Delete the workspace tabs and put the pull down menus back?

[chevyeater]

I don't like having 1/3 of my screen constantly taken up by the display explorer menu and I don't always want to look at the same things in a given subsection.

[chevyeater]

I'm sorry if my comments are bieng recieved harshly. That is not my intention. I think that improving on the AEMPro software is a daunting task, it really is one of the best around (I have used almost everything extensively).

If anything, I would have chosen more of an upgrade and detail improvement to AEMPro rather than trying to re-invent the best software around...

[tastyratz]

I also feel like there is a lot of lost real estate by having a tree menu. Drop downs were superb, but I guess if it HAD to be the workspace some sort of autohide function might be better.

[SB]

The whole concept of the workspace is you should be able to customize it in such a way that you don't need to use the left-side menu very often if at all... I'd suggest you customize a few tabs so they each provide an interface similar to the Templates you may have customized using AEMPro and then assign those tabs to hotkeys so you can switch between them quickly.

We've tried to provide tabs that are useful for first-time vehicle setup such as the Breakpoints tab and Sensors tab (both may be hidden in the default workspace), but if you need something else you should have all the tools necessary to create what you need.

I'm creating an AEMTuner intro and FAQ thread, there's a section on creating new tabs and assigning them to hotkeys: http://forum.aempower.com/forum/index.php/topic,23069.msg122254.html#msg122254

[tastyratz]

SB,
I think the issue isn't in whether or not its customizable, but just the fact that we now lose the left 1/3rd of our screen to show our menu selections constantly. Think of it like having the drop down menu's where they didn't disappear after selecting what you want... you have valuable space you could be displaying values in.

What about an option similar to the "auto hide" for the windows task bar, a hot key that toggles workspace back and forth, or a dynamically resizing workspace that only takes up enough room to show the most relevant current submenu? All ideas...

[SB]

I'm not sure if I understand exactly what you're asking, but there are already quite a few hotkeys for displaying and hiding the info that may be useful occasionally but takes up screen space that experienced tuners may not want occupied.


Try F2,  F3,  CTRL+B, CTRL+H, and CTRL+Spacebar... let me know if that is similar to what you're looking for. Remember you can reassign all of those hotkeys if they are things you want to show and/or hide on a regular basis.

[tastyratz]

Those hotkeys seem to have done the trick, the display explorer really was what was driving me completely nuts... although maybe an autohide slider option would be nice where it disappeared after a few seconds without mouseover.

[trbo2dr]

SB,
I think the issue isn't in whether or not its customizable, but just the fact that we now lose the left 1/3rd of our screen to show our menu selections constantly. Think of it like having the drop down menu's where they didn't disappear after selecting what you want... you have valuable space you could be displaying values in.

What about an option similar to the "auto hide" for the windows task bar, a hot key that toggles workspace back and forth, or a dynamically resizing workspace that only takes up enough room to show the most relevant current submenu? All ideas...

I think you're totally missing the point of having the workspace.  You set it up once using the display explorer and then you're done with it.  You assign the parameters and options and tables you want to each tab and then you go from tab to tab to get what you need.  You're not supposed to leave the display explorer open all the time.   

[chevyeater]

The whole concept of the workspace is you should be able to customize it in such a way that you don't need to use the left-side menu very often if at all... I'd suggest you customize a few tabs so they each provide an interface similar to the Templates you may have customized using AEMPro and then assign those tabs to hotkeys so you can switch between them quickly.

We've tried to provide tabs that are useful for first-time vehicle setup such as the Breakpoints tab and Sensors tab (both may be hidden in the default workspace), but if you need something else you should have all the tools necessary to create what you need.

I'm creating an AEMTuner intro and FAQ thread, there's a section on creating new tabs and assigning them to hotkeys: http://forum.aempower.com/forum/index.php/topic,23069.msg122254.html#msg122254

Thanks for the reply. I realized the concept pretty quickly. It just doesn't fit my needs at all well, no matter how it is configured.

Let me use idle as an example. When I initially set up idle control, I want to see idle options, rpm vs. temp table, % vs. target table and standard idle parameters window. When I am later tuning driveability, I want to see advanced idle options, rpm offset vs. TPS table etc. If a car has an idle problem that I need to troubleshoot, there is yet another group of tables and parameters I want. If I load them all in the idle tab, I can't see any of them. If I make a ton of tabs for every specific layout I want for every situation, I have waaaaaayyyy to many tabs and wind up scrolling back and forth all day looking for the tab for this or that.

The end result is my empty workspaces and a permanently open display explorer. If you want to make it function better than AEMPro, make user programmable drop down menus. Then I can make a menu selection to open an idle setup template, an idle tuning template and an idle troubleshooting template without scrolling across acres of tabs that are always at the top of the screen.

[NS]

You can always create multiple workspaces.  One for basic tuning, one for drivability, one for troubleshooting, etc.  Just load the one you need.   

[AZ]

...

The end result is my empty workspaces and a permanently open display explorer. If you want to make it function better than AEMPro, make user programmable drop down menus. Then I can make a menu selection to open an idle setup template, an idle tuning template and an idle troubleshooting template without scrolling across acres of tabs that are always at the top of the screen.

There is a button called quick jump button, which is in the middle of the two navigation buttons on the right side of the tab strip. You can click to jump through all your tabs. That list is alphabetical ordered, so the drawback I guess is the lack of logical grouping. Like having a Idle "group"(menu in AEMPro) to include all your Idle tabs/layouts(templates in AEMPro).

Based on the current functionality of tabs, a possible way to handle the grouping is to have a "bookmarks" like toolbar/menu. (just like what you see in any web-browser, imagine layouts as bookmarks) So you can create your own groups(as folders in bookmarks) to include some layouts(as bookmarks in web-browser). You click the layout, it shows under a tab, you click another layout, it shows under another tab. (Note this is different than AEMPro because AEMPro always show one "tab" at a time) Those "unclicked" layouts will be hidden, that means you'll have to create them first, then hide them. (we already have a "show hidden tabs" command in AEMTuner)

Another way to go is to have tab/layouts added into the Display Explorer.

What do you guys think of this?

[Bugermass]

I agree the new workspace thing is a bit more cumbersome to use, and there seems to be less freedom on sizing and arranging windows since everything kinda autosnaps together. Just my first impressions of it.. But seems to be going in the wrong direction. At this point I agree with the guy that said you'd be beter of tweaking AEM PRO cause the way it navigates is already pretty effecient.

[Bugermass]

I've been having a hard time replicating this workspace in the new version of AEM tuner..


The way it snaps stuff in place just makes it difficult.

Is there a way to disable the window snapping?

[NS]

I've been having a hard time replicating this workspace in the new version of AEM tuner..


The way it snaps stuff in place just makes it difficult.

Is there a way to disable the window snapping?

You just need more practice. 

[Bugermass]

But you have scroll bars and your zoom is off on the bottom map.. They way I have mine I can see the whole of both maps with no scrolling..