Re: [Openrocket-devel] Motor selection UI enhancements

[Sampo N. <sam...@ik...>]

Hi,

Thanks for the great ideas!

On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 18:34, Kerry Quinn <ker...@co...> wrote:
> 1.      Move the checkbox called “This component is a motor  mount” to the
> General Tab of  “Body Tube Configuration” and “Inner Tube Configuration”.
> Only after you check that box would the “Motor” tab appear.

I like this one especially, since it brings the motor info onto the
default tab.  Also when the option is checked, a text on the lines of
"Select the motors for this mount on the 'Motors' tab." should appear
beneath it.  Both body tubes and inner tubes also have the necessary
space on the general tab for the checkbox.


> 2.      For any items which have the “This component is a motor mount” box
> checked, it would be nice to see the component name in the Design Tree
> window (upper left corner of the Rocket Design tab, change the name from,
> for example “Body tube” to “Body tube (motor mount)”

Naming of the components is also one thing I'd like to work at.  I
decided during early development that I would allow two components to
have the same name, though this has the downside of not being able to
uniquely identify a component to the user.  Do you think it would be
beneficial to name them by default "Body tube", "Body tube #2" etc?
This would still pose the problem of what to do when copy-pasting
components...

Changing the icon is also a nice idea.  Would a flame coming from the
base of the component be sufficiently understandable?


> 3.      On the Edit Motor Configuration pop-up window, I don’t think there
> should be a “motor mounts” section where you can check or uncheck components
> to be motor mounts.  There should just be the configuration name table with
> a column for the configuration name and a column for each component which
> has been designated a “motor mount” by checking the “This component is a
> motor mount” check box on the General Tab (as listed in #1 above).

When I implemented the dialog my attempt was to make a dialog where
everything related to the motors could be configured in one place.
What do others think of having the motor mount list in that dialog?  I
agree that if the motor mount checkbox is moved to the General tab,
the necessity of this list is diminished.


> 4.      Following up on Dmitriy’s suggestion, I think that on the “Body Tube
> Configuration” menu, on the Motor tab, where it shows “Current Motor”, you
> should be able to click on that selection to change it from None to an
> actual motor, or to change from one motor to a different one.  (you could
> then eliminate the “select motor” button from this window) The change would
> apply to the currently selected Motor Configuration only.  I think that
> Current Motor should be listed BEFORE Motor Configuration on the Motor Tab.
> This way, for users only with a single motor, they would never need to visit
> the Motor Configuration Screen – they would just create the tube, check a
> box to designate it as a motor mount, go to the Motor tab and select the
> motor.

I'm not sure I quite follow your idea.  The user doesn't normally have
to go to the 'Edit motor configurations' dialog at all.  If the no
motor configuration is selected, selecting a motor will automatically
create a new configuration, and there's the "New" button present as
well.

If there's a label "Current motor" and a button "None", is it clear
that by clicking the button you can select the motor?  An alternative
might  be to have the designation as currently, and the "Select" and
"Remove" buttons after the label.

One alternative that came to mind from Dmitriy's mail was that instead
of having the dropdown for the configurations and controls for that
configuration, there could be a table that lists all motor
configurations and has columns for the motor, overhang, ignition and
delay etc.  This could make the consept of having multiple
configurations easier to grasp, but I fear that the table could be
messy and hard to use (as the normal component controls would be
replaced by a text table).


-- 
   Sampo Niskanen   <=>   http://www.iki.fi/sampo.niskanen/