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sword
10-23-2012, 04:06 AM
Hey all,

I've been keeping a notepad of features that I add to whenever I see a need for improvement on NeckDiagrams. Been using the program about a month or so now and I gotta say it's one of the most useful programs I ever bought. Wish a thousand times over I'd had it when I was creating diagrams for my Texas Blues Guitar (http://www.SecretsofTexasBluesGuitar.com) course a year ago. Those were all done in CorelDraw from scratch. Hours and hours could have been saved!

Anyway, here they are. Hopefully most of these will be implemented sooner rather than later.

- Allow interval preferences to show "Change all intervals after the 1st octave to extended/compound intervals."
- Ability to change line color
- Ability to copy/paste notes, lines, colors, etc. onto separate chord/scale diagrams within same document (I've noticed you can't copy these and paste them on another diagram on the same page)
- Chord Generator/Reverse Chord Finder (Why not have a tool to build chords, inversions, voicings, etc.?)
- Tab Symbols (Bends: Whole+1/2, Whole, 1/2, 1/4; Slides; Hammer-ons & Pull-offs)
- Drawing Symbols (Circling areas of fretboard, arrows, highlight, etc. if you wanted to show a certain portion of the fretboard rather than having to change note colors.)
- Allow open notes to be hollow with text inside (currently can only have text inside solid notes, see next)
- Option to make open notes as big in diameter as fretted notes (goes along with previous)
- Ability to Duplicate chord charts (make a copy to edit) (currently have to save a template but would be nice to right click on a saved diagram and select "Duplicate" or "Make a copy")
- Ability to rotate objects (Would like to be able to create text and rotate it vertically so you can read it sideways)
- Bug: Ability to open templates with notes still on diagrams. (Everything was correct, but notes were missing when I opened template, even though notes were present in the thumbnail image for the template.)
- "Clear Guides" function with warning "Are you sure you want to clear all your guides?"


Justin, I have samples of what I created for my Texas Blues Guitar course if you would like me to email them to you for examples of what I had to create from scratch.

Sorry for the long post, but wanted to do this before I thought of anything else ;)

Justin
10-25-2012, 11:14 AM
Hi!

Welcome to the forum, first of all :)
Long posts are fine of course, especially when you say nice things like

I gotta say it's one of the most useful programs I ever bought.

I'll try to answer your questions/address your points, although I might need to come back and post again later for some of them!


- Allow interval preferences to show "Change all intervals after the 1st octave to extended/compound intervals."
This is already implemented for the upcoming v1.9 release! There'll be a new option on the 'Interval Names' Preferences page, like this:


http://www.neckdiagrams.com/forums-imgs/upper-extensions.jpg

Now just the small matter of wrapping up 1.9 and getting it out ;)


- Ability to change line color
- Drawing Symbols (Circling areas of fretboard, arrows, highlight, etc. if you wanted to show a certain portion of the fretboard rather than having to change note colors.)

The primary focus so far has been to make sure the fretboard editing is as flexible and powerful as possible! But yes, now is the time to expand and add other features, so line changes will be coming. I'm planning a new simpler line tool so you can draw arbitrary lines as well as the current 'connection' approach. Plus they'll have more attributes so you change the colour/line width and hopeful add arrow heads for example. And adding squares/rectangles/circles/ellipses also makes total sense.


- Ability to copy/paste notes, lines, colors, etc. onto separate chord/scale diagrams within same document (I've noticed you can't copy these and paste them on another diagram on the same page)

Yes, this one's come up before on the forum and in emails! For some reason I originally assumed folks wouldn't want to do this, that you'd just copy the fretboard, but I obviously e.g. if you already have a template page with fretboards on it they you don't want to copy a whole fretboard from somewhere else! This is definitely on the task list already..


- Tab Symbols (Bends: Whole+1/2, Whole, 1/2, 1/4; Slides; Hammer-ons & Pull-offs)

I've been toying with the idea of some kind of tab editing support, probably very basic initially... but I'd not thought about have tools for tab symbols. Very interesting idea... Not sure how you'd add these - you'd need to select the tool and click a note I guess - sizing would need to be relative to the size of the fretboard but you'd probably want to be able to resize yourself also I imagine... Another ticket for the task list, will need a little thought.


- Chord Generator/Reverse Chord Finder (Why not have a tool to build chords, inversions, voicings, etc.?)

Definitely! Quite a popular request as I'm sure you can imagine.. It's not an easy task as ideally it should be done algorithmically rather than based on some fixed chord database. Wonder how other programs approach this...

Got to go now, but I'll post re the other items later, hopefully today...

Justin
10-25-2012, 01:51 PM
- Allow open notes to be hollow with text inside (currently can only have text inside solid notes, see next)
- Option to make open notes as big in diameter as fretted notes (goes along with previous)

I'll probably be changing things here so you can just drag regular note markers onto the nut. Having a special open string marker is probably too restrictive. Plus there'll be some kind of note marker size option, perhaps a small/regular/large drop-down or a slider so you can increase/decrease in steps...


- Ability to Duplicate chord charts (make a copy to edit) (currently have to save a template but would be nice to right click on a saved diagram and select "Duplicate" or "Make a copy")

This you can already do! Sounds like you've not noticed you can simply cut/copy/paste in the Diagram Gallery, either the thumbnail itself or from the file list on the left. Or you can use CTRL+mouse drag (CMD if on a Mac) to copy also...


- Ability to rotate objects (Would like to be able to create text and rotate it vertically so you can read it sideways)

I might have a ticket for this already, if not will add one...


- Bug: Ability to open templates with notes still on diagrams. (Everything was correct, but notes were missing when I opened template, even though notes were present in the thumbnail image for the template.)

Well this is by design. My assumption is that a template should just be the fretboards - as you then want to create new stuff on them, no? If you want to keep the notes on then you can just copy/paste and existing page as described above!


- "Clear Guides" function with warning "Are you sure you want to clear all your guides?"

Aha yes this would be a bit of time saver - I'll raise a ticket!

Thanks for your suggestions - keep them coming, and let me know if you've any thoughts/responses to what I've written :)

sword
10-26-2012, 07:41 PM
Dude, you're awesome! Didn't think you'd have time to reply this quickly. Thanks so much for considering my requests. This program definitely does rock. I'm always thinking about how to create new things with it in my spare time. Definitely a fun way to pass the time productively :D



- Ability to Duplicate chord charts (make a copy to edit) (currently have to save a template but would be nice to right click on a saved diagram and select "Duplicate" or "Make a copy")

This you can already do! Sounds like you've not noticed you can simply cut/copy/paste in the Diagram Gallery, either the thumbnail itself or from the file list on the left. Or you can use CTRL+mouse drag (CMD if on a Mac) to copy.


Didn't know you could already duplicate chord charts! This will be a great time saver!


- Bug: Ability to open templates with notes still on diagrams. (Everything was correct, but notes were missing when I opened template, even though notes were present in the thumbnail image for the template.)

Well this is by design. My assumption is that a template should just be the fretboards - as you then want to create new stuff on them, no? If you want to keep the notes on then you can just copy/paste and existing page as described above!

Here's my thinking: If you wanted to relate all other scales to the Major/Minor Pentatonic you could have a template saved with just these dot markers. Then you could go back and add the new notes based on whatever scale you wanted to (in different colors, hollow notes, etc.) so that the student could see the relationship between the scales.


- Tab Symbols (Bends: Whole+1/2, Whole, 1/2, 1/4; Slides; Hammer-ons & Pull-offs)

I've been toying with the idea of some kind of tab editing support, probably very basic initially... but I'd not thought about have tools for tab symbols. Very interesting idea... Not sure how you'd add these - you'd need to select the tool and click a note I guess - sizing would need to be relative to the size of the fretboard but you'd probably want to be able to resize yourself also I imagine... Another ticket for the task list, will need a little thought.

38

Obviously not the best example, but here's an idea as to what I was thinking about slides, hammer-ons/pull-offs, and bends.

Thanks again for giving us an idea of these suggestions and how they might be implemented into version 1.9. I recall seeing something about you wanting to have it done and released by the end of this month. That would be awesome, but even if it isn't, my guess is that with that kind of deadline it won't take you long to release it soon either way!

Justin
11-07-2012, 12:39 PM
Re the notes on the templates:


Here's my thinking: If you wanted to relate all other scales to the Major/Minor Pentatonic you could have a template saved with just these dot markers. Then you could go back and add the new notes based on whatever scale you wanted to (in different colors, hollow notes, etc.) so that the student could see the relationship between the scales.

Sounds like I should add a checkbox on the 'Save as template' window so users can choose whether to save the notes or not, right? Curious that the thumbnail shows the notes so I wonder if they're getting removed after which'll maybe complicate things, although then I'd add the option to the Preferences instead!


I recall seeing something about you wanting to have it done and released by the end of this month. That would be awesome, but even if it isn't, my guess is that with that kind of deadline it won't take you long to release it soon either way!

Unfortunately the day job isn't giving me much free time at the moment, especially if I don't want a divorce :p But finishing all the coding isn't the end; not ready to ship by a long way at that point! There's the website to update also which is a pile of work too - just updating the Version History (http://neckdiagrams.com/download/version-history) page with details and pics of the changes is a bunch of effort, plus a newsletter needs to be created...

But getting there, one step at a time!