MEL: UI problems - columnLayout and rowLayout padding

[Nyro]

That's pretty much to be expected, from my experience.

That's part of the reason I basically never use rowLayouts.
I only use columnLayouts when I need a collection of elements I need to refer to by a common relative (their shared parentlayout) and when the appearance is of minor concern.

For serious UI formatting, I almost always resort to the formLayout. It offers a level of control unlike any other layout and the results are always dependable.

Here's your layout, but reconfigured to use a formLayout:

if(`window -ex MyTestWindow`)
deleteUI MyTestWindow;

$window = `window MyTestWindow`;

frameLayout
-l "Frame"
MyFrameLayout;

// create master Layout
$form = `formLayout
-w (2 + 128 + 2 + 63 + 1 + 63 + 2)
-h (2 + 128 + 2)
-bgc .6 0 0
MyFormLayout`;

// create elements
$bigBtn = `iconTextButton
-bgc .1 .2 .5
-w 128
-h 128
-label "BIG"
-st "textOnly"
MyBigButton`;

$smBtn1 = `iconTextButton
-bgc .1 .5 .2
-w 63
-h 63
-label "Small 1"
-st "textOnly"
MySmallButton1`;

$smBtn2 = `iconTextButton
-bgc .1 .5 .2
-w 63
-h 63
-label "Small 2"
-st "textOnly"
MySmallButton2`;

$smBtn3 = `iconTextButton
-bgc .1 .5 .2
-w 63
-h 63
-label "Small 3"
-st "textOnly"
MySmallButton3`;

$smBtn4 = `iconTextButton
-bgc .1 .5 .2
-w 63
-h 63
-label "Small 4"
-st "textOnly"
MySmallButton4`;

// now format the master formlayout
formLayout -e
// big button
-af $bigBtn "left" 2
-af $bigBtn "top" 2
// small button top left
-af $smBtn1 "top" 2
-ac $smBtn1 "left" 2 $bigBtn
// small button top right
-af $smBtn2 "top" 2
-ac $smBtn2 "left" 1 $smBtn1
-af $smBtn2 "right" 2
// small button bottom left
-ac $smBtn3 "left" 2 $bigBtn
-ac $smBtn3 "top" 1 $smBtn1
// small button bottom right
-ac $smBtn4 "left" 1 $smBtn3
-ac $smBtn4 "top" 1 $smBtn2
-af $smBtn4 "right" 2
$form;

showWindow $window;
(tab spacing in the above code may look weird, but that's due to my particular choice of font in my IDE)

I've defined the width and height of the formLayout above in a manner that makes it easier to see and understand the padding and element-sizes I want to define.

[DeadlyNightshade]

Ah I see - makes sense.
I almost entirely used formLayouts when I made my UV Editor, but now when I started working on a new tool I decided to try something new. I tried a gridLayout first but it seems like you can't have rows of variable height there - or I missed something.

Thanks for your reply.

[Nyro]

No you didnt miss anything. gridLayout cells are all same dimensions.

Just stick to formLayouts for the overall formatting and use columnLayouts or rowLayouts only as children of that for subgrouping if you really need to or you dont care about the fine details (like margins, padding, distance between elements and their alignment).

[DeadlyNightshade]

Alright!
Thanks for the insight!

[PozestStar]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I wanted to say thanks as well. I've been having the same problem with a UI I've been working on and it was driving me insane. Also, I didn't realize you could do something like this:

-height (2 + 2 + 2)

So thanks for that too. Is there any specific reason for doing something like this though? Just wondering.

[Nyro]

-height (2 + 2 + 2)

So thanks for that too. Is there any specific reason for doing something like this though? Just wondering.


I've defined the width and height of the formLayout above in a manner that makes it easier to see and understand the padding and element-sizes I want to define.


I basically could have done the following:

int $layoutPadding = 2;
int $bigButtonMargin = 2;
int $bigButtonSize = 128;
int $smallButtonMargin = 1;
int $smallButtonSize = 64;

formLayout
-w ($layoutPadding + $bigButtonSize + $bigButtonMargin + $smallButtonSize + $smallButtonMargin + $smallButtonSize + $layoutPadding)
myFormLayout;

[PozestStar]

Thanks for the explanation :thumbsup: