Feature requests - Glue behavior (LayOut)

In LayOut, if we want to glue two paths together, it is necessary to first place their end Points on top of one another.
Why?

Can we please have it so that you can select any two end points and using Glue and it will add a connecting line?

Thanks!

Why don’t you just draw a line between the end points?

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Simply, I find that often the l end points are very close to each other and it can be a bit fiddly to snap them together, especially on small segments or in documents with overlapping groups, layers, etc.

It’s not helped by the fact that LayOut’s cursor accuracy and snap settings being a bit haphazard and require Object snapping to be turned on first. Glue would be a handy way to just say “connect these two edges, please!” So I really just think it could be more intuitive, and also consistent with other software (the idea of “Join” paths in Adobe/Autodesk, etc).

The instructor for the Glue tool says “join two segments together” - not very clear, imo. To be accurate, it should say something like “make two different paths into one path, when their end points are in the exact same place”.
Confusingly, the Glue tool’s cursor selects whole paths and other objects, hinting that they can be connected together - but they can’t. As it stands, the glue tool should simply highlight and select the End points of paths only. This also might make snapping and connecting things a bit easier.

At the moment, since Glue just doesn’t do anything more than joining two end points, this is actually a function that could be automated; ie, when your drag two end points to touch, they automatically connect (glue) , or you get this option by holding Alt or something. Auto-connect is a feature/option on other popular software.

The slightly bigger issue is this:

Glue is similar, but not as good as SketchUp’s Weld (welds multiple paths/segments) and Close Edge Gaps (detect and close based on proximity).
In fact, Glue should probably be renamed Weld for consistency with SU because it appears to do the exact same thing, except Weld can select and then connect multiple edges at the same time.

In SketchUp, and in other CAD/BIM software, Glue is a different concept entirely - it’s used to attach objects to a Gluing Plane; a face or section plane. (in other software it would also encompass things being attached to an anchor Point, Edge, guide or other Component).

The term Glue to a non-cad user probably suggests a “merge” or “intersect” function (you’re gluing two things together to make one big thing). This could get confusing with the concept of “Group”, however.

I guess this all comes back to the whole question of drawing in LO. Some people manage to do it quite a lot and seem to actually like doing it. Others, like me, avoid it like the plague, finding it a bit like trying to send home a screw with a hammer. I imagine that LO was originally conceived as “not for drawing with” but had to have some basic functions to allow you to create title blocks and other basic geometry. More recently, its functionality was upgraded (especially with Scale Drawing) to make it a little bit more like a trad 2D drawing system. But I do mean just a little bit more.

Some people have trouble drawing in 2D in SU, but I find it easy enough and much prefer it to using LO.

I don’t think many people would disagree that there need to be much closer integration between SU and LO, with commonalities instead of divergences. So, as you suggest, words like “glue” should not mean different things between the two packages.

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Sorry to be pedantic but I can find no reference to the word glue to describe the Join tool and how it works… :wink:

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