First let me start off by saying thank you for developing the best screen editor out there for Mach3 and I appreciate your hard work.  With that I am finding some "features" of this program extremely frustrating.  

• One thing that is really bothersome is the clicking on the background image even though the background image has locked for mouse set under properties.  Eliminate the items marked as locked from mouse as being selectable.  If you need to make a modification to it, have an option field in overview that would allow you to select an object from the list.
• there are inconsistencies in the interface.  Some image buttons display a black border and others do not.
• the Save to Custom Colors doesn't save.  This is really frustrating when you have A LOT of custom colors.  Is there a way to have no background color? 
• Swap Layers isn't working.  The dialog appears when 2 objects are selected but doesn't change the layers

Is the source code for MachScreen available?

Hi dotScott

1) One thing that is really bothersome is the clicking on the background image even though the background image has locked for mouse set under properties.  Eliminate the items marked as locked from mouse as being selectable. If you need to make a modification to it, have an option field in overview that would allow you to select an object from the list.
    If I would protect items from being selected, you wouldn't have a change to unlock single items in the design view. When Machscreen is started, it sets the selection type "multiple/single" selection. Multiple selection selects all items 'laying' under the cursor and shows them in a list. Moving the cursor over an item shows the control with a highlighted frame. Single selection selects just one control. You can toggle this behaviour in the toolbar icon M / 1. (M = multiple, 1 = single).

2) there are inconsistencies in the interface.  Some image buttons display a black border and others do not.
      Image buttons are displayed as they are designed. Could you please give me an example?

3) the Save to Custom Colors doesn't save.  This is really frustrating when you have A LOT of custom colors.  Is there a way to have no background color?
      How do you change the color? Do you change it in the property dialog, or in options -> settings? At the moment changing colors in options -> settings doesn't work.
BTW you cannot set different colors for the same control type. The color setting for a certain control type applies to all pages. What do you mean, having no background color?

4) Swap Layers isn't working.  The dialog appears when 2 objects are selected but doesn't change the layers
       Swapping layers work only on same controls-types .

5) Is the source code for MachScreen available?
       No, I will not publish the source code
Klaus

Hi dotScott

1) One thing that is really bothersome is the clicking on the background image even though the background image has locked for mouse set under properties.  Eliminate the items marked as locked from mouse as being selectable. If you need to make a modification to it, have an option field in overview that would allow you to select an object from the list.
    If I would protect items from being selected, you wouldn't have a change to unlock single items in the design view. When Machscreen is started, it sets the selection type "multiple/single" selection. Multiple selection selects all items 'laying' under the cursor and shows them in a list. Moving the cursor over an item shows the control with a highlighted frame. Single selection selects just one control. You can toggle this behaviour in the toolbar icon M / 1. (M = multiple, 1 = single).
    I was suggesting that an option would be to allow the user to unlock an object in the overview page.  This would allow you to lock an object such as a background graphic and never touch it again while you're manipulating the smaller objects that sit on top of it.  When I set the background, I never want to select it again.
2) there are inconsistencies in the interface.  Some image buttons display a black border and others do not.
      Image buttons are displayed as they are designed. Could you please give me an example?
    I noticed that some of the image buttons had the word 'None' entered in their Path.  These controls had a black box around them while other image buttons paths that were empty showed no border
3) the Save to Custom Colors doesn't save.  This is really frustrating when you have A LOT of custom colors.  Is there a way to have no background color?
      How do you change the color? Do you change it in the property dialog, or in options -> settings? At the moment changing colors in options -> settings doesn't work.
BTW you cannot set different colors for the same control type. The color setting for a certain control type applies to all pages. What do you mean, having no background color?
    I wasn't aware that you could not apply a different background color to the same controls.  I'll have to figure out a way to live with that.  I don't understand why there is a color selector under the individual object properties then.  You should set it in options -> settings and leave it alone.  By no background color I mean transparent.  This would allow a DRO Or label to simply show text rather than a box around it.  Is it possible to use a transparent PNG file as the background?  I also vaguely remember reading somewhere that Mach 3 interprets RGB 254,254,254 as transparent.  I'll give both of those approaches a try
4) Swap Layers isn't working.  The dialog appears when 2 objects are selected but doesn't change the layers
       Swapping layers work only on same controls-types .
    OK
5) Is the source code for MachScreen available?
       No, I will not publish the source code
    I completely understand.  I didn't know if this product was open-source or not and you were working on it with others.  I have been programming for 33 years and thought I might be able to help.

Thanks again for all your hard work and your quick response.
Klaus

Hi dotScott

1)  I was suggesting that an option would be to allow the user to unlock an object in the overview page.  This would allow you to lock an object such as a background graphic and never touch it again while you're manipulating the smaller objects that sit on top of it.  When I set the background, I never want to select it again.
   
     I will think about that

2)  I noticed that some of the image buttons had the word 'None' entered in their Path.  These controls had a black box around them while other image buttons paths that were empty showed no border
     I suppose you mean transparent bitmap buttons, if they wouldn't have a frame they would be invisible. When you select a control, just above the property combo box you'll find the control type
 
3)  I wasn't aware that you could not apply a different background color to the same controls.  I'll have to figure out a way to live with that.  I don't understand why there is a color selector under the individual object properties then.  You should set it in options -> settings and leave it alone.  By no background color I mean transparent.  This would allow a DRO Or label to simply show text rather than a box around it.  Is it possible to use a transparent PNG file as the background?  I also vaguely remember reading somewhere that Mach 3 interprets RGB 254,254,254 as transparent.  I'll give both of those approaches a try
       This gives the opportunity, to change the controls color and see immediately the result. All controls except bitmaps are drawn by Mach3. Mach takes only the position, size, an id identifying the control and few attributes from the *.set file to draw the control.  I'm afraid a transparent background won't work.


Klaus

By no background color I mean transparent.  This would allow a DRO Or label to simply show text rather than a box around it.

In General config, there's an option for "boxed dro's". Uncheck it. But the DRO background color should match the bitmap background so you don;t see a different color. If the colors match, and you uncheck the "boxed" option, then you'll only see the numbers, and no box.

Thanks for the quick replies.  In the case of the screen I'm creating, there are several different background colors for different areas of interest.  The DROs also have different background colors.  It's not a terribly dramatic change in colors (shades of gray) so I may be able to live with it.  A lot of my design concerns could be solved by allowing the global DRO and label background to be nothing or transparent.  I'll post my new mockup in the Under Development forum and you'll see what I mean.  In response to a lot of requests for a modern interface and my own personal preferences, I've started to create my first skin.  Thanks for all your help.

Mach3 is limited to the single background color. It's not a limitation of the screen designer. Also, you can't have transparent backgrounds. I've tried it with LED's. The screen is not continually refreshed, the new values are written over the top, and the background "erases" the previous contents. If it were transparent, you'd see the numbers on top of each other. WHen I tried it with an LED with different words, both words were visible when the LED changed state.

Thanks.  That makes sense.  I've posted a screen capture of my mockup in the Under Development forum.  The DROs I was referring to are the Axis position and corresponding scale.  There is a slight variation in shade to differentiate the controls.  I'll have to figure out a way to make them work.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,15407.0.html