View Issue Details Jump to Notes ] Print ]
IDProjectCategoryView StatusDate SubmittedLast Update
0004128ParaView(No Category)public2006-12-04 18:332007-04-16 13:02
ReporterKen Moreland 
Assigned ToMark Richardson 
PrioritynormalSeverityfeatureReproducibilityalways
StatusclosedResolutionfixed 
PlatformOSOS Version
Product Version 
Target VersionFixed in Version 
Summary0004128: Better color map GUI controls
DescriptionA consistent complaint of ParaView 2 is its weak color map controls. You can only select endpoint colors and then linearly interpolate in RGB or HSV space.

What we really want is to be able to do is arbitrarily select control points. The easiest solution is probably to steal from the volume rendering widgets.
TagsNo tags attached.
Project
Topic Name
Type
Attached Files

 Relationships

  Notes
(0006701)
Mark Richardson (reporter)
2007-03-09 12:39

The color map editor allows the user to add, move, and remove points. You can interpolate the colors in rgb or hsv space.

To add: click on an empty space on the line.
To move: click on a point and drag it left or right.
To remove: ctrl+click on a point.

Note: The endpoints can't be moved or removed.
(0006718)
Ken Moreland (manager)
2007-03-12 11:42

Sweet!

Now that you did such fine work, I have a couple requests. There were a couple of things that would have been real stumbling blocks for me (as in I wouldn't have realized the functionality existed) had I not been looking directly at your instructions.

First, it is not immediately obvious that all the interaction had to be on that thin line at the top of the widget. I naturally kept trying to click in the middle of the widget where the colors are. So, interaction in the middle of the color bar should behave the same as if they occurred at the top. And since the GUI controls are extended through the widget, so should the little control knobbies. Either extend a line from the bottom tip of the diamond through the color bar, or the controls should be elongated into thin rectangles or ellipses that extend through the whole widget.

The other problem is the deletion of control points. The ctrl+click is non-intuitive, and I can't think of another application with similar controls that would suggest to the user to even try it. Microsoft Word has a nice convention for their ruler where control-point type controls (tab stops in the case of Word) can be deleted by simply grabbing them and moving them out of the widget.
(0006811)
Mark Richardson (reporter)
2007-03-15 17:15

I agree we need to change the interaction to allow the user to click in any part of the vertical space to create a point. I don't think we should change how it is drawn though. Extending a line down from the point would cover the color in the gradient. Making the point elongated would cover the neighboring colors in the gradient. I chose the diamond shape so it would point to the color better than a circle or square.

The best intuitive delete interaction would be hitting the delete key. The Qt color map editor doesn't have a current or selected item though, so hitting the delete key is ambiguous. The ctrl+click delete is patterned after gimp. Using the ctrl key modifies what will happen when you click the mouse. Gimp changes the mouse pointer to indicate the new action, but I didn't have time for that.
(0006818)
Ken Moreland (manager)
2007-03-15 20:40

I think you are overstating the importance of the gradient. The colors at the control points are the ones one focuses on when creating these maps. But, whatever.

OK, you got me. There is an application that uses ctrl+click to delete a point, albeit one known for having a non-intuitive interface. Changing the cursor when the ctrl key is down is not going to help much. The user still has to know to push the ctrl key while the cursor is in the widget.

Is there something wrong with the delete-by-dragging-out solution? It's pretty natural. The user is likely to discover it. It sounds pretty easy to implement. You already handle dragging operations to move the control point. Simply take the control point out when the cursor leaves the widget and put it back in if it re-enters.
(0007177)
Mark Richardson (reporter)
2007-04-06 12:41

With the new color function editor, ctrl+click for delete is now removed. The delete key can be used to delete the active control point.

I still don't think the drag out to delete feature is a natural solution. I wouldn't have discovered that since I haven't had the same user experiences. If the delete key isn't enough, I think we should add a context menu, which is more easily discovered, since it is a gui standard.
(0007271)
Berk Geveci (administrator)
2007-04-13 09:02

We now have new colormap editor. Bugs specific to that one should go to their own items.

 Issue History
Date Modified Username Field Change
2011-06-16 13:10 Zack Galbreath Category => (No Category)


Copyright © 2000 - 2018 MantisBT Team