[Bf-funboard] Expanding the menus - research

[Matt Ebb]

Yesterday I looked at some other 3D packages that use a 'tiled window space'
UI, similar to Blender's (XSI and Maya). I wanted to see how they approached
how to organise their menus to see if we could learn anything from it tha
can be applied/improved on in Blender. Here's a list of the main points of
interest I found. I'm now thinking about and writing up a few proposals for
Blender, based on this information, which I'll post today when I finish.

Matt

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XSI 3 EXP:

Screenshot: http://mke3.net:9000/blender/ui/menus/xsi_ss.png

* Global main menu (static)

- no greying out of options
- if menu commands can't be used, no error messages or feedback
- enormous and cluttered main menus (View menu almost takes the full height
of my 1600x1200 screen)
- Lots (19) of top level menus

* some commands like adding materials, creating objects, decimating
edges/faces can be applied to objects if there is not an active 3D
viewport - it pops up a buttons panel with sliders etc. However there's no
indication or feedback of which features can or can not be used in the
current state.
* 'Model' menu with submenus for mesh edit, curve edit, etc. Also doubles as
a 'Create menu'

* Additional menus attached to each 'window space'. These contain options
specific to that window space. Usually regarding viewing options, selecting,
specific tools.

Example 1: Animation Editor (similar to Ipo Curve Editor) menu

Show (selecting types of information to display)
File (for saving presets, curves, preferences)
Edit (cut/copy/paste, selecting and moving keys)
View (navigating around the timeline, toggling grids/rulers/etc)
Keys (inserting, removing, locking keyframes)
Curves (editing the shape of the curve - changing interpolation and
extrapolation, options like 'resample, 'smooth', 'fit')

Example 2: Texture Editor (similar to UV/Image Editor) menu

File (importing/exporting images)
Edit (copying/pasting/duplicating UVs)
View (panning around window, hiding and showing selected UVs)
Tools (changing projection, move/rotate/scale, relax/collapse/etc)
Select (selection tools, linked selection)
Snap (to points, grid, etc.)
Shaders (nothing in the menu by default...)
Clips (similar to blender's popup to choose between loaded images)
UVs (nothing in the menu by default... Presuming it's for selecting
different UV sets)

* The menus on the sub-window spaces are usually related to the tasks
performed in that window, while the main menu bar is usually related to
things of a greater scope - the scene objects themselves.

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Maya 4.5 PLE:

Screenshot: http://mke3.net:9000/blender/ui/menus/maya_ss.png

* 4 x Global main menus, static, switched between with a drop-down menu
(Modeling, Animation, Rendering, Dynamics)

* When switching between the 4 main menu sets, some items (File, Edit,
Modify, Create, Display, Window, Help) remain constant, other items
(specific to the menu set) change.

* some 3D-ish commands can be applied to objects if there is not an active
3D viewport. Sometimes, usually if it's a direct action, it just makes the
changes in the background (like adding a new object, or collapsing faces),
and not using some sort of tool or mode. There is no indication or feedback
as to whether a command will silently work in the background or not.

- Other times (usually with tools that require some sort of mode or
interactivity), the tool is started and is already selected and in that
'mode' the next time one switches back to the 3D viewport. However for some
tools it acts strangely, and the causes Maya to go into a weird state where
the tool should be active, but isn't, and is impossible/difficult to cancel
out of the tool, select anything, use the RMB marking menu, etc. This seems
like a bug to me, and is the result of not greying out menu options that
shouldn't be used. There is no indication or feedback of what tools will
work, what tools won't, what will cause that bug- the user just has to guess
and hope, or remember from past experience.

- The 4 sets of menus mean they aren't as cluttered and huge as XSI's, but
they are still not organised very logically. Even with the divided sets of
menus, the 'Modeling' set still has 13 top level menus, which is quite a
lot. The menu headings are sometimes two words (eg. 'Edit Polygons') instead
of one, which makes it harder to quickly find and hit the menus since at a
glance, they can be confused as being separate menus.

* Additional menus attached to each 'window space'. These contain options
specific to that window space. These work in a similar way and contain
similar kinds of options as in XSI, usually containing display options, and
tools that can only be used in that particular window space.

* Again, the menus on the sub-window spaces are usually related to the tasks
performed in that window, while the main menu bar is usually related to the
objects in the scene.