[Bf-funboard] Toolbox Thoughts and List

Thorsten Wilms bf-funboard@blender.org
Fri, 17 Oct 2003 10:40:23 +0200


Hi!

Yesterday I played around with Maya 5 PLE.
That triggered my mail about selection modes.

It got me also thinking about the toolbox, spacebar and RMB.
More intersting than the Hotbox are the marking menus on 
right-click (hold).

I wonder if Blender could have right-click-hold radial 
menus for some selected items and the spacebar-menu for 
more options. Not that I want to copy the Maya aproach, 
but to learn a litle from the and adapt it won't hurt.

Currently righ-click is used for selection. It could 
stay that way if the radial menu would have select/
unselect at it's center. It would show up only after 
a little delay, so you wouldn't notice on selection 
usage.


However, here's a list of the organization of my Toolbox
design. Please check for completness and if it generaly 
makes sense to you. Besides items that work directly on 
objects, it contains everything related to the 3d cursor 
and selection.

------------------------------------------------------
Toolbox menu items for 3d views, Object and Edit Mode:

Add
  Mesh [Object Mode / Edit Mode]
  [In Edit Mode only compatible objects should be addable (currently not the case).]
    ...
    Curves
      ...
    Surfaces
      ...
    Text 
    Metaball 
    Empty 
    Camera 
    Lamp 
    Armature 
    Lattice 

Select 
  Select All [nothing selected]
  Deselect All [something selected]
  Border Select 
  Inverse [something selected]
  Snap 
    Selection -> Grid [something selected]
    Selection -> Center [something selected]
    Selection -> Cursor [something selected]
    Cursor -> Grid 
    Cursor -> Selection [something selected]
  Enable Proportional Vertex Editing [Edit Mode, mesh-object, Proportional Vertex Editing disabled]
  Disable Proportional Vertex Editing [Edit Mode, mesh-object, Proportional Vertex Editing enabled] 
  Set Falloff to Smooth [Edit Mode, mesh-object, Fallof is set to Sharp]
  Set Falloff to Sharp [Edit Mode, mesh-object, Fallof is set to Smooth]

Edit 
  Duplicate [something selected/active]
  Delete [something selected/active]
  Hide Selected [something selected/active]
  Object Mode [Edit Mode]
  Edit Mode [Object Mode]
  Undo Editing [Edit Mode, at least one operation since entry]

Transform 
  Grab [something selected/active]
  Rotate [something selected/active]
  Scale [something selected/active]
  Shear [something selected/active, changes Object Mode to Edit Mode]
  Warp [something selected/active, changes Object Mode to Edit Mode]
  Shrink/Fatten [something selected/active, bug in Edit-Mode: asks: Clear Size?]
  Numerical [something selected/active]
  Apply 
    Apply Size/Roatation [something selected/active]
    Apply Deformation [something selected/active]
  Clear
    Clear Location [something selected/active]
    Clear Rotation [something selected/active]
    Clear Size [something selected/active]
    Clear Origin [something selected/active]

Object [for all: Object Mode]
  Join Objects [more than 1 compatible objects selected]
  Boolean Operation [more than 1 mesh-object selected]
  Convert [convertible object selected/active]
  Copy Property [more than 1 object selected]

Linking [for all: Object Mode]
  Duplicate linked [something selected/active]
  Make Single User [??]
  Make Local [active object is linked]
  Make Links [more than one object selected]

Relation [for all: Object Mode]
  Make Parent [more than 1 object selected]
  Clear Parent [active object has parent]
  Make Track [more than 1 object selected]
  Clear Track [active object is tracking something]

Image [for all: Object Mode]
  Image Aspect [active object has material with image texture assigned to it]
  Image Displist [??]

Curve [for all: Edit Mode, curve-object]
  Segments 
    Subdivide 
    Switch Direction 
  Control Points 
    Tilt 
    Clear Tilt 
    Toggle Free/Aligned 
    Vector 
    Smooth 
    Make Vertex Parent
    Hide Selected Control Points 
    Show Hidden Control Points 

Vertices [for all: Edit Mode, mesh-object]
  Merge 
  Split 
  Seperate 
  Smooth 
  Remove Doubles 
  Make Vertex Parent
  Select Connected Vertices 
  Hide Deselected Vertices 
  Hide Selected Vertices 
  Show Hidden Vertices 

Make Edge / Make Face [Edit Mode, vertices of of at least on edge or face selected]

Edges [for all: Edit Mode, mesh-object, vertices of at least on edge selected]
  Subdivide 
  Subdivide Fractal 
  Subdivide Smooth 

Faces [for all: Edit Mode, mesh-object, vertices of at least on face selected]
  Fill 
  Beauty Fill 
  Convert Quads to Triangles 
  Convert Triangles to Quads
  Flip Triangle Edges 
  Hide Selected Faces 
  Hide Deselected Faces 
  Show Hidden Faces 
  Normals 
    Recalculate Outside 
    Recalculte Inside 
    Flip 


---
Thorsten