Re: gEDA-user: New icon set and UI changes

[Andrew Poelstra <asp11@xxxxxx>]

"Stefan Salewski" <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Mon, 2010-08-02 at 12:39 -0700, Andrew Poelstra wrote:
> > Hey all,
> > 
> > I have drawn a new icon set for PCB. Screenshot here:
> > http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9031/pcbicons.png
> > 
> > I am happy to provide a patch to use these icons by default -
> however,
> > I have a few concerns:
> >   1. They will likely take up too much space on low resolutions.
> Does
> > anyone do CAD on low-res monitors?
> >   2. Even with decent resolution, they take up a lot of horizontal
> > space with the default view.
> > 
> > Thoughts? Comments?
> 
> For large boards (http://www.ssalewski.de/b1.png) I like to have much
> room for the PCB available -- so your icons may indeed  consume too
> much space. Is there an option to turn of text? For pcb 2009 snapshot
> icons are at the left side, I think this may be better, because many
> monitors now are 16/9 form factor, width screen. It would be fine to
> leave no room unoccupied, i.e below layers icons, maybe you should try
> to propose a complete now screen layout?
> 

No, the text is part of the images, like the current icons. What I will
probably do is remove the text entirely, shrink the icons to 32x32 (since
with the text, they are mostly blank space anyway), and rely on tooltips
to display what each tool is.

Like so:
http://img199.imageshack.us/f/pcbicons1.png/

If we had those icons up top, and a combination layer/route style switcher
below, we could improve the look of the sidebar without taking up any more
space than we do now.

> > 
> > A couple other ideas I have:
> >   * replacing the layer switcher with one similar to GIMP's (select
> > box with icons for visibility/locked)
> 
> Again, we should not waste space. The current layout may not look
> "great" but it is compact, we have color indicator, text and toggle
> button on the same area. I know layouts which waste much room.
> 

I think we can fit a GIMP-style switcher into the same amount of space
as the current switcher. I'll play around and see what I can get. I
agree that space should be the primary concern when doing any UI
changes.

> >   * doing something similar with the route-style switcher, showing
> > the line and via sizes in the select list
> > 
> 
> Please note, our long term goal is to have not 4 route styles, but
> styles associated with layers, so we select layer17 and have 4 mil
> traces, with 6 mil clearance, and 75 Ohm impedance for layer2... 
> 

I haven't heard this before. How would it work when exporting layers
as Gerber files?


Andrew


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