Windows Mouse Hover Tooltip

[CNC22369]

Is it possible to implement within a macro the Windows mouse hover tooltip capability for select screen buttons? If so does anyone have a code example they would share?

Thank you,
Frank

[cncdrive]

Currently it is not possible, because the GUI of the UCCNC is not Windows GDI+ graphics, it is not even Windows Forms graphics, but an OpenGL 3D screen. The buttons are bitmap images rendered on triangles.
So, there are no events for tooltip, because the GUI is all drawn with code and they are not buttons in real.

We could ofcourse implement tooltips with code and could make it act like if it was standard Windows tooptips, but we did not think that it would be useful for anything, so we did not implement it yet.

[Robertspark]

Why would wand to do it via a macro?

I mean a macro is just an automated task sequence of machine motion, delay or calculation.

It can be done in a plugin and it can be done in a macro wizard.

A macro is not the same as a macro wizard.

Also in a plugin or macro wizard the tooltips would just apply to that form (the form of the plugin or macro wizard) but not to the uccnc screen set.

Can you explain exactly what you want as it is not clear

[cncdrive]

I think he wants to apply a tooltip to the UCCNC's main GUI and not to a separate form (a macro, macroloop or plugin Form).
And this is not possible, because the GUI of the UCCNC is an OpenGL screen and not Windows GDI+. So, it would be only possible if we code the whole tooltip handling (mouse position calculations etc.) ourselves in the UCCNC and give an interface to the macros and plugins.

[Robertspark]

Yes I thought so too, but he talks of "macro" in his original post, and also it is in the macros section, that is why I sort of ignored it when it was first posted.

For the main GUI I do not believe it is required or useful.
I mean if you have to have a tooltip to give you a clue .... Should you be operating a CNC machine?
Also the tasks are somewhat repetitive.... So once you've pressed the load file, rewind a few times you know what they do..... Once you have set the ports and pins you should never need to do it again...

[cncdrive]

I can only think about usefulness in the learning curve when the user is still learning how to operate the software and so some tooltips might be helpful, but in the normal usage period when the user already knows what buttons are doing what then it would be only annoying getting tooltips.

[ger21]

Not only would you yo program them, you'd then have to program a way to turn them off.

[CNC22369]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply to my question about tooltip capability. I understand your replies. I do not have a serious need for the capability, but thought if it were possible, I might use it in a limited way on a new Run screen I'm working on. I am prototyping a Run screen that is heavily based on Icon buttons rather than text label buttons. I don't know if I will adopt the Icon based screen for daily use, but I want to see if a structured, matrix oriented screen layout makes sense for me, particularly when using a touch screen. Attached is a "work in progress" screen shot.

[dezsoe]

It looks very nice! I have an idea to make the tooltip, I'll try it on the weekend.