[Bf-funboard] A few suggestions concerning mainly the modeling workflow

[Karl Kühberger]

I like these little improvements and would suggest another
little improvement for the Loop Cut Tool:

I often add many loop cuts in one object on different places.
As it works now, I have to press for every step Ctrl-R again.
It would be great to have a "session mode" similar to Grease Pencil.

Karl


2013/11/1 Hadrien Brissaud <hadriscus at gmail.com>

> Hello all,
>
> First of all thanks to all developers involved in this 2.69 release.
> Amongst other things, it makes modeling a breeze... once again. Since 2.7
> is the next step, I thought now would be an appropriate time to suggest a
> few things, minor things really, probably quite realistic even. For what
> it's worth, here they are !
>
> 1. Merge extrude and inset
> Blender has few modeling tools, but they're all doing quite a lot, through
> modal functionality (instead of going the Modo way, which is having a
> dedicated tool/operator for each and every situation).
> A. I think this behavior is great and could be extended to extrude and
> inset operators, since they're basically the same thing. The modal map
> would be that of the current inset operator, except the "inset" value would
> be mapped to ctrl+drag in place of the "depth" tweak.
> B. If the previous proposal seems inappropriate or hardly feasible, another
> solution would be to map the inset operator to a double-tap of "e" key, so
> that it's more accessible to the left hand (the same way edge/vertex slide
> are mapped to double-g).
>
> 2. Have extrude work on normals
> It has been suggested before, and I feel like it's worth insisting on : the
> usual behaviour of extrude in other 3D programs is pretty much this one :
> http://www.pasteall.org/pic/61729 (Wings 1.5.1)
> Now I don't suggest dropping the current behaviour, since it does have its
> uses, but the one shown in the screenshot is quite handy too, and cannot
> always be replicated through a combination of extrude + scale on normals
> ("fatten" in Blender).
>
> 3. Add "clamp" option to edge slide
> The vertex slide operator has this very cool option, which allows one to
> extend edges past their bounds when alt is held down. The only problem is
> each vertex slides in their own direction, and it is pretty much impossible
> to have them slide altogether if they're part of a complex, crooked
> edgeloop (hard to explain, please try it for yourself).
> The edge slide operator would benefit a lot from this very functionality,
> without having the same shortcomings as "vertex slide".
>
> 4. "Preserve volume" for edge slide
> This one would be a bit of a luxury to have, since it can generally be
> achieved through a combination of edge slide + fatten, but it might be
> feasible (it's already there in "loop cut" as even though there's no visual
> feedback), hence my asking :
> Modo has an option to "preserve curvature" when sliding an edge, which
> basically does what it say : instead of sliding linearly from one side to
> the other, it slides along a curve so that once subsurf'd, the area keeps
> its precious bulge. I would've grabbed a record of it in action, but I
> don't own Modo. I hope my explanation makes enough sense.
>
> 5. More seamless workflow with "loop cut"
> Sometimes I have to repeat a loop cut (same number of cuts, different
> place), and I wish I could use shift+r to make this happen. As of now it
> cuts just above the last made cut, no matter where the user wants it done.
> Would it be possible to have Blender take the mouse cursor position into
> account when repeating the action ?
>
> 6. Make proportional edit a simple toggle, with "connected" and "projected"
> as options
> I'd already raised that one and was backed by quite a few people, with
> differents designs being made here and there to suit the recent and very
> welcome "projected" mode.
>
> Plus, if anybody feels like tackling this problem :
> http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-committers/2013-April/039746.html -
> At the time, Psy-fi suggested that it was a particularly difficult task to
> pitch into (
> http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-committers/2013-April/039747.html),
> and I acknowledge that.
>
> 7. Tweak pivot point location in "last operator"
> This one is not only about modeling : I use the "last operator" very often,
> it's a pleasant way of tweaking past operations without having to worry
> about nodes created in my wake every second (Maya, Houdini...). What's to
> follow is absolutely not necessary but I feel would make a nice addition to
> this workflow : being able to change the pivot point location, as xyz
> coordinates (or a dropdown list including 3D cursor, median point, etc.),
> from inside the "last operator" region.
>
> 8. Display "last operator" contents after a re-do
> I agree this one probably goes deep into how Blender handles events, and is
> not exclusive to modeling at all. However, I've long been frustrated how I
> can't go "undo, redo, undo, redo..." in order to bring to light the
> operation I just did, and tweak it afterwards.
>
> 9. Make "pivot point" a menu so that it can be called through a hotkey
> CoDEmanX kindly helped me out on this :
> http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?314450 - but it would be
> nice to have it out-of-the-box, wouldn't it ? -> Same suggestion for
> switching between modes.
>
> That's it for the "small annoyances and hurdles" compilation. I hope this
> letter makes it to a kind ear, who will take pity in the modelers kind. :)
>
> Thanks again for all the work, take care,
>
> Hadrien
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