[Bf-funboard] Named Layers Blender wiki page

[Jason van Gumster]

I dunno; I think it's all a semantics game.  Blender and other
applications refer to units like this as layers and it's at least
moderately analogous to the layers metaphor in 2D... enough that someone
could logically describe them as "like 2D layers, but better" and it
would make sense to someone unfamiliar with 3D.  I get the feeling that
if it were named something like tags, the person learning would end up
saying something like, "oh, you means something like layers?" ;)

> Though I guess there's a lot of overlap between this idea (and  
> layers) and groups. It would be interesting to think about that too
> - where do you draw the line between layers and groups? Are there
> (and what are the) fundamental differences in what they're used for.

While there's certainly overlap here, I think a really key distinction
reveals itself in scale and scope.  If you're working with linking
libraries of objects between files, Blender's groups lend themselves
best.  However, when working with a specific scene, layers are often
more convenient, particularly when it comes to render layers and
compositing.  I don't think you're suggesting that we combine the two
things, but I felt I should address that in case anyone else reads your
message and gets the idea.  Layers and groups have different enough
functionality that I think they're far more valuable to users as they
currently are.

Perhaps the question is, "What are people using layers and groups
for? what should they be used for?"  The answer for that question(s)
can allow us to massage the UI of each of those things to reflect those
primary usages.

> It's conceivable that we could easily use the 'Groups' display in
> the outliner to work as a layer system, by adding the
> view/select/render icons there (individual objects in multiple groups
> would just show the ORed result of all groups its in or something
> like that).

Conceivable, but I'm not sure if it's advisable.  Unless, perhaps
you're talking about displaying layers in the outliner *like* we
display groups (rather than using groups *as* layers).  Again, I think
that they have different enough functionality to merit separation and I
don't think that leveraging one to behave as the other would do much
more than confuse people.

That said, using an ORed result to handle objects on multiple layers
does address (and I feel adequately resolve) the question I asked David
near the beginning of this thread.  In that case, though, a
PlumiBlender-like "this layer has objects on it" functionality would
make things more clear.

  -Fweeb