Smart Options Display: "tool modes" should remain available after I select a tool

[line-weight]

Without using the "smart options display", a typical sequence of actions would be to select a tool from a palette, then move up to the top toolbar and select the mode you want to use that tool in.

 

This doesn't work well with the "smart options display" because you activate it, select the tool you want, then have to activate it a second time to select the "tool mode" (assuming you have it set up so that "tool modes" appears in one of the quadrants).

 

It should be the case that if I choose "tool modes" for one of the quadrants, these tool modes remain available after I've selected a tool from some other quadrant. Then I can choose one straight away if I want to, or simply click elsewhere on the screen to carry on working without choosing one.

[Tom W.]

I totally agree with this. SOD is a great feature but could be even greater with a few simple enhancements. See:

 

 

[Tom W.]

One other thing that would enhance the tool (for me at least) would be the ability to uncheck specific tools that you don't want to see displayed in the tool sets. I have three tool sets that display in my SOD + in each there are tools I rarely use + many I will never use (ten different 'Welding Sym' tools anyone?) + I would love to be able to exclude them from the display to make things simpler visually + speed up selection. Much in the same way you can pick + choose which Quick Prefs you see on the Tool Bar. Not sure if anyone else feels the same but seems like a fairly simple + inoffensive feature to add. The more flexibility the better.

[Pat Stanford]

14 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

would be the ability to uncheck specific tools that you don't want to see displayed in the tool sets

You could edit your workspace to create an additional Tool Palette with Tool Sets that match what you want to see in the SOD and then just leave that Palette closed. You can have the same tool in multiple palettes.

[Tom W.]

3 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

You could edit your workspace to create an additional Tool Palette with Tool Sets that match what you want to see in the SOD and then just leave that Palette closed. You can have the same tool in multiple palettes.

 

That is an excellent point thank you! I will do this!

 

But I still think including finer control in the SOD prefs over what is displayed would be no bad thing, just to make the process quicker, easier + more flexible.

[Tom W.]

57 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

You could edit your workspace to create an additional Tool Palette with Tool Sets that match what you want to see in the SOD and then just leave that Palette closed. You can have the same tool in multiple palettes.

 

Part of the problem is that SOD displays all the 'nested' tools for each tool (if that's the way to describe it), hence the fact we get ten different 'Welding Sym' tools, twelve different 'Constrain' tools, etc. In the case of these two tools I'm happy excluding them completely but other tools, such as the Pan Tool for example, I'd want to display the Pan Tool itself but not its partner Move Page. I think this will still be the case in my bespoke SOD-specific Tool Palettes... Arc Tool, 2D Polygon Tool + Clip Tool are other examples where I wouldn't want the partner tool to be present in SOD.

 

Apologies @line-weight I've diverged from your original very specific point.

[line-weight]

1 hour ago, Tom W. said:

 

Part of the problem is that SOD displays all the 'nested' tools for each tool (if that's the way to describe it), hence the fact we get ten different 'Welding Sym' tools, twelve different 'Constrain' tools, etc. In the case of these two tools I'm happy excluding them completely but other tools, such as the Pan Tool for example, I'd want to display the Pan Tool itself but not its partner Move Page. I think this will still be the case in my bespoke SOD-specific Tool Palettes... Arc Tool, 2D Polygon Tool + Clip Tool are other examples where I wouldn't want the partner tool to be present in SOD.

 

Apologies @line-weight I've diverged from your original very specific point.

 

You can un-nest and/or remove those nested tools in the Workspace editor. So if you make a palette specifically for the SOD you could remove these nested tools, I think.

[Tom W.]

Just now, line-weight said:

 

You can un-nest and/or remove those nested tools in the Workspace editor. So if you make a palette specifically for the SOD you could remove these nested tools, I think.

 

I've just checked + you're absolutely right thank you! Shows how little I've investigated custom tool palettes. This is really helpful. I will keep out of this thread now 🙂. Thanks for your help both of you

[line-weight]

Also worth bearing in mind that a palette (including any custom palettes) can contain multiple tool sets.

 

(and it's actually tool sets rather than palettes that you assign to the SOD quadrants)

[Tom W.]

5 hours ago, Tom W. said:

But I still think including finer control in the SOD prefs over what is displayed would be no bad thing, just to make the process quicker, easier + more flexible.

 

I take this back. @Pat Stanford + @line-weight were absolutely right: I can do everything I want already + there is tons of flexibility for setting up the Tools in SOD precisely the way you want them. It's better the way it is. Glad to have learnt something new! Thanks.

[Andy Broomell]

6 hours ago, line-weight said:

Also worth bearing in mind that a palette (including any custom palettes) can contain multiple tool sets.

 

(and it's actually tool sets rather than palettes that you assign to the SOD quadrants)

 

And to make it slightly confusing, the default Tool Palette is named "Tool Sets." 😆

 

Thankfully SOD doesn't really care which Tool Palette a Tool Set is in since the preferences dropdowns simply list ALL Tool Sets. The only distinction is that if you're making a custom Tool Set for use with SOD, if you place it in the default "Tool Sets" Tool Palette it will ALSO show up in the workspace as a Tool Set on the left side of the screen along with the others. But if you don't want this, you could instead make a new, separate Tool Palette in the Workspace Editor and place your custom palette in it, then it wouldn't have to show up anywhere in your workspace except for in SOD.

 

 

 

(The names are irrelevant BTW)

 

Also... If anyone is now putting in the effort to make a custom toolset and wants to use the same star icon that I did, I'll attach it here: StarIcon.zip

[Tom W.]

2 minutes ago, Andy Broomell said:

you could instead make a new, separate Tool Palette in the Workspace Editor and place your custom palette in it, then it wouldn't have to show up anywhere in your workspace except for in SOD.

 

This is exactly what I did + very happy with the results. This was a good learning experience I'm glad to have done it. I will take you up on the offer of the star icon thank you!