UI help



  • Hello there,
    I have a question about some UI within drawbot. I used the standard Variable[] but it is not really working for my purpose.
    In short: I have a string ('SOME TEXT') that renders each letter, but there are multiple methods that can be chosen for each of them.
    Screenshot 2020-04-16 at 11.34.31.png
    Here, I am just hardcoding the dictionary 'options' for each character...


    If I use the default UI from Drawbot I can render the text
    Screenshot 2020-04-16 at 11.34.12.png
    but I also want to show under it, based on the string, a multiple choice for each letter:
    Screenshot 2020-04-16 at 11.33.50.png

    I saw that the vanilla library is meant for this, but what approach could I take to enter the string and based on it to render a dictionary which can be modified by the user? And btw these examples from RoboFont don't print anything, not sure if they work on my machine. No errors but I am not sure what I should do.

    Thanks a lot!


  • admin

    That is a complex ui 🙂
    If I read it correctly the ui will change if the user change the input string?

    Maybe you need to draw different UI scenarios.

    I assume the best option is to convert the input string to items in a list and add options as column items for each input letter.

    The Variable support is build for small and quick ui examples.

    You can build with DrawBot full ui with DrawBot support, and put it into a package.

    The example you mentions on the RoboFont site does not print anything :)...

    good luck!!



  • Hello @frederik,
    thank you for sheding some light on the issue. Maybe I will try the DrawBot package.

    Sorry for the confusion about the example, I meant this which is from the official documentation of Vanilla. I also understand now that a print() command prints in a specified window (I guess) and not the console.

    Thanks! It is exciting to see all sliders and buttons 🎚 🔘 🎚


  • admin

    In DrawBot that print statement goes to the debugger alt + cmd ? (or press alt while opening the help menu)

    In RoboFont that print statement goes to the output window.

    The reason: the print statement happens after the script is done running and catching the print statement is out of scope of that script. I hope this makes sense...

    Enjoy all the sliders and buttons!!


  • admin

    and the 'official' docs are on robotools.dev!

    --> vanilla.robotools.dev

    the one you are referring to is out dated...


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