[Bf-funboard] Reworking of ctrl-t, ctrl-p, ctrl-c, etc....

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi,

> The problem is ctrl-t, ctrl-p, ctrl-c is that they currently depend on  
> what
> thing was selected last (the "active selection") before the hotkey is
> pressed. But blender doesn't tell you that.

The active Object is drawn (in wire) with a different (brighter) color.  
Only right-clicking makes 'active'. Using a border-select for example  
only selects. I use border-select a lot for selecting groups, then one  
shift+rightclick makes the (future) parent active. Also the (buttons)  
UI doesn't update with border selecting.

> Blender doesn't even tell you
> that at least two objects must be selected...

That's true... but not a big surprise. :)

> (I thought "Copy" just
> involved one selection, and there would be a corresponding "Paste"  
> hotkey...
> but after looking through lots of hotkey lists I eventually worked out  
> that
> only the "Copy" hotkey is used somehow...)

I mailed about copy/past/cut in a mail yesterday. I agree we could  
adopt that for easier learning, but I consider the 'Duplicate' tool in  
Blender more powerful in most situations.
Blender's current 'copy' tool is completely different from UI standard  
'copy' BTW... it copies properties only. We also have a related CTRL+L  
tool, to create new links.

>
> e.g.
> to make objects a and b track object c....
>
> Old method:
> 1) right-click a
> 2) right-click b
> 3) right-click c
> 4) ctrl-T
> 5) left-click
>
> New method:
> 1) right-click a
> 2) right-click b
> 3) ctrl-T
> 4) esc or right-click c

This depends at the assumption you can select the Parent in one click.  
It also introduces a new temporal mode, waiting for the user to do  
something.

This is how I perceive the current method:

1) select items that needs to be selected
2) select/activate item (sometimes requires retrying when you miss)
3) CTRL+Command, ENTER

This is very straightforward. Once you've brought your Objects in a  
certain selection state, you then are free to make-track, parent, copy  
properties, copy links, move to another scene, delete, and so on. I  
really prefer having selection/activating separated from tools/commands.
To my surprise such methods are advised by UI theory (Raskin)... but  
apart from that, it's a theorem Blender was built on. The concept of  
'active' data is widely used everywhere, something we rather should  
communicate in the best possible way, instead of dropping it.

The instruction text you write below - to be printed in headers or so -  
clearly illustrates how bad the 'new' method would be...

Although I like the 'standard' of copy/paste command in many programs,  
it regularly really annoys me to find out it gives more unwanted than  
wanted behaviour. You never really are sure *what* is copied, and never  
know *where* it is pasted, you don't know how long this buffer remains  
active, nor what it does when the context changes (different mode,  
different scene, different editor?).
Such things then only might work in an acceptable way when you can  
immediately undo the paste...

-Ton-

>
> As far as the text displayed on the screen goes, during this process:
>
> In the spacebar toolbox, the hotkeys could have the following  
> descriptions:
> (stars mean bold font, also notice the dots)
>
> *Track*...
> *Copy Attribute*... from... (or *Copy*... from...)
> Make *Parent* from... (that's probably better than *Parent* to...)
>
> As far as the "*Copy Attribute*... from..." (or *Copy*... from...) item
> goes, you would either click on it to see the attribute menu, or it  
> would
> pop out automatically when you hover on it, without you having to  
> click...
> so it may involve an additional click, but if you use the ctrl-c  
> hotkey,
> there is no additional click (see earlier).
> ============================================
>
> After the hotkey or spacebar toolbox is used, I think the header bar  
> for the
> current window should say: (stars mean bold font, also notice the  
> dots...)
>
> Choose object to *track*.... or Esc
> or
> Select object to *track*.... or Esc
> or
> Choose object for previous selection to *track*.... or Esc
>
> So the user can see how to abort the operation.
>
> *Copy Loc* from... or Esc
> or
> *Copy Rot* from... or Esc
> (depending on what attribute was selected in the copy menu)
>
> This text would appear in the same place as the rotation or location of
> things appears while you are using r or g... also, the header can be  
> removed
> from windows for power-users (you probably knew that).
> ==============================================
> If no objects are selected, when you use the hotkeys or spacebar  
> toolbox it
> should say: "Error: No objects selected" (or something- the "error"  
> makes
> the user aware that there is a problem)
>
> - Luke
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>
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton@blender.org  
http://www.blender.org