Idea for "create tiled clones" dialog: instead of always having to "create" and "remove" and again "create" at each change in parameters, how about a "live preview" checkbox and an "apply" button, like in many extensions?
Or am I saying something stupid?

I don't mean like in the mockup of feature request #281719, I mean a live preview in the drawing area, like e.g. with the interpolate extension.

What do you think?

What's the benefit of removing features to mimic the limitations of the current extension system for internal commands?

(Differences are for example: 'Remove' works later on, too (any time the original tile is selected). 'Live Preview' as used with extensions (scripts or filters) on the other hand is modal, i.e. while live preview is on, the drawing cannot be edited.)

Edit: maybe 'Tiled clones' could have both - i.e. keep the feature to remove an existing tiling, instead of replacing it with a 'Live Preview' only.

BTW - if you edit parameters, you don't have to remove first, just click on create again (if you did not change the selected original tile in-between while editing parameters, the tiled clones will be automatically removed and replaced with new ones based on the modified parameters).

~suv wrote:maybe 'Tiled clones' could have both - i.e. keep the feature to remove an existing tiling, instead of replacing it with a 'Live Preview' only.

You're right. The "remove" feature is indeed very handy.
So just add a checkbox "Live preview". Would be an improvement, no?

As a side note, rename the "create" button to "apply", or not? What do you think?

bartovan wrote:As a side note, rename the "create" button to "apply", or not? What do you think?

*shrug* What's wrong with 'Create'? After all, that's what happens (clones are created). I don't know - I'm not an UX expert myself. The dialog probably would need some redesign if 'Live Preview' is added anyway, but I'll leave that to the experts.

IIRC there was a GSoC project in 2012 (On-canvas support for Tessellations) which aimed to improve this feature and its interface to support on-canvas controls (OnCanvasSymmetryTool), but it did not get to the point of getting merged into trunk.

~suv wrote:What's wrong with 'Create'?

Create vs Apply would be a question of consistency throughout dialogs, especially for newcomers to software this can be of help. But I agree that it's of minor importance.

~suv wrote:IIRC there was a GSoC project in 2012 (On-canvas support for Tessellations) which aimed to improve this feature and its interface to support on-canvas controls (OnCanvasSymmetryTool), but it did not get to the point of getting merged into trunk.

I don't think that on-canvas controls is really necessary, and maybe a "simple" (from user point of view) live preview would have a better chance of making it into Inkscape?

bartovan wrote:I don't think that on-canvas controls is really necessary, (…)

I personally do not agree, but that's likely a topic where there will always be some kind of division - those in favor of a tool with controls bar and on-canvas controls (faster access, quicker and more intuitive editing), and those in favor of using dialogs (see gradient tool as recent example).

On the other hand, the demos of on-canvas alignment features did get a lot of positive reactions ...

Well, I agree that on-canvas controls would be a great feature, but it would also seem much more complicated to implement then a live preview?
I mean, "live preview" for tiled clones could be regarded as a simple, small improvement of the existing dialog and functionality and wouldn't imply any other changes to both.
While on-canvas controls seems to me much more impacting as a change.
Anyway, I'll file a feature request for the live preview, I'll post the link back here so other people interested in seeing this realized can click the "affects me" link...

Feature requested on Launchpad Inkscape bugs: Live preview for tiled clones.

(If this feature interests you, please go to the page linked above and click on "This bug affects you" below the title.)

What I'd like to see, before any live preview, would be options for units, like all the other Inkscape features have, instead of just percent. It's the percent-only unit in Tiled Clones dialog that prevents me from using it.

I often see messages saying this or that is simple with Tiled Clones. But most of the time, by the time I get all the calculations done for percent, I could have drawn the design by hand, a few times over.

Perhaps if there were more units than just percent, live preview would be much less needed??

(Idk if there is a feature request for more units....but I think there is.)

Other units would be good also, it's complementary...
Here's the feature request: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/170835.
Maybe if you click "affects me", it gains some weight?