Glue and unglue

[Andrew]

HI David,
When you tick "glue" for either track/sections and then you connect a new piece it automatically glues it,so this mean that well you have to remove the piece you first have to unglue before you can move it.

Can you make the "unglue" a piece of track automatically as well when you disconnect the piece?

Yours,
Andrew

[Andrew]

While I think about it, can we "glue" sections rather than just pieces or is that making things more complicated??
Yours,
A

[donone]

I'm not David and I don't want to butt in, but felt I should like to add my comment to your first post.
I do find it an irritation (if that is not too strong) to do as you say, disconnect and then separately unglue. I feel that if you disconnect it is unlikely that you wish to reconnect without doing something (which will require ungluing).
On the other hand it would seem pointless to connect a piece but not have it glue automatically (assuming the above had been implemented).
Thanks for allowing me in there.

[santerdam]

You don't glue sections. You start to glue a certain point. Any track that is connected to that point is also glued, any tracks connected to those are glued and so on. The result is that everything, that is connected to the first point, is glued.
The same goes for unglue. You unglue a point and every connected piece is unglued.

Automatic unglue when disconnecting is only possible in a few situations. Think of a cirkel - disconnect only one  connecting point - now the program cannot decide what to desconnect. The same when you disconnect a connecting poit in the middle of a large track - the program doesn't know if you want to unglue left or right and doesn't know how many rails should be unglued.
You first need a second not connected point and than the section van be unglued.

Sander

[David]

Sander, that's correct.
Whenever you glue one piece, all connected track is glued as well, and vice versa.

When disconnecting, the software can not decide which side to unglue.

A solution might be add a hotkey to unglue whatever the mouse is pointing at.

David.

[donone]

Santerdam's analysis does make sense, of course.
The final reply from David sounds good.
May I add that it would be useful if all else fails, to have auto-unglue when it is an end piece that is being disconnected. But then there are two ways, so maybe not acceptable?

[Andrew]

Thank you for that. Could it be changed so that we have an option to glue individual pieces or sections rather than the current automatic process.
Actually, logically if 1 piece is glued all other piece should not move or is there something else with the program logic that I don't understand.
Andrew

[santerdam]

Please don't change the current automatic process. All users are used to this process. If you want to introduce something new, you will have to add a new way of working for that.

Sander

[Andrew]

Hi All,
Sorry Sander, but the program is evolving every time a new version is released and we have to get use to the new functions, so we all have to move on.
The challenge I have with the automatic system to "glue" the added piece is that you constantly have to unglue the piece you want to work on or the layout which defeats the purpose in the 1st place.
The glued idea is great especially when you have been working on a layout hours to get the track layout down to the mm on the table.
David, either as you suggested with a hot key or no automatic glueing or you leave as is...meaning more work and the possible erasing of last minute changes.
Using the Undo function and regular saving are good but not as good the changes that you have done.
Yours,
Andrew

[santerdam]

Sorry Andrew, I don't see why ALL users have to change when YOU have a problem with the automatic system.

Sander

[David]

We've used the 'magic' shift key before, and it might be useful here again.

Our idea is as follows:

Glued track will automatically get unglued when you try to move it with the SHIFT key down.

This keeps things working as they are with a new feature on top of that.


David.

[Andrew]

Hi David another feature of simplicity.

Sander, I'm not the ONLY ONE!! donone, has also made some good points.

Andrew

[David]

In the latest release (3.18.0), if you start dragging glued track with the SHIFT key down, the track will automatically be unglued.

David.

[donone]

Sounds like a good solution for both Andy/Me and everybody else that doesn't want to use it.
Thank you.

[Edit] I might add that changes that are introduced from requests seem to be given very careful thought in order not to change the existing system; but to add to it. I think that is the right way and thanks.