How to disable the pie menu on the location dot

Ask the Community
1

The new pie menu that appears when you click the location dot is really annoying when trying to input in features at your location. It is forcing us to be less accurate with inputs.

We can find no way to disable the pie menu in the settings and I can’t see anything to help in this forum.

Has anyone had any success in disabling it?

Thanks
Andrew.

2

Hello and welcome AKeen. I don’t know of a way to disable the pie menu, but maybe using the volume up key to add a feature (and volume down to remove the last feature added) is a good enough workaround?

3

@AKeen , how are you adding features? Via stylus? It should not get in the way when digitizing.

4

If you want to add a feature at your exact location, you can’t anymore as the pie menu just pops up instead, so you have to be inexact or walk away to put an item at that location.

Just a bit of a pain that there seems no way to turn off this annoying feature.

Thanks
AK

5

@AKeen , how are you adding the feature? Hitting the bottom right (+) feature/vertex addition button wouldn’t trigger the pie menu.

6

Yes there are workarounds with the plus button or using volume up when dragging the cursor to the correct place, but they are just annoying extra steps as it is much quicker to just tap the map where the feature is, and we can no longer do it if it’s at or near our location.

On surveys we have hundreds of features to input in only a few hours so adding extra steps to avoid the pie menu does cost time.

Thanks
AK

7

@AKeen , did you activate this option by any chance:

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Just to be clear on why I’m asking these follow up questions: there’s no way you can finger tap the map canvas to add a feature per say. You are digitizing with your finger, a mouse, or a stylus?

8

@Mathieu_Pellerin I believe they are using a stylus with the GNSS tracking enabled, it seems to be the same situation as on an issue on github (#6971). I’ve tried with a samsung tablet with a simple wacom stylus with no programmable buttons and can indeed replicate the issue. This is the only case, at least for me, were this problem makes sense.

At least on that issue, the thing is that when the following conditions meet:

  • The user only uses the stylus as input device (no touch, no buttons, etc.).
  • The GNSS tracking is enabled.

The following happens:

  • The normal ‘+’ button on the bottom right corner gets disabled.
  • The (+) cursor that indicates the target location for the next feature, usually in the center, no longer follows the stylus position.
  • Tapping over the GNSS position, (the blue arrow) opens the pie menu, which also does not have an option to add a feature.
  • Therefore, under the previous conditions the user cannot add new features.

Maybe an option to not disable the bottom right + icon when a stylus is detected could be the most straight forward solution?

9

Me too would be interested in an option to disable the pie menu. Digitizing via the volume button is not an option for me, as we use a second protective case for our tablets in harsh environments, which partially covers the volume button. Furthermore, we have to wear protective gloves at work, which makes operating the volume button difficult or impossible (as does working without a stylus). Therefore, the circular menu disrupts the workflow when using a stylus.

10

Hiya - myself and colleagues having this exact same issue. Using a Samsung tablet and digitizing using S-pen type stylus. It’s very annoying, you to have to walk away from the feature in order to be able to digitize it.

11

Guys, I’ve been thinking about this thread for a while, and I think I might have found an acceptable solution here.

When using a stylus (or a mouse), users will need to long press on the location marker to see the pie menu. A short press will instead proceed with digitizing actions (i.e. adding a point or a vertex in an ongoing line / polygon digitizing session).

In ~15 minutes, you’ll get APKs to try out here: Avoid interference between the stylus and the location marker by using long press action on location marker by nirvn · Pull Request #7185 · opengisch/QField · GitHub

Keen to hear if this improves your situation.

12

@cuprico , @AKeen , @cedean1 , @Kuhfeld , how’s the APK in the above-mentioned PR behaving for you? Fixing the UX issue you had?

13

Sorry for the delayed response! thanks for taking the time to check on this issue. Just tried the apk, tested on a samsung galaxy tab s6 lite with its included wacom pen.

I can see now a small popup telling me to long press on the location to show the wheel, and indeed that part works as advertised. However, when quick taping with the pen over the the locked cursor whenever there is gps positioning, nothing happens. When there is no GPS, or if the cursor isn’t locked/tracking the position (exactly above the blue arrow), the cursor follows the stylus and a quick tap adds a feature where the tip lands. The green plus button of the bottom right corner, however, disables and turns grey whenever I even hover the stylus over the screen.

14

Hi Mathieu, thanks for looking for a solution. I’m glad there’s hope for a major improvement.

I tried installing the APK file, but unfortunately I get an error message. I’m using a company tablet that’s somehow protected, and it seems like installation isn’t possible there.

As for the description of the change, it definitely sounds like an improvement. But like the previous commenter, I would also appreciate it if the option to digitize using the + symbol in the bottom right corner were available again.

15

Mathieu

Thanks for sorting this, I have just updated to 4.1.3 Barents with your solution included and it works fine. Apologies for not helping with testing, I did not have time to learn how to sort the APKs.
This will make our surveying much easier.

Thanks for sorting.

Andrew.