let’s talk about icons readability. let me use icons above as a sample.
i’ve easy guessed the meaning of buttons 1,2,5, and 7… after some extra thinking i’ve guessed about 3 and after that 4. but only because i know what we can do with groups (open, close).
icon 6 is … make take a place because it’s additional to max feature, and might be represented with any icon. button number 8 is absolutely confusing. it looks exactly as max “Zoom Extends” and i as a user expect to get similar action.
so we have 4 from 8. does it good or bad result?
You have to take into account that this is only a first impression.
The user should place the cursor over the button to see tooltip description, next time will know for sure that it’s not “Zoom Extends”.:hmm: I hope that this is the basic rule for every software not just max.
this is not true. extra tool can not use icons from main tool with different meaning except case when the icon is designed for multi-purpose use (“maxscript” icon for example)
You are right is not good to use built-in UI icons. In a previous post I thought of other icons (user icons) that resemble the max or any other system icons.
off:
try2script, until AD fix the problem with docking in max2014 get the code from your script and create macroscripts for each icon. Add the appropriate icon as icon for the proper macro, install all macros and then you can add buttons on the main toolbar with your icons.
denisT: another thing… every tool (even simple) has to be ‘self-protected’ from a casual user. it should not provoke this user to push buttons with no idea what they do.
Add tooltips. Provide Help file.
If the user push the button there must be something like this:
-- if the code that buttons execute works only with editable poly object then:
on btn_execude pressed do
(
if classof selection[1] == Editable_Poly then
(
--
)
else
messagebox "Works with Editable Poly objects only" title:"Invalid selection"
)
and so on.
Kostadin got a point.
Let’s make sum of theses:
#1 Tooltips
#2 Help file or comments inside code
#3 Error check with message box description.
#4 …?
let’s say we have these 2 btns :
and
disableselect.png
and
disableselect_red.png
How to make it work in standard max UI? even with
macroscripts for each icon
Here is the script for groups UI
Is it possible to make them work like my btns
with imgtag
?
PS: Any suggestions about these 2 icons are welcome!
button number 8 is absolutely confusing. it looks exactly as max “Zoom Extends” and i as a user expect to get similar action.
Look at the code of this script RTTAssist. It is build with imgtag controls and you will see how you can change the image(icon) of the imgtag when the imgtag is clicked with mouse(with left mouse button, middle mouse button, right mouse button), or when the mouse is over the imgtag, etc.
follow your own made idea…
all your icons should be about these “four boxes” that we can see on icon #1. that’s the thing is associated with “group”
in max icons set “selection” is associated with “up pointing arrow” (it used in a lot of icons in many tools).
so your icon should be a combination of these two things
Hey Mike do not get me wrong but I think that your topic is for new thread. Here we talk about maxscript UI in general an basic rules.
A UI, that uses icons with text and buttons(imgtag actualy).
I agree! Srry! I can delete my past messages, however it could be interesting for other new scripters! Let’s talk about General then! Srry again please!
Just a quick example for you:
rollout ui_imgtag "imgtag"
(
local img01 = openbitmap "E:\\disableselect_red.png"
local img02 = openbitmap "E:\\disableselect.png"
imgtag img_tag "imgtag" bitmap:img01 align:#center width:36 height:35
on img_tag lbuttondown v1 v2 do
(
if img_tag.bitmap == img01 then
img_tag.bitmap = img02
else
img_tag.bitmap = img01
)
)
createdialog ui_imgtag width:100
I don’t think imgtag works well with transparency though. You can select one solid color to be used for the transparency, but I don’t think you can use the PNG’s transparency.
Heeey! Don’t even mind! You are one of most patient and ready to help maxscripter that I have seen! Don’t worry! I appreciate every word that all experts from here say!
I want to ask for forgiveness, because I give too many questions and that I don’t know so much and that I don’t read the manual as much as needed, but it’s difficult for me often to understand it! Srry please!
By the way, I’ve just drown my new icon! Thx mr Denis!!!
Waw, thx Norman3D!