[Bf-funboard] Space saving UI proposal

[Ruth Ivimey-Cook]

Antony Riakiotakis wrote:
> I like what I see in the modifier section.
I like some of what is proposed but not all of it.

I too would prefer to have more flexibility in where the panels go and 
which ones are present. For example, I never use the grease pencil but 
whenever I make a UV window I have to close it up to view the properties 
below that I do use.

I know the view isn't universal, but I do like the way Visual Studio 
2010 panels work: you can dock things together in almost any way, and 
those are remembered; indeed, the program will auto-switch between 
custom layouts (e.g. when you enter/leave debug mode). Almost anything 
can be split and rearranged graphically. There are also some nuggets of 
good practice in the Adobe Indesign, etc, apps: panels there can be in 
several states (iconified, displayed in a sidebar, expanded in sidebar, 
floating).

If floating panels were to be set up in Blender, though, I would like 
panels to not be entirely independent: it is indeed useful to be able to 
'stick' panels together and move them as a group without also having to 
make them a 'window' of some sort.

One thing I'm not fond of is 'tabbed' design. I can just about cope with 
it on the properties editor, but tabs are horrible when you might want 
to see things on different tabs at the same time. If the UI design was 
such that you could drag a tab header out of the tabs (as you can in 
InDesign), and then later dock it again, then it's not a big deal, but 
without that it would be a no-go for me.

For those who want the 'muscle memory' thing to work nicely, perhaps 
there could be a 'reinstate initial setup' keyboard command, to move 
things back to where they started. That initial placement would not be 
permanently fixed by blender of course. Perhaps for the paranoid you 
could have a a prefs option to disable panel movement once the initial 
placement had been decided on.

Hope this is helpful,
Ruth

-- 
Software Manager & Engineer
Tel: 01223 414180
Blog: http://www.ivimey.org/blog
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/ruthivimeycook/