[Bf-funboard] Toolbar mockups

[Vincent Akkermans]

On Friday, 19 July 2013 at 13:28, fabio.massaioli at virgilio.it wrote:
> I usually keep the toolbar hidden and use it only when I don't remember shortcuts.  
>  
>  

Would showing the shortcuts help? I'm thinking that this would allow a user to open the toolbar with T, look at the shortcut, close the panel again, use the operator, and all this from the keyboard.
> When I have to open it (sculpt mode, texture paint mode, etc.) I keep it as narrow as I can to save space for the main viewport. I think it would be better to avoid using more horizontal space, scrolling the toolbar is not a problem because that's rarely needed.
>  
>  

Perhaps the key is to subdivide panels with many buttons into separate panels. Only the Mesh Tools panel is really quite bulky, the rest seems manageable. On the other hand some panels are really quite small and could be incorporated into others.
> Panel popups are definitely a good idea, but people should be free to choose if they want one or more panels open together.
>  
>  

I was wondering whether forcing a single panel would be too rigorous, so I would agree with you on this point. The changes would then come down to 1) panel popups, 2) shortcuts on single column buttons, 3) panels with many buttons would become two separate panels, 4) superfluous panels would be incorporated into others, 5) accessible operator defaults.

The shortcuts could disappear as the buttons become smaller and there is no space for them.
> I also agree on textual descriptions, icons would be harder to remember.
>  
> A nice improvement would be to highlight the last used command group (e.g.: when I use the UV unwrapping operator the unwrapping buttons get a subtle red shade).
This is an interesting idea. Is your reasoning behind this that it would attract your eyes to the location of buttons that are appropriate for the current activity?
> USEFUL addons that add USELESS panels to the toolbar are another problem that could be fixed, but I don't know if this applies to your GSOC job.
>  
>  

Perhaps providing a clear guideline could help. Could we make a list of addons that suffer from this condition?

Vincent



>  
> Good job anyway, keep it up!
>  
> Cheers
> Fabio Massaioli
>  
> Vincent Akkermans <vincent at ack-err.net (mailto:vincent at ack-err.net)> wrote:
> > Yes, that was a deliberate choice in these mockups to allow for less
> > required vertical space and also to keep textual descriptions. The
> > consideration was that 1) textual descriptions are helpful, especially
> > when there are many edit modes and many buttons, and b) icon-only can
> > become quite a jumble when many icons are required (e.g. 36 in the Mesh
> > Tools panel!).
> >  
> > More vertical space is a compromise in the wrong direction?
> >  
> > There is some space that can be shaved off still, perhaps by dropping
> > the shortcuts.
> >  
> > Vincent
> >  
> >  
> > On Friday, 19 July 2013 at 11:50, Paweł Łyczkowski wrote:
> >  
> > > This actually increases the space that toolbar takes. Best IMO would
> > be  
> > > icons, with descriptive tooltips - http://db.tt/WlnZWSKJ
> > >  
> > > Cheers
> > > PLyczkowski
> > >  
> > > On 19-07-2013 12:43, Vincent Akkermans wrote:
> > > > Hi all,
> > > >  
> > > > As part of the summer of code I've been looking at redesigning the
> > > >  
> > >  
> > >  
> >  
> > toolbar. I've made some mockups [1] that I would like to get some
> > feedback on.
> > > >  
> > > > The main points this addresses are:
> > > >  
> > > > * reduce scrolling as much as possible
> > > > * add support for setting the default parameters for operators
> > > > * add text to show equivalent shortcuts
> > > >  
> > > > Please let me hear your thoughts!
> > > >  
> > > > Vincent
> > > >  
> > > >  
> > > > [1]
> > > >  
> > >  
> >  
> > http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Ack-err/GSoC_2013/Toolbar_Designs
> > > >  
> > > > --
> > > > Vincent Akkermans
> > > > phone: (+44) 074 324 69 050
> > > > skype: v.akkermans
> > > >  
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