[Bf-committers] Re: [Bf-blender-cvs] ....(knife tool)

[Robert Wenzlaff]

At 04:55 PM 10/13/03 +0200, you wrote:
>Hi Alexander, Robert,
>>   Robert (DetectiveThorn) Wenzlaff's Knife subdivide tool. See previous
>>   message on Bf-committers for description.
>
>To enable making release notes, and for creating a good history in CVS,
>I prefer to have functional descriptions in the CVS commit mail. After
>a few months it will be impossible to find a 'previous message' on
>another mailinglist...
>
>Also the description Robert gave here isn't complete. Try to write
>something that can be directly copied to a changelog for Blender users!

I didn't commit anything...  I mentioned on #blendercoders that I couldn't 
do a proper undo patch until Knife was committed, and intrr jumped on it 
before I could stop him.

>I've tested the new tool, and it works fabulous! I should check this
>intersecting code once.... :-)
>
>However!
>The interaction is something we should reconstruct. This includes 2
>successive modes which only confuse, and don't work in a way compatible
>with the rest of Blender.

There is nothing else in blender that works this way, because there is nothing
else in blender that works this way.

>Analyzing the tool, there are four choices involved:
>
>- 'freehand' drawing or 'polygon' drawing

Not really a choice, these two modes can be freely mixed. (Actually 
Freehand is
just the case of polylines with lengths == 1.)

>- cut exact, or cut halfway faces
>
>These choices should be made *before* you start using the knife tool.
>So:
>
>- either these settings go to the EditButtons, allowing a user to start
>the tool with only the hotkey
>- or the user gets a popup with these choices in it.
>
>Also:
>- in 'freehand mode' the cutting should happen immediately after
>releasing the mouse.

I don't agree (What's new?). (Esp. looking at your later point about mixed
freehand/polyline mode).   It's way too hard to draw an accurate line with
the mouse.  The user needs a chance to abort before damaging his mesh.
It's also nice to allow them to adjust their mouse if they hit the edge of the
mousepad. It's not so much of an issue with Editmesh undo in place.
But 1) we shouldn't make the user rely on undo, we should strive
to let them do it right in the first place, and 2) it's not a guarantee that
2.3 will release with both.

I think it was _you_ who said the proper flow was "invoke-visualize-change".

The 50%/intersect choice could go first,  I see no advantage either way.
It could also be a mode button like "Beauty".  Personally I don't like the 
Beauty
button.  I always forget what mode I'm in and end up subdividing my mesh 
wrong.

>- in 'polygon mode' you can still allow drawing freehand inbetween (as
>it works now)

Which is why we can't cut without a confirm step.  We don't know if the 
user lifting
the LMB to finish, or to enter polyline mode.  (User User User....  That's 
all that
Det. Thorn ever thinks about....)

>- the name "50%" is unclear. Name it "Cut halfway" and "Cut exact" or

Since I don't have commit right's it is rather difficult for me to make these
small changes...

>- I would love to see a real cutting cursor once... on OSX it changes
>in a normal cursor, very confusing.

I use a pencil cursor under X11, and a Cross cursor under 
windows.  However, the
exact implementation of cursors in X11 is somewhat subject to the whims of the
WM layer.

There was talk of better cursor support with the new GUI.  Don't know if it 
will happen.
Also, I only have a linux box to test on.  This is why the windows cursor 
changes to a
cross and not a pen cursor (It was already used, therefore "safe").

I first looked at making a custom cursor, but a cursor is declared as
char [16][2], and I had no way of telling how that was diced up to make
a 16x16 two color cursor.   All other cursors are inherited from the system,
so I had nothing to plagiarize.

BTW: There's a tute for this already: 
http://www.soylent-green.com/tutes/Knife.html

Robert Wenzlaff