[Bf-funboard] Expanding the menus

Matt Ebb bf-funboard@blender.org
Thu, 7 Aug 2003 17:43:59 +1000


Hi,

> I agree with keeping pull down menus static; at least not adopt the MS
> way. What *could* be acceptable though is only presenting editmesh
> options in Mesh editmode, editcurve options in Curve editmode, etc.
> This wouldn't change the order of menu items in the main menu anyway.

While I'm really against hiding things and having things change around, I
think this may be an acceptable solution. The main problem with that huge
edit mesh menu is that I wasn't able to split the options up into submenus
(like the select/hide, modeling, etc.) since having 2 levels of submenus is
a big no-no.

If there were a top-level 'Editmode' menu (perhaps a better name than that
can be found... ObData? Sub-object?), then it would be possible to break up
that editing menu into smaller submenus and organise it a bit better. That
Edit mesh menu is really quite enormous, and I even forgot to include the
WKEY options like subdivide, smooth, remove doubles etc. which would make it
even bigger.

About the toolbox, I'll send another email about that to keep the topics a
bit neater. Glad you had a safe trip home from sig :)

Matt

> To reduce the long menus in a few shorter ones, you could split it in:
> "transform"
> "select/hide"
> "modeling"
>
> All of the options in below's layout fit in these 3 categories.
> http://mke3.net:9000/blender/ui/menus/menu_editmesh1.png
>
> You can define something 'modeling' when the topology itself changes
> (like flip edges, fill faces, extrude) whilst 'transform' are grab,
> rotate, scale, shear, recalc normals, shrink/fatten... it's not always
> possible to make the destinction 100% sure though. Is 'proportional
> editing' a 'transform' or 'model' tool?
> And then there's of course 'add'....
>
> -Ton-
>
> (BTW; I could not find a screenshot, but I saw in a 3DS demo at
> Siggraph that their context menu has a 4-5 fold menu layouted too. At
> least among it was "properties" and "draw modes". Something for us to
> think over too, for a new toolbox)
>
> (BTW2; getting over a jetlag with a heatwave here in holland is hard...
> ;-)