[Bf-funboard] Re: idea to replace center cursor and friends

[Matt Ebb]

Before thinking about whether it should be a button or a hotkey or  
whatever (besides, having a visually accessibly menu doesn't preclude  
there being a shortcut key too), it would be best to figure out  
exactly how it should work and what it should be used for.

i.e. whether it's some toggle in object or edit mode, or something  
beside those two, or whatever will determine how it should be  
implemented. I can see a whole bunch of uses for something like this,  
such as:

* selecting multiple center points of multiple objects and offsetting/ 
rotating/etc them
* grabbing an object center and moving it to snap to a specific  
vertex or edge or whatever (eg. quickly making a cube pivot on one of  
its corners rather than than on its centre

* should it be animatable?

Can any of you come up with other examples of usage?

cheers

Matt


On 30/12/2006, at 11:46 AM, Bassam Kurdali wrote:

> Absolutely don't want a mode the object mode/edit mode / centre mode
> menu (that's terrible!) yeah, a simple switch, Clicking on the center
> directly is a cool idea, but might be a targeting problem for certain
> cases, i.e. a vert that is exactly in the center- or just use a hotkey
> once transform is initiated as mentioned earlier in the thread  
> ( insert
> key I'm told is used in maya for this purpose). On the other hand,  
> there
> is an "align centres" button in the 3d header to make it easy to  
> lign up
> things by scaling their centers, perhaps it's okay to also have a  
> button
> (in addition to hotkey) there (at least for me, the header is not
> cluttered yet), but I won't fight for a specific implementation, so  
> long
> as we choice a nice one.
> Bassam
>
> On Fri, 2006-12-29 at 07:31 -0500, Roland Hess wrote:
>> I don't see how adding a new mode to the increasingly large list is a
>> good idea. A much simpler work flow for users would be to let them
>> select the Center dot more directly. For example, in edit mode,  
>> the user
>>   Ctrl-RMBs the center dot, then transforms it as a vertex (to aid  
>> with
>> visualization, when selected and manipulators are set to OFF, the  
>> center
>> dot can display as a small 3D axis). Outside of edit mode, using a  
>> Ctrl
>> modifier with RMB would select the object centers instead of the  
>> objects
>> themselves -- likewise Ctrl-drag in border select would border  
>> select ob
>> centers. I think that using a modifier key with selection for an
>> "alternative" or "deeper" selection like this is more in line with  
>> the
>> Blender UI than any kind of selection mode toggle button or menu.
>>
>> Also, don't restrict it to working in edit mode or object mode only.
>> People may want to move several centers at once (object mode), or  
>> make
>> center point adjustments while they're working on the mesh (edit  
>> mode).
>> This is more coding for sure, but gives the user greater  
>> flexibility and
>> a more seamless experience across different modes.
>>
>> No sense in having a new mode toggle when you can just select and go.
>>
>> Roland Hess - harkyman
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>
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------------------------------------------
Matt Ebb . matt at mke3.net . http://mke3.net



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