Hello Claude,
I was wondering if it would be possible to have the Key Entry Info as a floating window?
I think it would be a great feature to have the key entry info on it's own window, and if it could be dragged and dropped somewhere and stay open (similarly to the Stroke and Fill colours selectors).
For example if I have 2 fixtures on my plan, and the Key Entry Info window is open and floating, I could quickly see and compare the information of each fixture by simply clicking on the fixture itself.
At the moment, I often find myself having to cross check several different fixtures, and I have to:
select that light, then click to Setup, then click to Key Entry Info, look at the info, then close that window, and starting again by selecting another light etc.
With a floating window instead, I think it could be very useful in those situation where a designer has to compare different fixtures on the fly efficiently.
For example:
I create my lighting plan and then send my lighting gear request to the production manager, who sends out a request for quotes to 3x different local lighting hire companies.
These companies might ring or email me suggesting some fixtures substitutions (say they don't have SL 23-50 in stock, and they are offering me instead Source Four 25-50).
I would love to be able to compare these 2 fixtures quickly in terms of candela, wattage, weight, beam angle... to come up with a decision efficiently.
What do you think?
Fausto
Key Entry Info as a floating window
Floating windows are problematic from a number of standpoints. Coordinating the user's understanding with changing windows is tricky and at times confusing. If you look at Apple applications, their use has been minimized in recent versions. The one exception remaining seems to be the color picker. But, you may have noticed yourself, picking colors and not having something change (or worse, changing something you did not intend).
Coordinating changes to a plot's key are much more complicated than just assigning a color. So, editing key information really has to stay modal.
What might be possible in some future version is that the key entry sheet could have next and previous buttons. That way you could look through multiple entries without needing to close and re-open the sheet.
By the way, double clicking a symbol in the palette is the same as choosing "Entry Info" from the popup menu.
Coordinating changes to a plot's key are much more complicated than just assigning a color. So, editing key information really has to stay modal.
What might be possible in some future version is that the key entry sheet could have next and previous buttons. That way you could look through multiple entries without needing to close and re-open the sheet.
By the way, double clicking a symbol in the palette is the same as choosing "Entry Info" from the popup menu.