscape attributes to add a label and title to each object?

If anyone considers adding all these entries to the context menu - please, please make this optional (or configurable) ;-)

Jelle
Posts: 78
Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2010 11:25 am

Re: Context sensitive editing of objects in a hierarchy

Postby Jelle » Fri May 11, 2012 7:02 pm

Ah,.. cool! Another feature that escape my attention. Thanks for pointing that out SUV ;-)

And it is about the ID of the objects within the hierarchy. Is there a keyboard shortcut to that as well?

On the display of the hierarchies and objects, that would be a submenu within the main menu (like select object from list), not 40+ topics listed in the main menu. Something like a tree would be nice.

Jelle
Posts: 78
Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2010 11:25 am

Re: Context sensitive editing of objects in a hierarchy

Postby Jelle » Fri Jun 08, 2012 6:37 pm

Seems like 0.49 addresses this issue ;-)
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php ... notes/0.49

Selector tool

It is now easier to select items which are not at the top of the Z-order: use Alt+mouse wheel scroll to cycle through all items that are stacked on top of each other at the location of the mouse pointer (use Shift+Alt+mouse wheel scroll to add to the existing selection). At present, groups are not honoured, i.e., only individual items within groups are considered.



Looks like a pretty elegant way to do this, but I foresee a problem for the odd MAC users here (don't you hate your shuffle puck mouse now). Maybe the mouse wheel could be replaced with arrow up and down (would also be beneficial to people with shaky hands). Or when come to think of it..

CTRL+ALT+O(bject) brings up wait state for selecting object with arrows in the Z order. CTRL+ALT+G(roup) brings up wait state for selecting groups in Z order, CTRL+ALT+A(ll) selects all objects at location and I guess there are some other nifty things to do at a certain location with objects at a location. In the wait state maybe make it possible to select an array of objects at the location using SHIFT +/- (selecting sequencial array) or CTRL +/- (selecting array of individual objects), possibly using an outline in contrasting color and corner nodes of the selected object depicted on the top.

The function to select objects at a position is already there, but I guess the rest of a functionality like this would take quite a bit of coding. Would be an extremely powerful and user friendly tool though. :shock:


Return to “Inkscape Ideas”