[Bf-funboard] Toolbox Thoughts and List

Luke Wenke bf-funboard@blender.org
Fri, 17 Oct 2003 23:37:52 +1000


> > >   Select All [nothing selected]
> > If "a" is used, this is true. If a menu is used, then the selection
would be
> > irrelevant. (i.e. you can have some or most of the things selected)
> The option in the menu is Select/Deselect All. In my proposal I switch
> between Select and Deselect according to what it will be. There is no
> difference to using Akey.
If one or more objects/vertices/bones/etc are selected it makes sense if you
can choose a menu option to select them all straight-away. At the moment
"Select/Deselect All" and "a" deselect everything thing you have to do it
again to select everything.

This is how the menu currently works (but it displays differently):
(if no relevant items selected) - Select All
(if one or more relevant items selected) - Deselect All

Instead it could be like this:
(if no relevant items selected) - Select All (Hotkey "A")
(if one or more relevant items selected) - Select All (no Hotkey) and
Deselect All (Hotkey "A" - since "A" makes this happen)
(if all relevant items selected) - Deselect All (Hotkey "A")
Or there could be separate hotkeys for select all and deselect all....
select all should be "A", deselect all could involve "A" plus another key.

> > >   Inverse [something selected]
> > You need to be in editmode with a mesh being the active object (it
doesn't
> > matter whether the mesh is a selected object or not). And it doesn't
matter
> > if any vertices are selected.
> Then Inverse _should_ work on any selection (all modes where it makes
sense).
I guess so, though I probably wouldn't use it in the other modes.

> > >   Duplicate [something selected/active]
> > Should be [something selected] - it doesn't work for non-selected active
> > items
> Shouldnt have used the "/" here, I meant selected and active. Sorry!
No, to do a duplicate you just need at least one selected object. The
selected object doesn't have to be active. It doesn't work on non-selected
active objects.

> > >   Shear [something selected/active, changes Object Mode to Edit Mode]
> > >   Warp [something selected/active, changes Object Mode to Edit Mode]
> > >   Shrink/Fatten [something selected/active, bug in Edit-Mode: asks:
Clear
> > Size?]
> > These 3 things should only appear in editmode - they shouldn't appeat in
> > object mode and simultaneously switch you to editmode. This is how it is
now
> > in the Blender 2.29 menus.
> I think they should be in Object Mode, but they shouldn't switch to Edit
Mode.
Yeah, then in object mode they'd act on the whole object. In edit mode
they'd act only on the selected vertices.

> > >   Numerical [something selected/active]
> > You have to be in object mode, and it tells you about the active object,
so
> > at least one object must exist.
> Oh well, it _should_ work on single vertices, for example. But I see, I
should
> have tested some mor things.
In Blender 2.28 it works on single vertices when you're in editmode. But in
Blender 2.29 it doesn't seem to do anything in editmode. (That should be
fixed)

> > >   Clear Parent [active object has parent]
> > >   Clear Track [active object is tracking something]
> > something selected (whether it is active is irrelevant)
> Doe that mean the Clear commands clear all tracking or parenting for all
> selected objects?
Yeah.

> Do you mean larger groups with respect to preconditions or the
> organization in the Toolbox? For the Toolbox I aim for 4, 6 or 8
> toplevels for any mode or selection.
Yeah I'm just talking about the number of toplevels... in editmode the
"mesh" menu has about 21 toplevel items which is probably too much. If it is
always a small number like 4 then people might have to wade through more
menus though... so there is kind of a balance. I basically mean to get some
ideas from broken's menu, so there is some consistency, etc.

> Thank you very much for you comments.
> Since you seem to know Blender far better, could you please provide a
list,
> of which menu items go with Face Select, Vertex Paint, Texture Paint and
> Pose Mode?
For me to find out I'd just go to Blender 2.29 and look at the menus. For
Face Select, Vertex Paint and Texture Paint, just select a mesh (to make it
active) and change the mode to the desired mode and look at the menus. It
seems texture paint doesn't have any menu items - or maybe it isn't
implemented yet or something. To see the Pose menu, create an armature and
go to pose mode and look at the pose menu. Note that the "select" menu also
changes in the various modes... The "view" menu might remain the same
though. Note that armatures, paths, metaballs, etc, also have an editmode -
with their own little menus. So anyway, I'd have to look in Blender 2.29 to
check it out anyway so maybe you could do that. Or broken might have the
menus and modes and object types, etc, organised in a big list somewhere.

- Luke.