[Bf-funboard] Presentation vs Implementation

[Thorsten Wilms]

On Fri, Dec 05, 2003 at 01:44:16PM +0100, Ton Roosendaal wrote:
> 
> Sorta! :-) There's no "global value" however. This mask value - as you  
> call it - is a property of each Blender 3D window and each Blender  
> Scene as well. By comparing the masks, defined is which objects are  
> visible.

Oh well, forgot about the possibility of unlocking 3d view layer 
synchronisation (thats how I thought about it). Propably because 
I've never use it.
Thanks for your patience :-)

> For this the Lock icon button next to the layerbuttons in 3D windows  
> exist. By default the button is pressed, meaning that Scene layers are  
> visualized here. By unlocking the layer buttons you can use the local  
> layers of the 3D window itself, thus effectively creating temporal  
> 'working' layers.
> 
> Now we get into confusement... because what actually happens when you  
> render? Officially only the Scene layers were supposed to render, but  
> in some situations it was nice to allow the 3D Window layers to be  
> rendered as well. In Blender's past I've been struggling with this a  
> couple of times, and couldn't find the right logical method to define  
> this.

What do you think of the following:
Remove those locks from button arrays. Have whatever kind of widget to 
select a set of "layer" settings at any 3d view and once for rendering  
in a button panel. Per default all 3d views and rendering would use 
the same, first set. Now the user could use 1 set for modeling, and the 
other to setup rendering. With a simple possibility to preview what will 
be rendered by changing set for a 3d view. By allowing more than 2 sets, 
the user could setup as many local layer settings as he likes.

No confusion about what will be rendered. No problem of integration in 
the ui, because it replaces the lock buttons (and not much space in 
render buttons).


> The current implementation of layers in Blender is far from perfect,  
> but the complexity of the topic makes it hard to tackle. I don't have  
> simple answers for this topic either. That's why my remark that the  
> *real* topic here is not about layers in Blender, but about adding  
> (new) methods to allow grouping and organizing Objects.

Ok, so it's not about layers, but object/group and visibility/rendering 
management. I already turned into that direction.
It's just that I want to keep the fast access allowed by the button array 
and shortcuts. The current system is genious in it's simplicty and 
because of the speed it allows!


---
Thorsten