[Bf-committers] 4 ideas for improving Vertex Group handling ...

[Gaia]

Hi;

I have 3 ideas about the Vertex Groups panel. Before i go into the 
details: i can work on the implementation of these features if they get 
accepted. In that case i will create tasks for each accepted feature and 
assign myself... just to be clear here :)

1.) Add an option "autoselect":
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When this option is disabled all keeps is as it is now.
When the option is enabled, then selecting a vertex group from the list 
will automatically select all associated verts of that vgroup and 
deselect all other verts. This option would allow to quickly step 
through vertex groups and inspect their content visually.

Right now we have to:

- select vgroup
- deselect all verts
- Select the vgroup verts

Note: the auto select would only apply when a vgroup is selected (by 
click on its list entry). So you still can select/deselect verts in the 
3d view and Assign/Remove/Select/Deselect selection from the active vgroup.

2.) Select a vgroup also selects active bone:
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When the assigned armature is in pose mode, then selecting a vgroup 
should also select the associated bone (if the vgroup is bone related). 
Right now selecting a bone weight group on the Vertex Group List does 
not change the active bone. Imo this is rather confusing.

3.) Select multiple vgroups:
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The idea is to be able to select multiple vgroups (the last selected 
vgroup is always the active vgroup). Then all operations could be 
performed on all selected groups. The most prominent operation: Delete 
selected ;)

Right now when i want to remove a couple of vgroups in a row, then i 
have to select each of them, then delete it one at a time.

4.) Add a Falloff parameter for "Automatic weight from Bones"
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Right now automatic weight from Bones is fully automatic with
no possibility to adjust the calculations. However sometimes
it would be good to adjust the distance of influence in certain
cases. So the idea is to add an influence slider to the Operator Panel
that would define a falloff distance.

Actually this could possibly be combined with "Weight from Envelopes"
but i am not sure if that would work well.

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I hope i could explain well what the features are supposed to do.
Thanks for any feedback

cheers,
Gaia