Problem with Character Height setting and text in the numbers only input box

LightBurn Software Questions
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1

I have brought this up before and was told it is just how LB behaves, but the more times I have this happen the more and more it looks like a fixable defect.

Current Version 1.7.07, Windows version (Ruida and Galvo)

When I click on the text tool and notice the height needs to be changed I will click the up down arrows next to the height number box as I click the up or down I will see the value in the number box increase or decrease as expected, I will also see the text cursor either get smaller or larger as expected.

Bu then when I have the height set to the value I want I will start typing my text, I am expecting the text characters to be displayed at the text cursor on the workspace. What happens instead is the text characters are entered into the height number box and nothing is entered as text on the workspace.

For Example if I have used the arrows to decrease the text height to .484 and then the type “Hello” the height number box will contain “.484Hello” and no text will appear in the workspace.

I then have two choices I can backspace over the text that was allowed to be entered into the number box or I can click within the workspace again and the text will disappear from the number box. I can then type “Hello” again to see it appear in the workspace.

What I would expect to happen is that after I have clicked the up/down height buttons I can begin typing text and it will immediately appear in the workspace. Since the text characters are not valid numbers they should never be allowed to appear in a numbers only entry box.

So I increase the text height to .484 then type Hello and the text height will be .484 and the text Hello will appear in the workspace.

I have noticed this happens in a lot of number only data entry boxes, text type after the box was selected and modified the text will be loaded into the numbers only data entry box.

I know LB is a very complex software tool with incredibly difficult tasks to perform (and it does those tasks so well I am constantly amazed) but it should never allow characters to be entered into a numbers only data field. At the very least it should just give a little outraged warning beep and stop the offending character from being loaded. An even better result would be for LB to understand that I had the Character tool selected, modified the height and then when it sees a character just go ahead and enter it as a character onto the workspace.

Thanks for reading this, I know it is a very picky comment that is very easy for the user to correct and get on with, but each time it happens the old programmer in me wants to open the code base and add a numbers only filter to that input box.

2

Also if you just click on text tool and try to typing, nothing happen. I think this is because you not specified where on workspace to write (workspace is not on focus)… By the same logic, when you choose the height of the text, the focus is on the same field, not on the workspace… Is not big problem, but how you mention after correction with arrows ot typing and hit enter just need to move focus on workspace

1 Like
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This and:
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The boxes aren´t only for numbers.
You can input 2in or 33/2 and Lightburn do the math.

4

Sorry, but this post ended up being a lot longer than I intended and it may even read as a bit snarky. I did not mean for it to be but in order to make the point I was trying to make I needed to include some examples and some number with 4 decimal points of precision and a lot of words. Please forgive me for all that. I have way to much free time on my hands after I retired

I just tried that by entering “1in” in the box and it did change the value to 1 when I clicked in the workspace. Then I measured the height of the characters and they were not 1 inch tall. I had the Arial font selected and the characters were .7122 inches tall. So what is the purpose of being able to enter “1in” if you do not get characters one inch in height?

I then entered “1/2” in the height box and clicked in the workspace and you are correct it did do the math and changed the height to “.5” But when I measured the character height (still using Arial font) the characters were .3595 inches tall. So I guess being able to do math in a height box might be useful sometimes (I have never needed to do it before) it should actually set the character height to the value you needed to calculate.

I have always just assumed that the actual character height was just a relative number meaning a height of 2 is about twice as big as a character height of 1 so just increase/decrease the value till the character height is what you need.

But now with the new information that the height field understands units (Inches) and can do simple math, I was curious to see how that worked out. So I set the height to 1 inch and got characters .7122 inches in height and then set the height to .5 and got characters .3567 inches tall.

I guess I would have expected that “.5” entered into the height box to at least give a character that was half the height of a character that had “1” entered into the height box. But half of .7122 is .3561 close but not exactly equal to the observed height of .3567

So it looks like I was correct, the actual height is not really the height entered in to the height box since it must vary a bit based on the selected font. I am 100% OK with the number in the height box not being the exact height of the character since font variations would make this a nightmare to figure out. So I will continue to use the height as a relative measure (2 is about twice and big as 1).

But this means I don’t need or want to be able to enter units or have the box do simple math since that makes no sense when the numbers are just relative measures and adding “IN” after the number does not really mean this is the actual value in inches. Nor should I be doing math’s on the relative values.

The 99.9% use case is to enter the relative value or use the up/ down arrows to get it close and then just type the text to display at the text cursor. But never have I wanted any of that text to be entered into the number field for the height.

5

The examples are only for you to know that Lightburn can´t restrict the boxes to numbers.

Per the font sizes an excerpt from the Lightburn documentation:
image

6

I just tried your experiment in Pages, Mac’s Word Processor and got the exact same results. I entered a font size in the dialog box and hit enter, then immediately started typing. Guess where the text went, into the font size dialog box, not onto the page, just like in Lightburn. You must click onto the page in a Word Processor and you must click into the work area in Lightburn in order for your typing to go where you want it.

Have I experienced the same thing you’re describing in Lightburn? Yes. Is it mildly frustrating? Again, yes. The fact is you must have an active text cursor to place text. The moment you click in the font size box you have taken the focus away from the text cursor and you won’t get that focus back until you click on it again.

7

Sounds like you are not clicking out of the text box. If you use the roller arrows, that assigns the Windows focus to that box. If you then type something, your are still in that box. This is how Windows works.

I usually click on the font box to move the focus so the setting will “take”.

9

Yes, I understand how it works, my comment was that is not how it should work since only number should be allowed in that data entry box.

If you read my entire comment you will understand what I am saying.

10

I did read your comments, but my reply is for the others reading this thread as well. @parsec explained why the input box could not be restricted to numbers only.

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