Wishes
Post your wishes about Graphisoft products: Archicad, BIMx, BIMcloud, and DDScad.

kill the pet palete

Anonymous
Not applicable
since I use archicad my hands hurt me a lot.

The most annoying and unpredictable tool of all the software I know is the pet palette. Why archicad don't have two separate tools like corel? One is to select, move and rotate and the other is for node editing. Easy. and nobody needs to click thousand times. just press f10 means "node editing" and the pointer means "move, etc."

thx
19 REPLIES 19
Anonymous
Not applicable
Absolutely. Then the commands on the top line would stay 'current' and be far more useable.

If Graphisoft would implement this simple change it would take a whole lot of stress out of my working day!

- Keith
Anonymous
Not applicable
I agree something needs to be done about it. I find it annoying - it often gets in the way and refuses to move automatically, and the "revert to last used" thing is sometimes useful, sometimes annoying (hence I too only use CTL-D to move stuff).

I fully love Dwight's suggestion about the Maya-type device. I've seen it used and loved the idea. (Haven't personally used it though)) And have it so that as you move the cursor, the semi-transparent menu follows it, so you don't have to go looking for it.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Is Drag still one of the options in the pet-palette in Release 17?

We haven't upgraded yet - as we have to upgrade all our hardware first - but it would be so worth it if it would save me from continually accidentally dragging my fills!
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
17 is pretty much the same as 16 for this, Keith.
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Anonymous
Not applicable
That's a shame.

For me the problem is this.

To drag an element: press 'D'

To stretch an element (fill/mesh/slab/polyline...whatever): select a node and drag. Oops - I didn't notice that the pet palette has returned to 'drag' mode and I've inadvertently moved the element. (And you don't even spot it if you've zoomed in really close)

If there were a command like 'drag' that could guarantee the pet palette would stay in 'stretch' mode, there wouldn't be a problem.

Or is this really just me ......?
David Maudlin
Virtuoso
Keith:

The behavior I am seeing in AC17 is that the last used Pet Palette option is retained, even if a keyboard shortcut is used for a different operation. For example with a Fill:
1. Use Pet Palette to Move Node
2. Use keyboard shortcut to Drag
3. Use Pet Palette to Move Node (still is the default option in Pet Palette)

Now, if I select a different Tool (Wall) and set its Pet Palette option to Drag, then Drag will be selected in the Fill's Pet Palette when I return to the Fill, so I don't know if this addresses your issue.

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14
Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks David

Hopefully it will.
sinceV6
Advocate
Hi.
Sorry to bring this up, but I would also like the pet palette to be reviewed. I think it used to work OK, but faster computers and faster user interaction have made it obsolete.

Like Dwight, I also believe a pie menu or marking menu would be better and faster than the pet palette. I was never able to find a way to assign keyboard shortcuts to the pet palette options and using 'F' or shift+'F' to cycle trough the options just doesn't cut it anymore.

I read some old studies on the subject. There was one in particular that would perfectly apply here, but just can't find it anymore. These are some that I could find again, and each of these include reference to further investigation.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/asellen/publications/marking menus 93.pdf
http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/100
http://www.billbuxton.com/MMUserLearn.html

And the references listed in wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pie_menu

If that is TL:DR, check out these videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtH9GdFSQaw
http://www.autodeskresearch.com/publications/multitouchmm

I would really love if GS would consider this as an option for the pet palette.

Best regards.

PS. sorry about the aut*desk research video.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Dwight wrote:
I would be for a pet palette along the lines of the contextual menu structure in Maya where an array of choices much like a decision tree appear surrounding the mouse when summoned. The cursor should be in the middle of a number of choices that hover, partly transparent, over the work.
^ I've always liked this interface; really slick and easy to use/understand. It fits really well with the pet palette.

I really don't like the way it jumps to a default corner of the workspace position, but the context sensitive options in a small button format are a good idea.
David Maudlin
Virtuoso
Gadget wrote:
I really don't like the way it jumps to a default corner of the workspace position
You have some options for Pet Palette location and movement, see Work Environment > User Preference Schemes > Dialog Boxes and Palettes > Pet Palette movement:.

You should add a Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) with your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14