Measure tool persistence.

[G. Garibaldi]

The measure tool onscreen markers are not persistent and are therefore
not useful. Why have tools that have no useful function? I've complained
about this before, filed a ticket and was argued down by a developer.

It is frustrating to try to contribute to a project when nobody wants to
cooperate.

[Nathan Woodrow]

Hey,

Where is the ticket you opened?

Regards,
Nathan

The measure tool onscreen markers are not persistent and are therefore not
useful. Why have tools that have no useful function? I've complained about
this before, filed a ticket and was argued down by a developer.
It is frustrating to try to contribute to a project when nobody wants to
cooperate.
_______________________________________________
Qgis-developer mailing list
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer

[Tim Sutton]

Hi

The measure tool onscreen markers are not persistent and are therefore not
useful. Why have tools that have no useful function? I've complained about
this before, filed a ticket and was argued down by a developer.
It is frustrating to try to contribute to a project when nobody wants to
cooperate.

I don't think it is fair to characterise QGIS as a project where nobody
wants to cooperate. People are busy, may have differing opinions to you,
may not have noticed your ticket etc. We are a community of people trying
our best to cooperate and sometimes we fail, but it certainly isn't through
a lack of desire to cooperate. My advice is keep trying (in a friendly way)
to get your request noticed, and if others don't always agree with your
ideas, don't take it personally.

Regards

Tim

_______________________________________________
Qgis-developer mailing list
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Sutton
Visit http://kartoza.com to find out about open source:
* Desktop GIS programming services
* Geospatial web development
* GIS Training
* Consulting Services
Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
Tim is a member of the QGIS Project Steering Committee
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kartoza is a merger between Linfiniti and Afrispatial

[G. Garibaldi]

Bug report #9703

The line thickness is good. The endpoints could be improved. Crossmarks
would be better than dots. If dot endpoints are easiest to program, then
put a smaller white dot in the middle of the larger red dot. This will
help measurement accuracy. The most desirable quality of the tool would
be for the markers remain on screen until cleared by the user. This
includes remaining on screen while other commands are selected and new
data entered. This onscreen persistence should also be applied to the
angle measure tool.

With robust CAD tools this would not be an issue because the operator
can quickly draw temporary measure lines on screen and erase them at his
leisure. With QGIS the CAD tool functionality is clumsy and inefficient.
Data point creation with other systems is fast and well developed. Most
CAD systems allow inputting a data point, then drawing the next point
using a relative angle and distance at the keyboard or visually with
onscreen angle and distance display controlled by snap settings. Perhaps
what I'm really asking for is better CAD tool functionality.

I have many *thousands* of points to calculate and enter by hand. Months
worth of work. If I were a programmer perhaps this would not be
necessary. Unfortunately I don't think I have the time to spend a month
or two getting up to speed programming in the QGIS environment, not that
I would not like to. I just spent 7 months learning a foreign language
to translate documents for my project. When the functionality of the
measure tool changed after QGIS 2.1(1.8, 2.1 something like that), and
the measure tool lost its persistence I despaired.

I am pressing for this functionality because I need to finish my project
and put food on the table.

Anyway, this is my project, analyzing ships navigation data:

In this project QGIS is merely a tool to develop a better understanding
of historical events. What will really be significant is when QGIS goes
3D and I am able to visualize aircraft and ships data simultaneously in
an animation using the animation plug-in.

Post by G. Garibaldi
Hi
The measure tool onscreen markers are not persistent and are
therefore not useful. Why have tools that have no useful function?
I've complained about this before, filed a ticket and was argued
down by a developer.
It is frustrating to try to contribute to a project when nobody
wants to cooperate.
I don't think it is fair to characterise QGIS as a project where
nobody wants to cooperate. People are busy, may have differing
opinions to you, may not have noticed your ticket etc. We are a
community of people trying our best to cooperate and sometimes we
fail, but it certainly isn't through a lack of desire to cooperate. My
advice is keep trying (in a friendly way) to get your request noticed,
and if others don't always agree with your ideas, don't take it
personally.
Regards
Tim
_______________________________________________
Qgis-developer mailing list
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Sutton
Visit http://kartoza.com <http://kartoza.com/> to find out about open
* Desktop GIS programming services
* Geospatial web development
* GIS Training
* Consulting Services
Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
<http://freenode.net/>
Tim is a member of the QGIS Project Steering Committee
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kartoza is a merger between Linfiniti and Afrispatial

[Matthias Kuhn]

Hi,

It is very likely that better CAD functionality will hit QGIS soon. An
approach based on the CadInput plugin [1] is being discussed [2] and
parted to core [3]. Maybe this does already provide a lot of what you need?

Best regards,
Matthias

[1] http://vimeo.com/85052231
[2]
https://github.com/3nids/QGIS-Enhancement-Proposals/blob/cadtools/QEP-CAD-tools.rst
[3] https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/pull/1624

Post by G. Garibaldi
Bug report #9703
The line thickness is good. The endpoints could be improved.
Crossmarks would be better than dots. If dot endpoints are easiest to
program, then put a smaller white dot in the middle of the larger red
dot. This will help measurement accuracy. The most desirable quality
of the tool would be for the markers remain on screen until cleared by
the user. This includes remaining on screen while other commands are
selected and new data entered. This onscreen persistence should also
be applied to the angle measure tool.
With robust CAD tools this would not be an issue because the operator
can quickly draw temporary measure lines on screen and erase them at
his leisure. With QGIS the CAD tool functionality is clumsy and
inefficient. Data point creation with other systems is fast and well
developed. Most CAD systems allow inputting a data point, then drawing
the next point using a relative angle and distance at the keyboard or
visually with onscreen angle and distance display controlled by snap
settings. Perhaps what I'm really asking for is better CAD tool
functionality.
I have many *thousands* of points to calculate and enter by hand.
Months worth of work. If I were a programmer perhaps this would not be
necessary. Unfortunately I don't think I have the time to spend a
month or two getting up to speed programming in the QGIS environment,
not that I would not like to. I just spent 7 months learning a foreign
language to translate documents for my project. When the functionality
of the measure tool changed after QGIS 2.1(1.8, 2.1 something like
that), and the measure tool lost its persistence I despaired.
I am pressing for this functionality because I need to finish my
project and put food on the table.
http://youtu.be/xCWZzqHc8ow
In this project QGIS is merely a tool to develop a better
understanding of historical events. What will really be significant is
when QGIS goes 3D and I am able to visualize aircraft and ships data
simultaneously in an animation using the animation plug-in.

Post by G. Garibaldi
Hi
The measure tool onscreen markers are not persistent and are
therefore not useful. Why have tools that have no useful
function? I've complained about this before, filed a ticket and
was argued down by a developer.
It is frustrating to try to contribute to a project when nobody
wants to cooperate.
I don't think it is fair to characterise QGIS as a project where
nobody wants to cooperate. People are busy, may have differing
opinions to you, may not have noticed your ticket etc. We are a
community of people trying our best to cooperate and sometimes we
fail, but it certainly isn't through a lack of desire to cooperate.
My advice is keep trying (in a friendly way) to get your request
noticed, and if others don't always agree with your ideas, don't take
it personally.
Regards
Tim
_______________________________________________
Qgis-developer mailing list
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Sutton
Visit http://kartoza.com <http://kartoza.com/> to find out about open
* Desktop GIS programming services
* Geospatial web development
* GIS Training
* Consulting Services
Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
<http://freenode.net/>
Tim is a member of the QGIS Project Steering Committee
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kartoza is a merger between Linfiniti and Afrispatial

_______________________________________________
Qgis-developer mailing list
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer

[G. Garibaldi]

Ah, this is useful. Let me mess around with this.

Somebody has been busy since I last checked two years ago.

Post by Matthias Kuhn
Hi,
It is very likely that better CAD functionality will hit QGIS soon. An
approach based on the CadInput plugin [1] is being discussed [2] and
parted to core [3]. Maybe this does already provide a lot of what you need?
Best regards,
Matthias
[1] http://vimeo.com/85052231
[2]
https://github.com/3nids/QGIS-Enhancement-Proposals/blob/cadtools/QEP-CAD-tools.rst
[3] https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/pull/1624

Post by G. Garibaldi
Bug report #9703
The line thickness is good. The endpoints could be improved.
Crossmarks would be better than dots. If dot endpoints are easiest to
program, then put a smaller white dot in the middle of the larger red
dot. This will help measurement accuracy. The most desirable quality
of the tool would be for the markers remain on screen until cleared by
the user. This includes remaining on screen while other commands are
selected and new data entered. This onscreen persistence should also
be applied to the angle measure tool.
With robust CAD tools this would not be an issue because the operator
can quickly draw temporary measure lines on screen and erase them at
his leisure. With QGIS the CAD tool functionality is clumsy and
inefficient. Data point creation with other systems is fast and well
developed. Most CAD systems allow inputting a data point, then drawing
the next point using a relative angle and distance at the keyboard or
visually with onscreen angle and distance display controlled by snap
settings. Perhaps what I'm really asking for is better CAD tool
functionality.
I have many *thousands* of points to calculate and enter by hand.
Months worth of work. If I were a programmer perhaps this would not be
necessary. Unfortunately I don't think I have the time to spend a
month or two getting up to speed programming in the QGIS environment,
not that I would not like to. I just spent 7 months learning a foreign
language to translate documents for my project. When the functionality
of the measure tool changed after QGIS 2.1(1.8, 2.1 something like
that), and the measure tool lost its persistence I despaired.
I am pressing for this functionality because I need to finish my
project and put food on the table.
http://youtu.be/xCWZzqHc8ow
In this project QGIS is merely a tool to develop a better
understanding of historical events. What will really be significant is
when QGIS goes 3D and I am able to visualize aircraft and ships data
simultaneously in an animation using the animation plug-in.

Post by G. Garibaldi
Hi
The measure tool onscreen markers are not persistent and are
therefore not useful. Why have tools that have no useful
function? I've complained about this before, filed a ticket and
was argued down by a developer.
It is frustrating to try to contribute to a project when nobody
wants to cooperate.
I don't think it is fair to characterise QGIS as a project where
nobody wants to cooperate. People are busy, may have differing
opinions to you, may not have noticed your ticket etc. We are a
community of people trying our best to cooperate and sometimes we
fail, but it certainly isn't through a lack of desire to cooperate.
My advice is keep trying (in a friendly way) to get your request
noticed, and if others don't always agree with your ideas, don't take
it personally.
Regards
Tim
_______________________________________________
Qgis-developer mailing list
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Sutton
Visit http://kartoza.com <http://kartoza.com/> to find out about open
* Desktop GIS programming services
* Geospatial web development
* GIS Training
* Consulting Services
Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
<http://freenode.net/>
Tim is a member of the QGIS Project Steering Committee
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kartoza is a merger between Linfiniti and Afrispatial

_______________________________________________
Qgis-developer mailing list
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer

[Alexandre Neto]

Hello G. Garibaldi,

Like you, I'm not a core programmer and therefore I depend on this fellows
goodwill, time and skills to make qgis a better tool for me to use.

With this in mind, I have to say that you probably would have more success
if, instead of demanding for changes to meet your needs, you kindly asked
for help in the developers or users mailing lists. I bet that there would
be a few people giving suggestions to solve the problem, without asking
anything in return. This has been working very well for me.

Also, it looks like your work depends on qgis. Not less than qgis depends
on you. So take some time asking yourself what could you do for qgis. If
some new tools are crucial for your work, please consider sponsoring it's
development (Developers also need to put food in their tables).

Now to your problem.

Since you need persistent measure tools, I would suggest you the following
workflow:

- Install "memory layer" and "memory layer saver" plugins (I think the
first one will became core in qgis 2.6);

- Create a new memory layer with lines geometries;

- Label your memory layer using $length in the expression;

- Whenever you need to measure something and keep it for further use, all
you need to do is draw a line in you memory layer instead;

Note 1: This can also be done with areas using a polygons memory layer;

Note 2: You can style the lines to create fancy measuring representations,
for instance by adding some arrows at the end and beginning of the lines.

Hope this helps,

Alexandre Neto

Post by G. Garibaldi
Ah, this is useful. Let me mess around with this.
Somebody has been busy since I last checked two years ago.

Post by Matthias Kuhn
Hi,
It is very likely that better CAD functionality will hit QGIS soon. An
approach based on the CadInput plugin [1] is being discussed [2] and
parted to core [3]. Maybe this does already provide a lot of what you need?
Best regards,
Matthias
[1] http://vimeo.com/85052231
[2]
https://github.com/3nids/QGIS-Enhancement-Proposals/blob/
cadtools/QEP-CAD-tools.rst
[3] https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/pull/1624

Post by G. Garibaldi
Bug report #9703
The line thickness is good. The endpoints could be improved.
Crossmarks would be better than dots. If dot endpoints are easiest to
program, then put a smaller white dot in the middle of the larger red
dot. This will help measurement accuracy. The most desirable quality
of the tool would be for the markers remain on screen until cleared by
the user. This includes remaining on screen while other commands are
selected and new data entered. This onscreen persistence should also
be applied to the angle measure tool.
With robust CAD tools this would not be an issue because the operator
can quickly draw temporary measure lines on screen and erase them at
his leisure. With QGIS the CAD tool functionality is clumsy and
inefficient. Data point creation with other systems is fast and well
developed. Most CAD systems allow inputting a data point, then drawing
the next point using a relative angle and distance at the keyboard or
visually with onscreen angle and distance display controlled by snap
settings. Perhaps what I'm really asking for is better CAD tool
functionality.
I have many *thousands* of points to calculate and enter by hand.
Months worth of work. If I were a programmer perhaps this would not be
necessary. Unfortunately I don't think I have the time to spend a
month or two getting up to speed programming in the QGIS environment,
not that I would not like to. I just spent 7 months learning a foreign
language to translate documents for my project. When the functionality
of the measure tool changed after QGIS 2.1(1.8, 2.1 something like
that), and the measure tool lost its persistence I despaired.
I am pressing for this functionality because I need to finish my
project and put food on the table.
http://youtu.be/xCWZzqHc8ow
In this project QGIS is merely a tool to develop a better
understanding of historical events. What will really be significant is
when QGIS goes 3D and I am able to visualize aircraft and ships data
simultaneously in an animation using the animation plug-in.

Post by G. Garibaldi
Hi
The measure tool onscreen markers are not persistent and are
therefore not useful. Why have tools that have no useful
function? I've complained about this before, filed a ticket and
was argued down by a developer.
It is frustrating to try to contribute to a project when nobody
wants to cooperate.
I don't think it is fair to characterise QGIS as a project where
nobody wants to cooperate. People are busy, may have differing
opinions to you, may not have noticed your ticket etc. We are a
community of people trying our best to cooperate and sometimes we
fail, but it certainly isn't through a lack of desire to cooperate.
My advice is keep trying (in a friendly way) to get your request
noticed, and if others don't always agree with your ideas, don't take
it personally.
Regards
Tim
_______________________________________________
Qgis-developer mailing list
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
--
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Tim Sutton
Visit http://kartoza.com <http://kartoza.com/> to find out about open
* Desktop GIS programming services
* Geospatial web development
* GIS Training
* Consulting Services
Skype: timlinux Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
<http://freenode.net/>
Tim is a member of the QGIS Project Steering Committee
------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------
Kartoza is a merger between Linfiniti and Afrispatial

_______________________________________________
Qgis-developer mailing list
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer

_______________________________________________
Qgis-developer mailing list
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer

[Nathan Woodrow]

The most desirable quality of the tool would be for the markers remain on
screen until cleared by the user. This includes remaining on screen while
other commands are selected and new data entered. This onscreen persistence
should also be applied to the angle measure tool.

What was the latest version of QGIS you checked with? This has been fixed
by Jurgen in August in commit [0] so will be in 2.6 and is in dev at the
moment.

[0]
https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/commit/f28b63497d458a50c9e3c604229229d6138c8bf0

My advice is to run the dev version as well as stable if you are keen to
see what has and hasn't been fixed.

- Nathan