Trackpad -> Jog Dial for Synfig (PoC / X11 & Wayland)

Plugins
1

Not exactly a plugin but a little tool to make scrolling between frames easier.
Currently we need to use the mouse on the Timeline or Comma/Dot keys to change of active frame.
Here is a PoC of Jog Dial working on Linux (X11 & Wayland)(Wayland will probably fail).

You start it with a sudo to access /dev/input and /dev/uinput in a dedicated terminal, then orbiting your finger around the center of the Trackpad permits to change of frame, simulating keypresses.
One full orbit = 24 frames by default, you need a mouse for normal operation.
The closer of the center, the faster.
The farther, the most accurate.
Terminate with Ctrl+C

Nothing extraordinary but less expensive than a physical one
Have fun :wink:

Limitations: x11 only, can send “parasite” commas and dots in other apps if you let it run and touch ,.th,.e,.track..,pa,.,d,at.,.t,he. same ,.time

Edit: It works fine on Walyand too!
See the next message for access rights

dial
dial523×396 14.3 KB

3

That’s a very interesting app :slight_smile:

I know it’s a proof of concept, but maybe if you use pyautogui or pyinput, we don’t need to run as root

4

For the “input” group it is easy (sudo usermod -a -G input $USER)
but there is also “uinput” which require udev rules and it is more tedious to setup:

sudo groupadd -f uinput
sudo usermod -a -G uinput $USER
echo "SUBSYSTEM==\"misc\", KERNEL==\"uinput\", GROUP=\"uinput\", MODE=\"0660\"" | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-uinput.rules
echo uinput | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/uinput.conf
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

And a Log Out/Log In before to work