[Bf-committers] New group select menu

[instinctive new media]

Hi folks,

to make object selection and hierarchy management in
Blender a bit easier, I've hacked together a
"Group selection" menu (SHIFT-G), which provides the
following functions:

- Children: Add all children (recursively) of the
  active object to the selection. Children of 
  children etc. are also selected.

- Immediate Children: Add only first-level children
  of the active object to the selection

- Parent: If the active object has a parent, make
  it the active object instead (step up one level in
  the tree)

- Objects on shared layers: Add all objects to the
  selection that share at least one layer with the
  active object.

Additionally, to make a scene and complex hierarchies
more visible, I've added two colors which can be seen in
wireframe mode:

- If an object is drawn in DARK PINK instead of black, it
  will be affected by transforming the active object (i.e.,
  the active object is an ancestor)

- If an object is drawn in DARK ORANGE instead of black,
  it is the parent of the active object.

Take a look at this screenshot for clarification:

http://intrr.org/gs.jpg

(The "Group members" option can be ignored - it is for
selecting all members of the active group object, but that
feature is still buggy and needs more testing/discussion)

Now I think we can agree that this menu is useful for everyone,
and the colors are quite helpful, too. 

The tricky part is: Hotkeys would be very fine for this stuff.

SHIFT-P is free and could be used for 'Select Parent'. SHIFT-C
would be obvious for 'Select all children', but it is currently
in use for a weird function that resets the cursor and the view
to (0/0/0). I don't know if anyone uses that key, I personally
never did, but that doesn't mean anything:)

A current reference of most, if not all keybindings in blender
can be found here:

http://loom.intrr.org/blenderkeys.txt

So, any suggestions?:)
 

| alexander ewering           instinctive new media
| ae@instinctive.de       http://www.instinctive.de 
|
| fon: +49-2393-220558         fax: +49-2393-220559