Selecting multiple areas without excluding overlapping parts

encart

@VectorStyler From what I see, most of the combinations are already taken. Perhaps an alternative mode could be added in the settings. I usually select elements by dragging the area, and then, if I want to exclude something, I click on a specific object/node. However, I understand that everyone uses it according to their needs.

VectorStyler

@encart There will be some option for this soon (the default will have to stay, as it is the same in other apps)

Boldline

@encart said in Selecting multiple areas without excluding overlapping parts:

then, if I want to exclude something, I click on a specific object/node.

@encart do you ever issues trying to deselect an object in the middle of a bunch of selected objects? I find it easy to deselect an object that is near the edge of the selection and much harder to deselect on that is surrounded by selected objects behind and around it.

The other issue I run into is knowing for sure if the selected object is actually selected/de-selected when its not obvious based on other factors

encart

@Boldline Yes, I'm having various problems with this too. Today I tried to solve this puzzle. I think I found the cause. I noticed that selecting and deselecting is more difficult when cursor is bigger than object. I also noticed that a collision symbol appears next to the cursor when pressing Shift. I started looking in the settings: Settings -> Modifier Keys -> Move with Collider. I disabled this option and it helped. I think there's a conflict. Check if it works for you.

Boldline

@encart said in Selecting multiple areas without excluding overlapping parts:

I also noticed that a collision symbol appears next to the cursor when pressing Shift. I started looking in the settings: Settings -> Modifier Keys -> Move with Collider. I disabled this option and it helped. I think there's a conflict.

@encart YES! That was exactly what I had noticed and what was causing me issues as well! Over time I was trying to figure out what that symbol was that my cursor was changing into and why it was showing up when I was trying to add or remove from active selections.

I'm not running into that issue anymore with that feature turned off. I know we're always running out of shortcuts, but shift seems to be the wrong option there because its being used at the same time to add to a selection. Thank you for sharing that tip. You articulated exactly what I was running into but was unable to understand and describe.

encart

@Boldline Great, I'm glad it helped you. You're right, there are so many features already that sometimes situations like this can arise.

debraspicher

@Boldline I'd been emailing about different selection issues. This is why I record every time I use VS because there's so many little things that can be easily missed. I can go back through a recording and at least see what happened even if I don't understand why... I'll still try to report it.

Boldline

@debraspicher said in Selecting multiple areas without excluding overlapping parts:

This is why I record every time I use VS because there's so many little things that can be easily missed. I can go back through a recording and at least see what happened even if I don't understand why...

What kind of settings do you use? (Not in terms of applications) are you recording your whole screen? recording to an external drive? what kind of frame rate are you choosing? Are you doing them in small sessions? Any other tips and tricks that have worked for you?

debraspicher

@Boldline I have 5 drives installed and most are "fat drives" so a good storage solution for general media storage and backups. An external would be fine also. I record to one of the drives as I work to a folder set for OBS recordings and I delete older recordings overtime just for clean up.

I'm recording 1080p/4K at 60fps depending on the situation in OBS and then I run something like Key n' Stroke for showing onscreen keys/clicks. I drag and drop the video files into Handbrake afterwards so I'm not sharing massive files. It does a great job of keeping the files slim and then I upload them to Onedrive where I have a folder separating different reports and sample files.

Both OBS and Handbrake are open source and free to use. OBS runs very well along with everything else and is a solution many use and many other "paid" solutions are variations of OBS:

https://obsproject.com/download
https://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

In OBS it is now possible to set to record to "Hybrid .mp4" which is critical because if there is a crash, etc, then the video file will still be readable. Many other formats will require a stopped recording to finalize, so keep that in mind. However it is recorded is less important if you're running it through Handbrake anyway which will reformat it into whatever settings are chosen.

I have a ~~dynamic~~ condenser mic which I have tuned but a vast majority of that is for personal recordings rather than for streaming... I recommend if you get a "good mic", setup filters so that it's not picking up everything in your vicinity. It does not need need to be hundreds of dollars. Mine is a $70-80 Mackie with the proper software filtering to block out all the noise in my local environment.

If you have an Nvidia GPU, do take advantage of that also and use their filters which are pretty darn great...

This is a good introductory to setting up OBS mic filters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcLUJ3bR4Yk

Here are my OBS "Recording" settings:

Handbrake is fairly straightforward to adjust. Most people use mp4. The only thing I changed is I set it to "compress" my files locally and keep them in the same folder with a suffix:

Preferences > Output Files

If you need anything more than that, just PM... I'm also in the VS Discord

Edit: Actually it's a condenser mic. I got it mixed up with husband's music setup...

debraspicher

@Boldline Sorry, there's more...

To answer again to your first question, yes I'm recording the screen (1 monitor specifically). I run these recordings the entire time I'm working as they don't cause a performance hit and it's "set and forget". My older setups handle it well also.

I usually keep OBS and other sensitive apps up on my secondary monitor. But there is an option in OBS settings also to hide its own screen from the recording itself. That can make your life easier.

You can technically limit to certain windowed applications, but it doesn't work very well for applications that heavily utilize pop up panels or dialogs if they're not sharing what it considers to be the same container (VS is one of them, iirc).

The only other "tip" I have is to enable the "Replay" function if you use OBS. Set it a rare shortcut like Ctrl + F12 or something. So say you set that buffer to 120 seconds, when you press the button for it, it will cut a clip for you immediately that is 120 seconds long up until the point you pressed the key. The caveat is you have to "start" the Replay Buffer, but there are settings to auto-enable it. The benefit I have found is when I'm in-between recordings writing an email sometimes I'll check something in a program I'm reviewing and see some problem but it will happen of course when I'm outside of the recording session. This still allows issues to be caught (within that time window) and that has helped me more than a few times.

That option can also save you tons of storage if you don't want to do constant recording. Just leave that functionality on and don't turn on record. You can still save your clips, but you won't have everything outside of that time window, obviously.

In Handbrake you can type in the time code manually also if you use longer recordings and it will slice the video within the time codes you put in.