[Bf-funboard] Critical improvements and features

[Jason van Gumster]

Karl Kühberger <karl.kuehberger at gmail.com> wrote:

> Sorry for "spamming"! But I want to post my ideas how to
> make the Blender UI better. 
> 
> I often thought about the File Open or Save As dialogue in Blender.
> What is the advantage of having a totally non-standard file handling window?
> E. g. a Blender newbie probably may ask himself why he can add a new object
> or play a rendered animation (maybe he never has done an animation) while he 
> is in the "Save As" dialogue. That's just weird!
> On the other hand he probably is searching for a file and misses the Search
> field!
> 
> OK, I understand, that it would be more work for developers to make it
> different in every OS, e.g. using the OS-GUI instead of the Blender specific.

It's not just more work (in fact, I don't even think that's the main reason).
The OS file browsers can't drill down into .blend files (link/append) or see
material previews when looking in .blend files or provide custom import/export
settings or have the handy + hotkey for incremental saves. And just from my own
bias, I like the fact that the file browser looks and works the same regardless
of the operating system I'm on. And having the file browser as non-blocking is
also handy. When working with the VSE, I often leave the file browser in its
own space and treat that as a rudimentary bin from which I can drag assets onto
the VSE timeline.

Is the current file browser perfect? Not at all. I very, very much prefer it
over the system browser.

  -Jason