[Bf-committers] Patch for constrain-to-plane

[Bill Baxter]

Hey Ton,

Ton Roosendaal wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am concerned about the growth of all options while in 'transform'  
> mode. This whole constraining thing is going out of control...
>
Out of control?  More constraints means *more* control!  :-)  Just 
kidding.   I know what you mean.

> The old 'middle mouse' toggle is still a method I consider better 
> than  an 'X' 'Y' or 'Z' toggle. The (useful!) idea to have a 
> contraint  limiting to a plane could also be implemented within a 
> view-depending  context.
>
I like that concept of not needing to know "which way is X", but not the 
middle-button implementation.  The middle mouse button is problematic 
both for laptop users and for tablet users.   And on a lot of 3-button 
wheel mice (like mine) clicking the wheel is tricky to do without 
scrolling at the same time and it requires more force than the normal 
buttons.  I know alt-LMB works too, but that's not as easy as just 
typing XKEY (and all too often I accidentally hit ctrl-LMB or Fn-LMB and 
inadvertently lock in the transform, requiring me to try to undo it, 
which I can't even do if I'm in object mode).    So personally, I find 
typing a key much preferable to clicking the middle button.    And 
currently MMB can't constrain to local axes can it?  

So in any redesign of the constraint system that happens, I think MMB 
shouldn't be required.  Maybe the C key could be used to give the same 
effect as MMB when in a transform mode.

> Next to that, the transform() function itself has become a monster 
> over  time... like what Theeth replied as well, something that really 
> needs  to be tackled. Let's move this feature to after the 2.32 
> release, and  especially spend some design time on how all this 
> transform will should  work.
>
OK.  Thats fine.  Actually I don't think the code for the constraints 
themselves is all that bad.  The thing that makes the who deal a real 
mess is the handling of typein values.  I think maybe that should spin 
off a separate event loop that only handles typing instead of being 
interleaved with all the regular transform event loop.

> -Ton-
>
> (BTW: The ancient convention to make people axis aware is something I  
> really don't like. Axis aware means: that you have to 'know' whether  
> you work in X, Y or Z. Blender was designed to default without this. 
> A  design requirement I am very hesitant to drop.

That's a very good goal.  Actually I find myself using constraints like 
this: XKEY, nope, YKEY, nope, ZKEY ah yes, that's the axis I want!  But 
I *still* do that anyway because I don't like pressing MMB and I'm 
afraid of any LMB combo.

> Anyone read Ender's Game? "The enemy's gate is down!")

Yeh great book!  Isn't there a movie in the works?

--bb