[Bf-taskforce25] List of problems/bugs with 2.5 UI re aramture animation

[Benoit Bolsee]

Hi,

I am working on the itasc branch (2.5), previously the ge_dev branch
(2.49) and I experience some difficulty/bugs with the 2.5 UI that slow
down my development. The branch is about adding a new IK algorithm in
Blender and adding specific support for IK in the game engine. I've been
told that this is the best place to report these kind of problems to
bring them to the attention of the UI experts.

None of these problems existed when I was working on the 2.49 branch
(when applicable). I've verified they are still there in the latest
21841 revision.

1) Add Primitive button is volatile
- The Add Primitive button is not in the toolbar, only a few "Add ..."
buttons but no Add Armature. I think Add Primitive should be there by
default. 
- I can add an 'Add Primitive' button using the Add Tool button, but it
is gone when I restart Blender. Is there a way to add buttons
permenantly on this Tool Shelf (other then changing the py script in
release/ui)?
- Suppose I add the 'Add Primitive' in the tool shelf and add an
armature. When going to pose mode, the button disappears although it is
perfectly legal to add primitives in the pose mode. I have to add it
again in pose mode to keep it available in both modes.

2) Context is volatile
- I have an armature in Pose mode and a target object. I select a bone
of the armature, then select the Bone context so that I can add a
Constraint on the bone (actually on the pose channel).  Now if I select
the target object the context moves to Object and when I select the
armature again, the context remains on Object. Now I have to select the
Bone context again to see the Constraint.  I would expect the context to
return automatically to Bone when I select the Armature again.

3) Armature Rest Position check box in the skeleton panel doesn't work
immediately
- I have to change something else, like the target position to see the
armature go in rest pose

4) Changing the name of a Bone in pose mode ruins the pose channel
- It's possible to change the name of a bone in Bone context when the
armature is in pose mode but the change is not propagated to the pose
channel => the constraint panel becomes empty (don't even show the Add
Constraint button). Note that changing the bone name in edit mode works.

5) Set parent to Armature Deform ruins the vertex group
- Making parent with CTL-P and selecting Armature Deform ruins the
vertex group that I had previously created. The old 'vertex group'
option menu is not there. It seems that the 'create vertex group' mode
is enabled by default. 

6) the Type button in Relation panel of object context behaves funny
- This button seems to work but when I select Armature Deform (which
doesn't destroy the vertex group btw), it displays Lattice. 
- Again, changing this button doesn't have an immediate effect on the 3D
view, something else must change.

7) changing a target position ruins the cache
- Dragging the target of a pose channel constraint causes the point
cache of the armature to be cleared. It ruins the simulation of the new
IK solver, which uses a point cache to store the previous armature
position (the new solver is stateful). Why is it necessary to clear the
point cache when dragging an object? It wasn't the case in 2.4.

8) Pose Constraint are not animatable
- I've tried to add animation on the 'weight' field on an IK constraint
but it doesn't work. Adding animation on object constraints works.