[Bf-committers] Named Layers Proposal
David Bryant
aceone at bellsouth.net
Fri Oct 26 00:21:25 CEST 2007
My name is David Bryant. I've coded a layer naming system for Blender with
other features included as well.
The features being:
The ability to label layers with names to facilitate better project
organization.
The ability to switch from one layer to another even in edit mode.
The ability to toggle individual layers into wireframe mode. This was coded
with animators in mind due to the fact that animators need fast playback
when dealing with complex scenes. To illustrate: layer1 can be viewed
solid,layer2 can be viewed wireframe etc.
Both with scene layers and bone layers objects and bones can be moved from
layer to layer within the new UI .This was done also for a better working
workflow.
The names of the layers and the particular toggled view of the individual
layers are saved into the .blend files so that the modeler / animator
/rigger can return to his workflow space as he saved it previously. The tan
buttons on the right of each layer box toggles to wireframe from whatever
view previously engaged.
6. The object drawing UI was removed from the constraints panel and
integrated into the new scene layers UI for better workflow and facilitates
more power to the new layer system and still works on individual objects as
well.
My future goals are to tie it in with the outliner and to deal with how to
indicate which layers are occupied and which are not as far as the layer
buttons in the 3D header or to come up with an entirely new system of
accessing layers quickly in the 3D header.
Also, I want integrate the bone layer system into the scene layer system.
Why? Because now that layers can be labeled, Blender can use the 16 layers
as regular layers thus doing away with the bone layers as we know it.
Dynamic allocation of layers is on the horizon (adding and deleting of
layers as needed) but the final UI design is still in flux because of
workflow issues that will be addressed progressively.
Even objects viewed in custom assigned wireframe colors are in the works.
At present the system utilizes the 20 existing scene layers and the 16 bone
layers .
As far as the underlying architecture, it uses Blender's present button
system and the layer bitmasks have remained untouched. It's totally backward
compatible with .blend files of previous generations and is non hostile to
Blender's present codebase.
But as of now, the Blender's underlying architecture still remains intact
and unaltered.
The saved info for the new system is contained arrays in the DNA scene types
structure.
Once it goes to a finished version 1 as it were. I will continue to improve
it's design.
The patch is already uploaded in the patch tracker and you can download the
latest build at graphicall.org.
I hope that the developers see it as a benefit for the Blender community.
Hope to hear a response soon.
David Bryant
aceone at bellsouth.net
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