[Bf-funboard] Toolbox Design 3

[Luke Wenke]

> His work is on the menusystem, not the toolbox.
Yeah... I forgot to mention that.

> Although those 2 should fit together somehow, the Toolbox is to be used
slightly different. It's not
> about providing an overview of all the commands.
It could at least be all the available commands in edit mode or pose mode,
etc...

> Fast access is more important.
> So maybe the final Toolbox will be justs parts of the menusystem moved to
a context-
> menu. But I like to provide some alternatives first.
Well I like ton's latest idea now
http://www.blender.org/bf/toolbox.jpg
It is based on one of yours. It allows you to easily see where you came
from, and how to go backwards, etc. I mostly like how broken's seems better
organised though the cross idea, etc, (particular ton's variation) may be a
better menu system for the toolbox.

> My sentence about ordering is a bit misleading. In want to have the
commands logicaly
> grouped, but in that groups and the groups themselves ordered according to
frequency
> of usage. I think it would be stupid with the mousecursor starting from
the center to
> not have more important items close to the center!
If some commands have approximately the same frequency they could be
arranged alphabetically or something since they might as well have a logical
ordering.

> Initialy it might feel a bit strange
> because of reading-order, but higher efficiency will outweigh that.
BTW, you've got to take into account that most users would use the
hotkeys... so if the command is used a lot and the hotkey is simple (e.g.
"b" or "x") then most users mightn't even use the toolbox for that command.
So I think it would be a bad idea to put those things (e.g. border select
and delete) where they are very easy to access with the toolbox since it
would make it harder to access the other commands. (I'm guessing that "b"
and "x" are examples of this kind of thing) So the things that are used the
most in the toolbox mightn't actually be the most common commands... their
hotkeys just might be a bit hard to remember or they mightn't even have
hotkeys (like adding meshes/lamps/etc).

> I think alphabetical ordering shows benefits only for long lists. And is
of nearly no
> importance for groups of, say, 3 or 4 items (logical groups).
I think there should be some system of arranging small groups of items...
maybe it could be due to aesthetic reasons... where the descriptions are
arranged shortest to longest...

> Dividing lines and hotkeys can be added, but for this stage I avoided the
additional
> work.
Cool...

> The Multibox is better for quickly getting to some speed with it, but has
> lower limits of efficiency. The largest drawback is it's size.
I'm leaning towards ton's suggestion now... partly since it would be much
easier to stick the hotkeys in there. (Which reminds people how to do their
commands even faster - by using the corresponding hotkey - if it exists)

- Luke.