link/unlink/local...Re: [Bf-funboard] Broken's menusystem

Luke Wenke bf-funboard@blender.org
Sun, 12 Oct 2003 04:52:26 +1000


> Hi!
>
> I'm currently looking into organizing the toolbox closer to
> the menusystem.
>
> There's 'Make Single User' in the Object Menu, but I see
> 'Make Local' in the old Toolbox.
> Those commands are overlapping, or have I misunderstood
> something?
> Can 1 of the 2 be kicked out of Blender?
> BTW, I find 'Make Local' easier understandable then
> 'Make Single User'.
This is based on http://blender.excellentwhale.com/
L - "Make Local" menu (selected or all)
alt-L - "Make Local" menu"
shift-L - "Select Links" menu
ctrl-L - "Make Links" menu
U   "Make Single User" menu
U?  Reload data buffer. (yep
U?    FaceSelect mode: UV menu
Ctrl-U Save current file as user default file

I'm not sure if "Make Local" means the same kind of thing and "Make Single
User" (basically what you said) - at that site I mentioned it says "see also
U" next to "make local"... so they're related somehow. Perhaps they both
mean "unlink". If so, I think they should both be renamed to unlink
["something"] and both have U type hotkeys (e.g. "Make Single User" would
keep the U and the "Make Local" menu would have ctrl-U, alt-U or shift-U)
Maybe the "Make Local" menu could be split up - it only has 2 items -
selected and all. maybe alt-U could be "Unlink selected" and shift-U could
be unlink all. (Since alt and shift are a bit closer to U if you are using
one hand... and ctrl-U is used already).
Since that would free up "L", (and "alt-L",) one of the link things could be
changed to L - e.g. "Selected links". Or maybe the alt-L item could be
renamed "clear links" - that would be consistent with alt-T (clear track)
and alt-P (clear parent).... anyway I think the things in L should be called
link (or linked, or "clear links", etc) and the things in U should be called
unlink (, etc).... (except for the other things in U of course).

ilac wrote:
>'Make local' refers to shared objects across a scene. ie object exists in 2
>scenes (blue centre dot)
>'Make single user' refers to shared data within an object or material eg
>textures, meshes, lamps etc.
"Make single user" could be "unlink" or "unlink data" then? (Also does it
unlink all the selected objects or just the active one... if it is the
selected objects, it could say so in the command title or toolbox tooltip or
popup menu title). "Make local" could be "Local scene only" and due to the U
and L, the hotkeys could stay the same.
Though it would make the documentation wrong, I think it should be changed
to something like that because it makes things much, much clearer.

> Something else:
> Mesh/Vertices/Make_Vertex_Parent
> Curve/Control_Points/Make_Vertex_Parent
>
> I never used parenting outside Object Mode ...
> Is Vertex_Parent under Control_Points corect?

This mentioned "vertex-parent".
http://download.blender.org/documentation/NaN_docs/Manual2.0/Animation.html
I remember also reading somewhere that said (I think) that vertex parents
only adjust the location of the child, not its rotation, so if you parent an
object to some waves, the object will bob up and down (and be upright)
rather than rotate to stay perpendicular to the surface.

> And how come there's Make*Parent and no Clear*Parent there?
He probably forgot.

> With all that hiding of vertices or faces, is it realy
> neccesary to have a "Hide_unselected_*"?
That would come in handy (I mean usually I'd hide large numbers of hard to
select vertices... it is easier to just select the ones I want to remain
visible - that is what I do - then I do selectswap and hide).

> There's already the possibility to inverse the selection. Well, ok you end
> out with no selection, but every item increases the menusize.
Well I generally find "hide unselected" a lot more useful than "hide
selected" but I guess "hide selected" should be there since there is a
"hide" button in the edit buttons... I pretty much agree that the menu size
should be minimized

> Well, ok you end out with no selection,
I forgot about that... I guess I'm on the fence as to whether "hide
unselected" should be there or not.
BTW, if "hide unselected" is used, reveal (selected) would no longer work...
since reveal only reveals the hidden things that were selected... (if reveal
now shows unselected hidden vertices then the tooltip should be changed)

- Luke.