[Bf-committers] set "F6" pop-up-panel to pop-up automatically by User Preference's selection

William Reynish billrey at me.com
Wed Mar 17 18:16:35 CET 2010


Hi,

I've followed this discussion about the operator settings issue, and thought I'd throw in a concept that we discussed during Winter Camp. 

Before I get into it, the primary concept of the editor-specific panels was that they should take up as little room as possible, and require as little window management as possible, while never getting in the way of your content. The problem is that the operator settings are not optional data that you may or may not want to see - it's essential for controlling any tool in Blender. When the toolbar is hidden, the user is severely handicapped by not being able to access these controls is an easy way. 

So, the concept we talked about back then was to make sure the user is always presented with these controls, even if the toolbar is hidden, but keep the non-blocking aspect. One way to do this would be to open a floating panel, much like 2.49, which would automatically appear whenever the user enables a new tool, but only if the toolbar is closed. That way the user always has access to these vital controls while always optimizing to screen space.


Here's a mockup to illustrate: http://www.reynish.com/files/blender25/tweak_operator.png

Cheers,

-William

On 17 Mar, 2010, at 10:54 AM, Mats Holmberg wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I feel the problem really is that the panel is kind of "tucked away". So a combination of making the panel more visible and also at the same time remember previous settings would be nice. I don't think a popup (eg. at the side of the 3d-view) would necessarily be a bad thing, but I wouldn't like the focus to shift automatically to it. 
> 
> I don't really see how the current way of adding objects differ from the way we did things in 2.4x. Of course it's somewhat better now, but problems remain. My biggest concern is around the fact that currently editing important properties, like amount of vertices on a circle, has to be done immediately after adding the object. So, for example, tabbing into editmode to actually see the vertices, destroys the possibilities of changing the amount...  and one has to start all over again. This was usual in previous 2.4x -series as well.
> 
> Cheers,
> -mats
> 
> On 17.3.2010, at 11.28, Ton Roosendaal wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> No, I would not do it this way. A UI should not move focus to  
>> (potentially) invisble things without you even knowing it did. It has  
>> the danger of inconsistancy, and gets annoying even. A UI should not  
>> think for users or assume things either.
>> 
>> In my really honest opinion popup form-fill-in-menus are a sign of  
>> badly designed tools. It's just easier for the coder, that's why you  
>> see them all over.
>> 
>> I realize this is just a UI concept, and the daily practice is of  
>> course more dirty and needs to find compromises between "get tool to  
>> work now" or "not get this tool at all".
>> 
>> -Ton-
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org    www.blender.org
>> Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The Netherlands
>> 
>> On 16 Mar, 2010, at 18:56, Jonathan Williamson wrote:
>> 
>>> Hey Ton,
>>> 
>>> The "active input" is an interesting thought that could work very  
>>> well if
>>> implemented right. I could see this working very well if the input  
>>> focus was
>>> immediately placed in the operator panel, such that you could  
>>> numerically
>>> input the values without ever clicking a second field. In other  
>>> words, to
>>> place a new object it would work like this:
>>> 
>>> 1. Shift + A > Add object
>>> 2. Input is automatically shifted to operator field (e.g. number of
>>> vertices, etc)
>>> 3. Type in value(s)
>>> 4. Press Enter to confirm
>>> 
>>> The key would be to remove the need for any mouse movement.
>>> 
>>> Jonathan Williamson
>>> http://www.montagestudio.org
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 12:26 PM, Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org>  
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> The design concept was to make tools remember previous settings.
>>>> Another improvement would be to have a fast way to move 'active  
>>>> input'
>>>> focus to buttons elsewhere (like right after for tool redo, on a
>>>> hotkey).
>>>> 
>>>> Only in last resort we should do things with popups. I still believe
>>>> you can make an optimal workflow this way, better than popping up
>>>> stuff all the time. Exceptions are possible, and user configs could
>>>> allow, of course.
>>>> 
>>>> -Ton-
>>>> 
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org    www.blender.org
>>>> Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The  
>>>> Netherlands
>>>> 
>>>> On 16 Mar, 2010, at 17:16, Jonathan Williamson wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> That would also be an improvement.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Seppo's idea of creating a user preference for the pop-up is a good
>>>>> one, as
>>>>> there are people who do like like it and just want to add an object
>>>>> immediately. Adding an object immediately can be particularly
>>>>> helpful while
>>>>> in Object mode if you are testing materials or anything like that,
>>>>> then
>>>>> vertex counts aren't your first concern.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Jonathan Williamson
>>>>> http://www.montagestudio.org
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 11:10 AM, Carsten Wartmann
>>>>> <cw at blenderbuch.de>wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Jonathan Williamson wrote:
>>>>>>> I absolutely agree with this. Very seldom do you (or I at least)
>>>>>>> add a
>>>>>> mesh
>>>>>>> object and stick to the default parameters. I nearly always adjust
>>>>>> circles
>>>>>>> and such down to 12 vertices or so.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>> At least the tools should remember the last setting e.g the  
>>>>>> number of
>>>>>> verts.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Carsten
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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