[Bf-funboard] Expanding the menus

Matt Ebb bf-funboard@blender.org
Tue, 5 Aug 2003 23:00:19 +1000


Hi all,

This is regarding the tracker item here:
http://projects.blender.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=336&group_id=32&atid=207
about putting more of Blender's hotkey functions in the main menu bar, to
offer an alternative to the hotkeys only and to make Blender easier to
explore. This issue has been talked about a fair bit before, with the
overwhelming consensus that making these hotkey only features more visible
is a good thing.

I've posted a thread on blender.org here:
http://www.blender.org/modules.php?p=modload&name=phpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=1939
with some experiments I've been doing, hacking away adding more options to
the menus and re-organising them a bit. You can see the current status of
what I've got working in code in that thread. I've written up a 'plan' for
the menus, which I'm going to try and continue working towards with my
experiments. Please take a look at this current plan here:
http://mke3.net:9000/blender/ui/menus/menus_plan.html

I'm looking for feedback on how to organise this, or more options that can
be added in a nice logical manner. Right now in this plan, I've got the mesh
and curve editing functions hidden one level deep under the Edit menu. I
can't decide whether it is best to keep them there, or create new top-level
menus: 'Edit Mesh', 'Edit Curve' (like in Maya).

The reasoning for how I've got it now is that the menu's priority is to
organise and display the functions in a logical manner so they can be
explored easily. It doesn't matter too much if the menus are a bit
inefficient, since people can learn the hotkeys (faster access) by using and
looking at the menus, and hopefully in the future, the toolbox can be
improved to be a speedy, context-sensitive way to access the same functions
very efficiently, too.

So.. opinions? Feedback?

Cheers

Matt