Draw tool improvements

[MikeMikeJuliet]

Hello!

The draw tool needs refinement. Having used it quite extensively I have a few important changes/additions/fixes that, I argue, are essential to make the draw tool user friendly and thus faster and more efficient to use.

There are several topics regarding different wishes and discussions regarding the draw tool, but none that quite list everything needed in my opinion. I do second every one of the suggestions I found with a quick search. Links to the respective threads at the end of this post.

 

1. Absolute priority number one!: Add the ability to lock drawings
   1. As a set of drawings becomes increasingly comples and large drawings overlap, it is extremely easy to accidentally pick the wrong drawing, then move it only to realise a bit later that you just messed up a drawing, say, a circle, that you now have to eyeball to be positioned back to where it was! 
   2. When a drawing is done, the user generally does not want to move it further. Having all the drawings be there waiting like traps to be selected accidentally has lost me hours of work trying to fiddle with the tool.
2. Expansion of the draw item -list
   1. The draw item list occupies only a small set amount of screen space. With dozens of drawings having the list window as small as it currently is is a total waste of screen real-estate and makes the tool more cumbersome to use.
   2. Either have the tool resize it self according to available space, or at least give users the ability to resize the list window themselves
3. Allow arranging/filtering of drawings by name
   1. Again, as the list grows longer different items are really hard to keep track of unless one constantly arranges the items manually. This again wastes serious amounts of time that could otherwise be spent actually using the tool!
   2. I understand that the items in the draw list are in drawing order, so probably give the items a visible draw order index (per layer obviously), and then give the user the ability to order the drawings by name. Layers/categories can stay separate - those are easy to handle. 
4. Fix the item movement in the list
   1. Re-ordering the items in the list currently jumps the user to the beginning of the list! With dozens of drawings that one may want or need to arrange this is a horrible UX bug. Please fix!
5. Allow the user to change the anchor-point of text labels
   1. Often times a drawing needs to be anchored from other points than the top left corner. Plenty of texts would need to be anchored from either the middle of the text-box, or from the mid-point of either the top or the bottom edge of the text rectangle. I would recommend all the corners, edge-midpoints and the whole shape mid-point to  be added as possible anchor points to allow for most flexibility
   2. An improper anchor point makes drawings really messy and hard to look at especially when zoomed a lot from the intended viewing zoom-level, making large draw sets appear really cluttered
6. Add air navigation symbology
   1. Please add default symbology (Jeppesen or otherwise) for NAVFIXes, VORs, TACANs, DMEs, and such shapes as default triangles etc. At the current state the user has to create these by-hand which is cumbersome and unnecessary.
7. Allow drawings to be set invisible by zoom-factor
   1. A lot of the time on congested drawings some details might want to be omitted when looking at a large scenario from smaller zoom-levels (e.g. from far away). An per-drawing adjustable invisibility range  (both ends!) would really be useful for decluttering the drawing and allowing for additional details to be drawin, but only as the player zooms in enough (or out for that matter)
8. Add dedicated arc-drawing tool (with and without lines to origin)
   1. Arcs and sectors are needed to draw more complex shapes without resorting to freehand drawings constantly. A simple circle does not cover all the cases. There are, for example, a lot of airspaces that are built with several arcs IRL. Building similar airspaces with drawings currently is a time consuming process of using circles to help draw freehand - these could be bypassed by simply allowing for an arc-draw.
9. Add racetrack-shape (see "racetrack polygons in Draw function" below)
   1. I second this wish. Being able to draw racetracks would be really useful
10. Add editing, adding and removing of shape points (see "Draw Tool - point mode" post below)
    1. I second this! So many "oh whoops, wrong button!" -mistakes costing me a lot of time after making a complex shape just because I cannot edit the shapes afterwards. Definately a feature that is needed!
11. Allow the user to change the amount of vertices on a circle
    1. On the same lines as point no.10. As the circles become larger the amount of vertices is really apparent and may not be sufficient in all cases. Please add a value to change the amount of vertices on a selected circle.

EDIT:

Suggestion number 12: Allow the user to set text size that is either tied to the screen size/zoom (the way it is now), but also set an absolute size, so that the text size stays the same compared to the background map and other drawings regardless of zoom. There are plenty of instances where you do not want the text to change along with zoom.

Previously suggested improvements:

 

EDIT: Added a commenter's suggestion to the list

Regards,

MikeMikeJuliet

Edited 13 hours ago by MikeMikeJuliet
An additional suggestion, also I found a typo

[Priest]

Nice list! If we're adding a locking function let's just go ahead and make that a thing for everything units, zones, drawings, yes please.

[buur]

Not only air navigation symbols are highly appreciated. Also a big need for more military symbols.

Also a good idea is to fix the text size during zooming. Otherwise the text fields get to big.

And at last point all drawings accessible via script api.

[Vähäkylä]

All the above is highly needed and would improve game maps significantly. Right now drawing in ME is difficult, slow, and even when results are achieved, aesthetically displeasing.

[pikkuhukka]

very needed features, please ed make it so

[__Timberwolf__]

I second this. Locking text at a zoom level would be extremely helpful.

[MikeMikeJuliet]

The absolute text size is a good idea! It actually crossed my mind writing the list, but there were so many items there and I was running out of time that I forgot to add it. It's edited in to the OP now. Thanks!

[Minni]

Good suggestions all around. While we're at it I'd add to the list the ability to import drawings to ingame maps (TAMMAC, TAD etc.) as Polychop did with the Kiowa. Their method isn't necessarily the most elegant when creating larger missions with multiple assets and it does require some effort but it's a proper start and shows it can be done in engine.

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Edited 15 hours ago by Minni