Moving BD objects with mouse wheel instead of arrow keys.

[MarkBalla-Tecnova]

In an attempt to keep my hand from going back and forth on the keyboard I've taken Darren's advice and put all my QD shortcut keys left hand reachable.

Although this has been a time saver I still find myself often moving my left hand over to the arrow keys to adjust the position of BD items.

I would like to create a QD shortcut that uses the new scroll wheel event to move selected items a pixel at a time instead of having to use the arrow keys.

I've built a few QD shortcuts but haven't tried anything like this.

Has anyone tried using events inside of QD shortcuts or can point me to code that does?

Also any advice would be appreciated.

Thank

Mark

[Hooovahh]

This sounds like a fantastic tool.  I imagine holding shift makes the object move multiple pixels at a time. You will need a way to indicate that movement is over. Maybe use spacebar. Interestingly this could be done on versions before 2013 but the new events may make it easier.

[Darren]

I agree that this would be a great shortcut, but I couldn't find a straightforward way to implement it. For one thing, the Mouse Wheel event is only available on controls and panes. For another, the VI containing the control/pane registered for the Mouse Wheel event must be running (or reserved for running).

Perhaps there's a hacky way to do this where you could have an invisible panel appear under the mouse that could capture the events?

If somebody can figure out a decent way to implement this, I know I'd find it useful.

[Hooovahh]

Oh what I had in mind was hacky for sure.  The quick drop command would run the VI that then keeps looking for mouse input moving the selected objects until some operation tells the running VI to stop.  I may give it a try and see what I come up with.  But to be honest I don't mind moving my hand off the mouse quickly then back but maybe this would change my programming flow to where I would prefer it.

[Hooovahh]

Okay I have a "working" prototype but can you seriously not upload attachments to a discussion?  Where can I put this?

[Darren]

Hooovahh wrote:

Okay I have a "working" prototype but can you seriously not upload attachments to a discussion?  Where can I put this?

A new "Document" in the Quick Drop Enthusiasts group I suppose, and then include a link to it in this thread.

[zou]

You can attach an image.

So create a VI  snippet.

[MarkBalla-Tecnova]

My initial thought was this

• After the short cut key is pressed create a floating vi/button that follows the mouse
• use the scroll wheel to move the selected items up down
• My MS Mouse has Horizontal scroll so left and right will work also
• press the shit key to move 8 pixels ,ctrl key to move 20 maybe even ctrl-shift to move 50
• mouse leave event moves the vi to center of mouse position
• click any mouse button to exit.

Advanced options would include 8 buttons on the VI. U,D,L,R and 4 diagonals for mice with only one scroll wheel.

I've started playing with the move idea.

Hoovahh

looking forward to seeing your prototype

[Hooovahh]

Well I posted what I came up with but after reading your list of wants for this plugin I don't think the approach I took will be right for you.  I really think for what you want it will be much, much easier to say the plugin should be 2013 or newer because of the added wheel events.  This can check for your Shift/CTRL in the event. 

I also think that needing both Shift and CTRL for increased speed is not needed based on some acceleration technique.  Maybe just use Shift to increase movement, and CTRL could be used to move left and right, using the single mouse wheel instead of up and down.

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-37066

EDIT: I know we are getting ahead of our selves but what about middle click, move the mouse, then middle click again?  Is that something we could do?  I guess at that point why wouldn't you just drag the selected items?  Maybe this is only needed for smaller movements.

[MarkBalla-Tecnova]

I've appended my first attemp to Hoovahh's document.

Mark