The chip in the corner was holding the keyboard, and the planes were holding the bed

Two reports, three defects, all three measured on the running app rather than reasoned about.

"Keyboard focus in drawing tool is broken so that now they are slow and cumbersome." After a
dimensioned entity the bottom-right readout chip — 119x31, borderless, a wxFrame — held the X
input focus. Pressing r produced NO [KEYTRACE] line at all: the key never reached the panel's
CHAR_HOOK. One bare canvas click moved focus back to the main window and the identical key armed
the tool. So every shortcut was dead after every dimension, and the way to get the keyboard back
was to click somewhere harmless. That is the whole of "slow and cumbersome".

Its sibling, the status chip, is a wxPopupWindow for exactly this reason and carries a comment
warning against turning it back into a frame. The readout was left a frame on the premise that
"it appears mid-gesture and the next input is the mouse" — which the measurement falsifies: the
chip keeps the last value on screen after the gesture ends, and a frame that has the focus does
not give it back. It is now a popup too, with the placement and the iconise/deactivate lifecycle
its sibling already needed, because an override-redirect window would otherwise sit on the bare
desktop when the app is minimised.

"Planes hide the bed." Literally true, twice over. The reference planes were half-extent 0.6 *
the bed's larger side — a square 1.2x the plate — and all three are drawn with depth testing
off, so they painted over the plate grid from edge to edge. 0.3 puts them inside the bed, which
is also the Onshape look the size was reaching for: a modest square at the origin, not a
tablecloth.

And the other half was mine. 3f52166e32 muted the bed for the duration of a sketch, on the
argument that a plate grid and a sketch grid are the same visual language. The argument is right
and the call was wrong, because there IS no sketch grid to take over. Pick XY, arm Line, and the
viewport was an empty grey field: no bed, no grid, no origin, nothing to judge a length or a
direction against. The plate grid was carrying the ground reference for the whole tab. The banner
already says where you are; taking the floor away as well only made the sketch harder to draw.
The Bed checkbox is the one thing that governs the bed, in every mode.

Verified on behemoth :10 with the rebuilt binary: focus after a dimension chain is the main
window, r arms Rectangle with no click in between, and the plate grid is under the sketch.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_011FbJKJAJxxkhDTs9XdZzKA

src/slic3r/GUI/CAD/DesignCanvas.cpp

@@ -121,11 +121,13 @@ DesignCanvas::DesignCanvas(wxWindow* parent)
     // Bottom-right viewport HUD: a borderless, non-focusable float label showing the active
     // tool's current values. Top-level (a child widget is hidden by the GL surface, same as
     // the inline editor). Fed every frame by the tool's on_readout; empty text hides it.
+    // NON-FOCUSABLE IS THE LOAD-BEARING WORD, and a wxFrame is not: see the header. The chip
+    // outlives the gesture that drew it, and while it held the X input focus every sketch
+    // shortcut was swallowed until the user clicked the canvas. Same window class as the status
+    // chip below for the same reason. Do not "simplify" it back to a wxFrame.
     {
         wxWindow* top = wxGetTopLevelParent(m_canvas_widget);
-        m_hud = new wxFrame(top, wxID_ANY, wxEmptyString, wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize,
-                            wxFRAME_NO_TASKBAR | wxBORDER_NONE | wxFRAME_FLOAT_ON_PARENT |
-                            wxSTAY_ON_TOP | wxTRANSPARENT_WINDOW);
+        m_hud = new wxPopupWindow(top, wxBORDER_NONE);
         m_hud->SetBackgroundColour(wxColour(28, 30, 34));
         m_hud_label = new wxStaticText(m_hud, wxID_ANY, wxEmptyString);
         m_hud_label->SetForegroundColour(wxColour(0x46, 0xE0, 0xC8));   // teal, reads on dark bed
@@ -1158,6 +1160,13 @@ void DesignCanvas::set_readout(const std::string& text)
     m_hud_last = text;
     if (text.empty()) { m_hud->Hide(); return; }
     m_hud_label->SetLabel(wxString::FromUTF8(text));
+    place_readout_hud();
+}
+
+void DesignCanvas::place_readout_hud()
+{
+    if (!m_hud || !m_hud_label || !m_canvas_widget) return;
+    if (m_hud_last.empty() || !m_canvas_widget->IsShownOnScreen()) { m_hud->Hide(); return; }
     m_hud->Fit();
     // Anchor to the canvas's bottom-right corner with a small margin (screen coords).
     const wxSize  cs = m_canvas_widget->GetClientSize();
@@ -1169,6 +1178,16 @@ void DesignCanvas::set_readout(const std::string& text)
     m_hud->Raise();
 }
 
+// A popup is override-redirect: the window manager does not own it, so an iconised or
+// deactivated app would leave the chip sitting on the bare desktop. The status chip already
+// had to answer this; now that the readout is a popup too, it answers it the same way.
+void DesignCanvas::show_readout_hud(bool on)
+{
+    if (!m_hud) return;
+    if (on) place_readout_hud();
+    else    m_hud->Hide();
+}
+
 // Clear of the view cube and the two round view buttons, which own the bottom-left corner.
 // Shared by the placement and by the wrap width, which have to agree or the chip wraps to a
 // width it is then not given.
@@ -1230,12 +1249,14 @@ void DesignCanvas::place_status_hud()
 void DesignCanvas::on_frame_iconize(wxIconizeEvent& e)
 {
     show_status_hud(!e.IsIconized());
+    show_readout_hud(!e.IsIconized());
     e.Skip();
 }
 
 void DesignCanvas::on_frame_activate(wxActivateEvent& e)
 {
     show_status_hud(e.GetActive());
+    show_readout_hud(e.GetActive());
     e.Skip();
 }
 

src/slic3r/GUI/CAD/DesignCanvas.hpp

@@ -397,10 +397,19 @@ private:
     std::unique_ptr<SketchInlineEditor> m_inline_editor;  // floating in-canvas value editor
     // Bottom-right viewport HUD: a borderless float label over the GL canvas showing the
     // active tool's current values (fed by the tool's on_readout). Empty text hides it.
-    wxFrame*      m_hud{nullptr};
+    // A wxPopupWindow for the SAME reason as the status chip below, and it was a wxFrame until
+    // the reason was measured rather than assumed: "it appears mid-gesture and the next input is
+    // the mouse" is false. The chip keeps the last value on screen AFTER the gesture ends, and a
+    // frame holds the X input focus once it has it — so the next keystroke went to a 119x31
+    // window that has no use for it. Measured on :10: focus on the chip, `r` produced no
+    // CHAR_HOOK line at all; one bare canvas click moved focus back and the same key armed the
+    // tool. That is every sketch shortcut dead after every dimensioned entity.
+    wxPopupWindow* m_hud{nullptr};
     wxStaticText* m_hud_label{nullptr};
     std::string   m_hud_last;
     void set_readout(const std::string& text);
+    void place_readout_hud();            // anchor + show, using m_hud_last
+    void show_readout_hud(bool on);      // iconise/deactivate: a popup would float on the desktop
 
     // Bottom-LEFT viewport HUD: the selection / tool status line, written by DesignPanel.
     // A wxPopupWindow, NOT the wxFrame the readout HUD uses: a frame accepts keyboard focus,

src/slic3r/GUI/CAD/DesignPanel.cpp

@@ -4483,11 +4483,15 @@ void DesignPanel::set_ui_mode(UiMode m)
     // rebuild, which is not an event that happens when you merely press Sketch.
     update_reference_planes();
 
-    // Say where you are, in words, across the top of the viewport — and mute the printer bed
-    // while you are there. The plate grid and a sketch grid are the same visual language, and
-    // reading one as the other is how a sketch gets drawn against the wrong reference. The bed
-    // checkbox stays the stored preference and is restored on the way out; ticking it mid-sketch
-    // still shows the bed, because that is a deliberate act and this is only a default.
+    // Say where you are, in words, across the top of the viewport.
+    //
+    // THE BED IS NOT MUTED HERE, and it was: "a plate grid and a sketch grid are the same visual
+    // language" is true and still the wrong call, because there IS no sketch grid to replace it.
+    // Seen on the rig: pick XY, arm Line, and the viewport is an empty grey field — no bed, no
+    // grid, no origin, nothing to judge a length or a direction against. The plate grid was
+    // carrying the ground reference for the whole tab. The banner already says where you are;
+    // taking the floor away as well only made the sketch harder to draw. The Bed checkbox is the
+    // one thing that governs the bed, in every mode.
     if (m_sketch_banner != nullptr) {
         const bool sketching = (m == UiMode::Sketch);
         if (sketching && m_sketch_banner_txt != nullptr)
@@ -4497,8 +4501,6 @@ void DesignPanel::set_ui_mode(UiMode m)
                                  m_feature_counter + 1));
         m_sketch_banner->Show(sketching);
         m_sketch_banner->GetParent()->Layout();
-        if (m_viewport != nullptr)
-            m_viewport->set_show_bed(!sketching && (m_show_bed == nullptr || m_show_bed->GetValue()));
     }
 }
 

src/slic3r/GUI/CAD/DesignSketchTool.cpp

@@ -4780,16 +4780,18 @@ void DesignSketchTool::clear_base_pick()
     m_dbp_hover = -1;
 }
 
-// Reference planes are larger than the bed (Onshape default-plane feel). Half-extent = 0.6 * the
-// bed's larger side, so the square fully overhangs the print area. Falls back to 150mm if the bed
-// isn't queryable yet.
+// Reference planes sit INSIDE the bed. They used to be 0.6 * the bed's larger side, i.e. a square
+// 1.2x the plate, and three of them are drawn with depth testing off — so they painted over the
+// plate grid from edge to edge and the bed simply was not readable any more. "The planes hide the
+// bed", reported exactly that way. Small enough to leave the grid legible around them is also the
+// Onshape look this was reaching for: a modest square at the origin, not a tablecloth.
 double DesignSketchTool::dbp_half_extent() const
 {
-    double half = 150.0;
+    double half = 75.0;
     if (auto* pl = wxGetApp().plater()) {
         const BoundingBoxf bb = pl->build_volume().bounding_volume2d();
         const double w = bb.max.x() - bb.min.x(), d = bb.max.y() - bb.min.y();
-        if (w > 1.0 && d > 1.0) half = 0.6 * std::max(w, d);
+        if (w > 1.0 && d > 1.0) half = 0.3 * std::max(w, d);
     }
     return half;
 }