Aven Bug (well, interface issues at least)

[Mark Shinwell]

On Mon, Jan 06, 2003 at 03:42:39PM +0000, Olly Betts wrote:
> That's probably because ghostview and acroread don't have a "centre on
> survey station" feature (or anything remotely like it).

No, but they do have a canvas which is being panned around; I don't see
why the 3D bit is relevant here as the orientation is fixed during such
an operation.  Besides, I was more thinking of programs like Illustrator
which, as far as I can recall, have similar functionality.

It seems most bizarre to press a button, move one pixel and have the
cave move by that small amount, whereas if you don't move at all then it
suddenly jumps.  That hardly sounds intuitive to me.

Given that the left button is likely to be used for the discrete action
of selecting stations, etc, then surely it makes more sense to use the
same button with a modifier key if you want to centre?

> A 3D CAD package might provide a better insight into how others have
> solved a similar UI problem.

The only thing like that I've tried (QCad) had a mode of panning where
you clicked the pan tool, and then you clicked the point to centre -- it
didn't permit interactive dragging (but that was consistent with all its
other functionality, where you selected the thing to do (copy, move etc)
and then the object).  I'm not sure what things like AutoCAD do...

Mark
-- 
Mark Shinwell -- http://mrs30.quns.cam.ac.uk/ -- Mark.Shinwell@cl.cam.ac.uk
Theory and Semantics Group, University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory