User Feedback

May 2006

Mike Wong

8 June, 2006 I sat with Mike for about 1.5 hrs. today, and took him through the new ParaView. Overall it was a very positive session - we even loaded some of Mike's data (1.9 gigs) in addition to the teensy disk_out_ref dataset, and things worked great. Only one crash (see below), and it performed flawlessly for an hour after we restarted it.

Issues

• Need Linux build soon - lots of users have data on Linux systems.
• Need support for opening parallel files. The current implementation is incorrect - the application opens one Exodus reader for every file selected in the file dialogue.
• Cut/Clip filters:
  • Need on/off switch for widget.
  • When the user stops dragging the widget around, the transparent plane should disappear, like it does now in ParaView. This eliminates the annoying z-fighting that makes the cut surface shimmer.
  • Undo on a cut operation does not update the position of the plane to register with the cut.
• When adding a new filter, the default current variable should be the same as the input.
• Lots of keyboard shortcuts needed:
  • Check current Shift, Ctrl, etc. so they match ParaView. Currently, they do not.
  • Pipeline Browser Shortcuts:
    • Ctrl-D brings up display properties.
  • Geometry View Shortcuts:
    • Left arrow, right arrow should go back/forward one timestep.
    • When a widget is selected, that widget should get the keyboard shortcut. An example where this makes sense is the Cut filter. When its cut function is a plane, pressing x, y, or z on the keyboard should make that axis the normal.
  • Object inspector.
    • Hitting 'spacebar' should be the same as clicking the 'Accept' button. This removes the need for the user to click an item (such as a side set), then move the mouse all the way up to the 'Accept' button. It was excruciating to watch, believe me.
• Toolbar for common view shortcuts. There is a bar in ParaView now that has common operations like 'Zoom to data', etc. We need this toolbar in PV3
• Feature: Recent files list.
• Exodus Obejct Inspector
  • Right mouse click on a variable should give 'Set to current' option, which sets the current variable of this Exodus reader to that variable.
  • Variable name should be expanded fully to the longest variable name.
  • Filename widgets can be hidden entirely, or accessible through an 'expert' mode.
  • Variables should be orderable by each part of the data in the list box: loaded/unloaded checkbox, type (cell/point), name, range.
  • Variable list should be mulit-selectable. User should be able to do normal selection operations (box select, single add/remove from selected set) and then to On/Off and other appropriate operations from the right mouse menu.
  • Variable loading is not covered in undo/redo.
  • Double-clicking on a variable should check/uncheck its loaded checkbox.
• Pipeline Browser
  • Right Mouse menu on an item should include 'Zoom to Data' menu item.
  • Should be able to 'Delete' any item - not just the leaf items. Deleteing an item is a choice between 'Delete this item' and 'Delete this and all childe items'
  • Items should be renamable in the 'normal' windows way of clicking on them, then keeping the mouse over the item to make it editable in place.
• Need the eyeball control in the Pipeline Browser to control visibility.
• Need 'Loading ...' dialogue box when a file is loading.

Comments

• Mike does 'topology' operations, then 'variable' operations. Block, side set, and node set operations are generally done together, then variable operations separate. Doesn't generally mix the two, so potentially the widgets could be totally separate (on separate panels/tabs)
• Is there a way to make the side sets and node sets better? One option would be to make the side sets different colors, several could be on, and the user could see them. (we'd have to color code the icons, as well - that would be cool). Same with Node sets, which should be glyphed in some way.
• Material boundary issues MORE TO COME.
• We'll need actor control per window - the Pipeline Browser right mouse menu option 'Display Settings ...' will have to bring up the controls for the current item in the current window.
• After watching Mike work, I think we should move the 'Accept' and 'Reset' buttons to the bottom of the object inspector. They're exactly like the Accept/Cancel buttons in a modal dialogue box, and to me that means they belong at the bottom. Also, They're fairly distracting where they are - they break the natural relationship between the Pipeline Browser and the Object inspector (assuming they're laid out like we have them).

Crashes

• Crashed only once (in almost 1 hr. of continuous running - goldstar!). We were dragging the Pipeline Browser and the Obejct Inspector around, and something we did caused a crash. Can't duplicate it, but it should be noted.