[Bf-committers] Number input and Multi-touch trackpad scroll-to-zoom

[patrick boelens]

Hi everyone!

A long, long time ago I've made two changes to Blender that made my life easier.

1) Math in number input. This allowed me to input things like Z 360/32*7
 to rotate an object on the Z-axis by 78.75 degrees; or 7 segments of a 
default UV Sphere for instance. This was also extremely useful for 
quickly manually placing duplicates in (part of) a circle. Just set the 
pivot point to the 3D cursor and type ctrl+D R Z 360/7 6 times to get it done!

2) Multi-touch scroll-to-zoom. Currently multi-touch enabled devices automatically 
default to two-finger-scroll for rotating and pinch for zooming. This patch added a toggle that set 
two-finger-scroll to zoom.

The code for both these areas has 
changed significantly, so I've just stayed on 2.67 until now. However, I
 am beginning to miss being able to play with new all the new features, 
so I'd kind of like to upgrade now. ;)

Before I spend a lot of 
time implementing a new haphazard hack however, I was wondering if 
perhaps a core dev would be willing to take a look at this.

Number one is really more of a wishlist item to me, though it is probably a very useful tool to have, and would also fit well with the current system now that we can already type 4-1.3 for instance.

Scroll-to-zoom, however, is an absolute deal-breaker for me. As I have a physical handicap that affects the stance of my hands, pinching is a very slow and difficult operation for me to perform.

I've tried setting View3D's zoom to Mouse/Trackpad Rotate in the preferences, but this didn't work properly either. Perhaps these events could be separated into more generic commands that don't already imply/ affect a function? I.e.:

Trackpad Rotate -> Trackpad Scroll
Trackpad Zoom -> Trackpack Pinch

Alright, this mail's long enough as-is methinks. Looking forward to a reply!

Cheers,
Patrick