[Bf-committers] Fixed number of Layers

[Tobias Oelgarte]

Guess i will think it through and create a detailed description on how 
it might look like and how it would be used. I guess the only thing i 
can never compete with is the creation of layers, since currently they 
are always present, can't be added or removed. ;-)

But i guess my approach would be the same as for textures. You can 
add/remove, rename and disable/enable them.

Adding, removing and naming would be basically the same. So i would 
prefer it to rename them directly in the list, instead inside an extra 
text field, like it is currently done for textures, keys as well. But 
that isn't such important to me. Disabling and enabling layers would 
work with a checkbox before or behind the name, or like a toggle-button 
with the name on it.

You can change the order of textures as you like. This could also apply 
to layers as well, since it could also be useful to arrange them in a 
custom order to make objects jump from layer to layer (index based).

That would be the basic concept inside the properties editor. This would 
also work to assign renderlayers, masks, etc. Currently we have their 3 
times the same component: "Scene", "Layer", "Mask". Like inside the 
outliner this could be three icons left or right to the layers name. I 
guess this would be much clearer to the user.

Whats left is the move to a layer operator and the tiny buttons inside 
the 3d view header. The first could be a menu like for adding 
constraints, but it just toggles the state for the listed layers and 
will be canceled/confirmed by clicking outside of the popup menu. The 
second thing would be replaced by a button named layers, which also 
brings up the same type of dialog, when clicked or hoovered (closes 
immediately if mouse leaves "connected" popup)

I hope that you could follow this thoughts. I will draw a mockup anyway 
to illustrate it in more detail and to find possible weakpoints.


Am 17.01.2012 16:47, schrieb gespertino at gmail.com:
> I agree.
> The fixed number of layers is certainly a problem, and the lack of
> named layers implies an extra effort when using files created by
> someone else.
> So I'd say I'm all for that change.
> However, I wonder how would you handle objects that have to be in
> different layers at the same time, and how would you assign
> renderlayers and z-masks.
> The idea is good, but it needs a thoughtful specification to address
> all the current uses in a handy manner.
> It's not a simple modification, and the new way to display/create
> layers shouldn't be more complicated or time consuming than the
> existing UI.
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