[Bf-committers] Extrude Popup

[Charles Wardlaw]

Catching up on mail...

> Extrude region from the menu not doing extrude along normals is also something that I'd like to fix. If you prefer this behavior, you can always remap the hotkey to "Extrude Region and Move" (mesh.extrude_region_move) instead of the "smart" extrude operator.

I think that both operators being the same is important, but I think the default should be as it is in 2.49 -- movement in view space.  The MMB or C press should then snap to normal.  I've been testing my own workflow here and I find that more often than not, moving in screen space is used with a ratio of over ten to one.  Yes, I actually counted. :)

For me, snapping is the most important tool.  Half of our meshes at work are being sculpted into shape and then retopologized (sometimes more than once).  Turning off the normal snap on extrude seems like a small thing, but when almost all retopo work involves extruding along a surface this becomes a Big Thing.

> I would really expect power use to remap those to something that fits better their particular workflow instead of the defaults that should be made to be ok for everybody and not particular to somebody to the detriment of others.

I half-agree.  This is similar to how MMB-Pan was removed as an option since you can remap the keys in the hotkey editor.  The difference is, though, that a workflow issue like this -- in my opinion -- shouldn't have to be a power user thing.  If I weren't modeling organic characters all day, instead perhaps building windows, I might want the normal constraint all the time and I wouldn't want to have to edit my hotkeys to change the default.  Having a way to set that quickly before using the operator is, I think, paramount.

Maya accomplishes this well by allowing you to set tool defaults before you run a tool.  I really do think Blender should have a method for doing the same.  I think it would benefit users across the board and make Blender more accessible overall.
~ C