[Bf-funboard] New Keymap ideas

[Nathan Vegdahl]

Really good thoughts, Matjaz!

The radial menu idea is exactly what I had in mind when I chose space
bar for mode switching.  It's also extremely fast even as just a
normal menu, though.  For example: spacebar-2 = edit mode.

I definitely like the double-tap keys as well.  I'm not sure to what
extent I can modify that from Python, but I'll see what I can do.  At
some point I'm going to have a laundry list for the devs anyway,
because of things like there being no "remove" option for the select
operator, so I can't actually implement the proposed selection model
yet.  But I'm hacking as much with custom python operators as I can
for now, just so that people can try it out.

--Nathan


On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 6:15 AM, Matjaz Lamut <matjaz.lamut at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I read on the mailing list about the initiative to re-think Blender's
> keymap and like every blenderhead out there, I have ideas to share. Instead
> of directly emailing Nathan, I thought I'd join the general discussion, but
> outside the commotion of Blenderartists forum. So here it is. The obvious
> problem to solve is the current state of the keymap, finger-breaking
> acrobatics, interfering with fluid workflow, inconsistencies and more. I've
> been thinking of three things to help solve this.
>
> ---- Double key. ----
> You press a key once to start a tool, and press it again to start a very
> similar tool. This is already present in Blender.
>
> R - rotate
> R, R - rotate trackball
>
> If you remember 2.49 had something similar for border and circle select.
>
> B - border select
> B, B - circle select
>
> Let's see what happens when we use this approach some more, e.g.
>
> E - extrude
> E, E - extrude individual faces
>
> I - inset
> I, I - inset individual faces
>
> S - scale
> S, S - shrink/fatten (similar behaviour as scale)
>
> It's also very similar to what the user does when selecting, deselecting
> things. Pressing A once and A, A twice. It's not identical
> functionality-wise, but on the keyboard, the finger does the same thing,
> presses a key twice to toggle the tool. I believe the double key approach
> works rather well, it's fast, it doesn't involve finger acrobatics, groups
> tools together and it's a general rule many tools can follow. This then
> means a more consistent behaviour inside Blender. Also, I'd limit tool
> toggling to 2 pressed max as I favour simplicity
>
>
> --- Tool constraints ---
> Tool constraints, when you press additional keys to limit and guide the
> effect of the active tool. It's something already present in blender,
> across multiple tools. Here are a few sequences.
>
> G - grab,
> X - constrain to x axis,
> 1, 2 - 12 units
>
> Ctrl + M - mirror
> X - across the X axis
>
> But, we could expand this behaviour
>
> G - grab
> N - constrain to selection's normal
>
> G - grab
> E - constrain to edges (edge/loop slide tool)
>
> G - grab
> V - constrain to vertices (vertex slide)
>
> E - extrude
> N - constrain to normal
>
> Constraint keys are in my opinion one of the greatest strengths Blender has
> as they allow for a very fluid workflow, easy access of options while
> keeping the tools robust. In addition it's another behaviour already
> present in Blender and is something the users are already familiar with.
>
>
> --- Radial menus ---
> A menu with maximum of 8 entries you evoke to pick an option. Reading about
> the confusion when switching modes, TAB, ctrl+TAB, V, "pose mode or edit
> mode?" and some modes not even having shortcuts I believe it's best to put
> such things in menus. The upside is the entries are all nicely sorted,
> there's less confusion when switching modes. The downside is, regular menus
> are usually slower than direct shortcuts. To get rid of the slowness I
> propose radial menus & sticky keys combo.
>
> Normally:
> You press TAB (or Space) to evoke a radial menu, you hover your cursor over
> an entry, mouse click to select.
>
> Even faster would be:
> Hold TAB key, hover mouse over an entry, release TAB key. Mode switched.
>
> This way it would be possible to pack all sorts of operators into radial
> menus, operators that are currently taking up valuable shortcuts. Radial
> menus would fit nicely with swithing modes, viewport shading, pivot point,
> proportional editing falloff and probably some other. Currently there are
> no radial menus in Blender, but there are too many benefits they bring when
> organizing the commands, to ignore them.
>
>
> Aaaaand this is it. Would love to hear your opinion.
>
> Regards,
> Matjaž Lamut
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