Grease Pencil: No easy way to exit from continuous draw mode when using tablet with no keyboard #43867

New Issue

Andrew Buttery · 2015-03-03T08:42:26+01:00

Andrew Buttery commented

2015-03-03 08:42:26 +01:00

System Information
Surface Pro 3
i7
6 GB RAM
Windows 8.1

Blender Version

Broken: 2.73a

Worked: No sure if it ever would have worked.

Short description of error
Once you enable continuous draw mode and start drawing the only way to exit (that I know of) is to hit the escape key. However, if you are using a tablet with no keyboard (i.e. using a touch pen) then you are stuck and the only way to exit the drawing is to call up the "soft keyboard"

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error
Open Blender with default cube using a tablet
Enable grease pencil in properties ("N") panel
Select Grease pencil tab
Check continuous drawing option
Click draw.

Now you are stuck... with no quick way out.

**System Information** Surface Pro 3 i7 6 GB RAM Windows 8.1 **Blender Version** Broken: 2.73a Worked: No sure if it ever would have worked. **Short description of error** Once you enable continuous draw mode and start drawing the only way to exit (that I know of) is to hit the escape key. However, if you are using a tablet with no keyboard (i.e. using a touch pen) then you are stuck and the only way to exit the drawing is to call up the "soft keyboard" **Exact steps for others to reproduce the error** Open Blender with default cube using a tablet Enable grease pencil in properties ("N") panel Select Grease pencil tab Check continuous drawing option Click draw. Now you are stuck... with no quick way out.

Andrew Buttery commented

2015-03-03 08:42:26 +01:00

Changed status to: 'Open'

Andrew Buttery commented

2015-03-03 08:42:26 +01:00

Added subscriber: @AndrewButtery

Campbell Barton changed title from ~~No easy way to exit from continuous draw mode when using tablet with no keyboard~~ to Grease Pencil: No easy way to exit from continuous draw mode when using tablet with no keyboard

2015-03-03 10:30:17 +01:00

Joshua Leung was assigned by Sergey Sharybin

2015-03-03 13:00:55 +01:00

Sergey Sharybin commented

2015-03-03 13:00:55 +01:00

Added subscriber: @Sergey

Sergey Sharybin commented

2015-03-03 13:00:55 +01:00

Joshua, mind having a look? Thanks! :)

Campbell Barton commented

2015-03-11 08:22:01 +01:00

Added subscriber: @ideasman42

Campbell Barton commented

2015-03-11 08:22:01 +01:00

We could make it so RMB exits - as with other tools.

Joshua Leung commented

2015-03-28 11:59:14 +01:00

The only problem with using RMB here is that RMB-drag currently/now activates the eraser instead.

There are several things I'm considering doing here... actually, on second though, they're not really mutually exclusive, so I might just do all of them ;)

D/E keys to switch between drawing and eraser. For users with a keyboard, this may turn out to be even nicer than what we have now, and was closer to what I had in mind before going with the current RMB-toggles-eraser behaviour.
Ensure that tablet eraser events invoke the eraser. So, for tablet users, there's no productivity loss either, as they can still fall back on the ways provided by the hardware for switching between different options. (Note: I'd need user feedback afterwards to verify if this in fact worked, since I don't currently have a nice working tablet yet)
Any attempts to start strokes from outside the area/region where Grease Pencil was initially invoked will exit the drawing session. (Note: Will need to double check that starting from the toolbar doesn't come with any problems for being a different region)

The only problem with using RMB here is that RMB-drag currently/now activates the eraser instead. There are several things I'm considering doing here... actually, on second though, they're not really mutually exclusive, so I might just do all of them ;) 1) D/E keys to switch between drawing and eraser. For users with a keyboard, this may turn out to be even nicer than what we have now, and was closer to what I had in mind before going with the current RMB-toggles-eraser behaviour. 2) Ensure that tablet eraser events invoke the eraser. So, for tablet users, there's no productivity loss either, as they can still fall back on the ways provided by the hardware for switching between different options. (Note: I'd need user feedback afterwards to verify if this in fact worked, since I don't currently have a nice working tablet yet) 3) Any attempts to start strokes from outside the area/region where Grease Pencil was initially invoked will exit the drawing session. (Note: Will need to double check that starting from the toolbar doesn't come with any problems for being a different region)

Joshua Leung commented

2015-03-28 13:29:14 +01:00

Ok, changed this to a design task, to get some feedback from the UI team on this.

Regarding the implementation of click-outside-area to exit:
From my investigations, it seems that my original idea of just checking whether the CTX_wm_area(C) == area when starting operator/first stroke doesn't actually work, since the current area doesn't actually change when a modal operator has control. (IIRC, this wasn't always the case for the Grease Pencil operator - see line 1800 in gpencil_paint.c for a check that used to do something, and now doesn't run). Instead, in the current implementation, it would be necessary to instead check if the mouse is outside the bounds for the area/region in question to do this.

While the area/locking behaviour for modal operators does make sense in some situations, it also has some problems too

It works when you're in the middle of drawing a stroke. In that case, straying outside the regions and then straying back in is something we want to be able to preserve. Making the sessions get terminated as soon as you stray 1-2 pixels over the edges would get annoying for artists really quickly.
It doesn't work when you're not actually drawing. In fact, it seems somewhat odd that the operator now seems to have global screen-wide powers of event capture, yet somehow can only draw when in the designated area, and clicking outside this region does nothing.

Discussing these issues with Campbell a bit in IRC, an interesting point came up that perhaps ALL modal operators should be made to stop working once you click outside the area where you invoked the tool in the first place. (Note: we're referring to Areas here and now Regions). That discussion should perhaps be separate from this one here, but I thought it would be useful to bring this option up here now, since it would be a nice solution to the original problem here (and with other uses for things like the knife tool, etc.)

Ok, changed this to a design task, to get some feedback from the UI team on this. --- Regarding the implementation of click-outside-area to exit: From my investigations, it seems that my original idea of just checking whether the CTX_wm_area(C) == area when starting operator/first stroke doesn't actually work, since the current area doesn't actually change when a modal operator has control. (IIRC, this wasn't always the case for the Grease Pencil operator - see line 1800 in gpencil_paint.c for a check that used to do something, and now doesn't run). Instead, in the current implementation, it would be necessary to instead check if the mouse is outside the bounds for the area/region in question to do this. While the area/locking behaviour for modal operators does make sense in some situations, it also has some problems too * It *works* when you're in the middle of drawing a stroke. In that case, straying outside the regions and then straying back in is something we want to be able to preserve. Making the sessions get terminated as soon as you stray 1-2 pixels over the edges would get annoying for artists really quickly. * It *doesn't work* when you're not actually drawing. In fact, it seems somewhat odd that the operator now seems to have global screen-wide powers of event capture, yet somehow can only draw when in the designated area, and clicking outside this region does nothing. Discussing these issues with Campbell a bit in IRC, an interesting point came up that perhaps ALL modal operators should be made to stop working once you click outside the area where you invoked the tool in the first place. (Note: we're referring to Areas here and now Regions). That discussion should perhaps be separate from this one here, but I thought it would be useful to bring this option up here now, since it would be a nice solution to the original problem here (and with other uses for things like the knife tool, etc.)

Joshua Leung commented

2015-03-28 13:33:25 +01:00

On a side note, D1187 is a patch which would enable again the ability to tag specific operators as not being locked to the initial region/area combination. (I'm just noting this here more for my own reference, since I thought I'd seen this committed already when it hadn't.)

On a side note, [D1187](https://archive.blender.org/developer/D1187) is a patch which would enable again the ability to tag specific operators as not being locked to the initial region/area combination. (I'm just noting this here more for my own reference, since I thought I'd seen this committed already when it hadn't.)

blender-admin commented

2015-05-01 02:44:35 +02:00

This issue was referenced by be0dcd4e34

This issue was referenced by be0dcd4e3429dcbaaf4f2884695e883438fd0b95

Joshua Leung commented

2015-05-01 02:46:05 +02:00

Changed status from 'Open' to: 'Resolved'

Joshua Leung closed this issue

2015-05-01 02:46:05 +02:00

Joshua Leung commented

2015-05-01 02:46:06 +02:00

Closed by commit be0dcd4e34.

Closed by commit be0dcd4e34.

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Grease Pencil: No easy way to exit from continuous draw mode when using tablet with no keyboard #43867