To my understanding, a limitation with tool control bars right now is that they aren't too dynamic. For example, when I draw lines: - I'd like dotted lines and markers to appear in the tool control bar for lines without shapes - But with the "from clipboard" option, I'd like width, repeat style etc. to appear there instead.
But without introducing new interface features, the tool control bar is pretty much static right now, so we face all-or-nothing situations.
Is it possible to have two layers of tool selection instead?
Explanation:
Right now: [tool control bar] [t o o l b a r]
Proposal:
[subtools] | [subtool control bar] [t o o l b a r]
I'm asking this because it'd allow for several things: - Consolidate the shapes tools into one button in the toolbar. Instead, sub-shapes appear in the subtools bar. - If more 3D shapes are added, they can similarly be grouped into a single button in the toolbar, while allowing each shape to have its own controls. - When tech-drawing becomes available, they could be accessed from the top-level instead of as LPEs - unshaped line, "from clipboard" line, powerstroke line and maybe other line effects (sketch?) can be treated as separate sub-tools with their own top-level control bars (so you don't need to open the LPE dialogue) - transformation options such as perspective, envelop and envelop deform can become available as sub-tools of the transform tool - composition guides, maybe common on-canvas tiling options (symmetry, radial and normal tiling - anything more advanced must be accessed from a separate panel) become available from top-level - extra mode in text tool for controlling flowing text into shapes? (for graphs and such)
Of course, it it's not possible, then that's that. It seemed like a possibility worth asking.