Right now the way to snap the straight lines to specific angles is to press V, start drawing the line, and before ending the stroke pressing down Shift. Could it be changed so that just pressing Shift and V together in any order would make it snap to specific degrees?
As I understand it, the use of the Shift key in this situation (and other situations, along with similar use of the Ctrl and Alt keys) is a special modifier action that can only be done after the action has started, by left-click or stylus touch.
As such, it’s very different from only pressing Shift+key which would be a keyboard shortcut or a canvas input settings function.
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I don’t see why it must be done after clicking. It should be possible to just Shift+V for snapping straight lines. Doing a Hold V + Hold left click (start drawing and hold) + Hold Shift + Then let go of drawing — this is quite a juggling act, and it makes it harder to do this thing in quick succession, with ease.
I mean I understand that Shift is the modifier key for changing brush size, by default. But pressing and holding Shift+V together should be able to cancel out the Brush Size modifier and go to the Snapping Straight Line.
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I think you have a valid point here. While the Line Tool functionality is really great as a tool itself, I always think “this could be faster”. Of course, there’s always the comparison to other tools, but less clicks for the same result is always better in every tool and software.
An idea could be to do it like this and also add in Ctrl for constrained snapping.
Shift + Click always is faster than holding V, click starting point, move to endpoint and click again. I’m a lefty, so I sometimes have to reach to V over my left hand that holds the stylus, which is really uncomfortable.
Little bit off-topic: I have been learning the absolute basics of python but can’t make sense of these things yet, I can simply call a filter in the Scripter or something simple as that. I might be more able in the future, would be great to try these things myself.
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Though I do understand the point to point click lines, I wanted this myself too at first, but you can hold the associated hotkey to activate the line tool and already release the hotkey when the pen is down (mouse button is pressed). To me that’s even faster. And, if precision is your thing, you can take the time to accurately aim the end point, so no need to guess. Just FYI, by holding alt, you can also move the line’s origin point.
Also, note that if you map the line tool to Shift + LMB in the canvas input settings, you’ll get a constrained line with 5 degree angle increments. That is because holding shift with the line tool active, you’ll activate the angle constraints, so it’s a two in one. If you don’t like this behaviour, you can map the line tool activation to another button, or release shift again to release the angle constraints.
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If you want to activate the line tool pressing v then it means that you have other tool selected. So just presing shift may have another meaning in that other tool (select secondary action for example). Also one can have shift+v associated with other action. So you have to enter the line mode first. It is tricky to implement an input system that satisfies every case.
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I understand that, all I was saying is that it works suprisingly well with shift + LMB too. In fact, it’s pretty convenient that the lines are constrained by default too at times.
My only thought is that shift and v key are quite far apart to press with one hand comfortably.