GSoC - User Interface Tasklist

Weekly build of my progress: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4205810/Blender/Blender-Bratwurst.zip
(Note: It probably won’t be updated after GSoC)

I’m working on an assortment of user interface tasks this summer for Google Summer of code. My goal is to improve usability, especially accessibility to new users, but all users should benefit from my work. To this end my main contributions will be to make a system allowing on the fly configuration of some of Blender’s button panels and making some new panels available, such as floating buttons like proposed by Bill Raynish. I’ll be helping take care of some of the more esoteric bugs that other devs haven’t had time to take care of.

If you want to see the details, check it out here: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Vino/GSoC_2012

Final summary video:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTxd_gZI4QY[/video]

exciting news. I could use nearly every item on the wiki page you posted, and feel it would go a long way towards modernizing Blender(when compared to some other 3d suites). I REALLY hope your work makes it to trunk after GSOC! thank you

what i’d like to see is the ability to expand any list type entry in the properties panel. like vertex groups, shape keys, bone groups, materials, textures an so on. especially for vertex groups only seeing 5 at a time makes working tedious when the mesh has more vertex groups, like for example a rigged character.

I think the toolbar could benefit from icons instead of text. That way also more tools could fit into one row or a more narrow tools panel.

Thanx for taking up this task! The proposal hase nice additions!

Something that comes to my mind just for the record:
Working with popups [when an operator is called with context.window_manager.invoke_props_dialog() for example] has some glitches that would be nice to fix:

From the bugtracker:
https://projects.blender.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=26467&group_id=9&atid=498
https://projects.blender.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=30940&group_id=9&atid=498

If you are interested in this kind of fixes, I can dig up some more from my list…

@Vino
I would like to see pan, rot, scale, loc x, y, z in a horizontal bar above or below(but inside) the 3D window…it is used often and by making it horizontal takes up far less space than opening up the entire “N” panel in the 3D viewport…I would also like to see the parametric options done the same way… example:
if you create a plane you need to have the "T"ool panel open or press f6 to make adjustments before editing or changing tools…I would like this to be a horizontal bar in the 3D viewport opposite from the coordinate tool bar previously mentioned.
anyway these things may be outside of your scope…I guiltily opened your link but have yet to read your proposal through…omw now.

EDIT:
I read your proposal and I think these would be easy to implement and would also be a huge usability improvement as well as a space saver, always a good thing.

I would like to see context sensitive radial/pie menu. Light Bwk mockups are quite nice:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1482587/Blender%20UI/Radials-mockup.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1482587/Blender%20UI/RadialMenu-behaviour.png

@Gustav_Goransson
FYI … those aren’t my mock-ups… I found it randomly in this forum. :smiley:

If possible, you should bring back an option for 2.4x separator dragging, where you just MMB’d the border of a window, and click ‘split’, then dragged the mouse where you wanted it split. This also worked for ‘merge’ where you pointed which direction you wanted to merge the 2 windows. This is the biggest thing I miss from 2.4x. Honestly, I hate the way it is done in 2.5 and on. It’s only a matter of seconds, but it is harder to select a tiny corner handle of a window then to click an arbitrary point along a whole edge.

stokastic : back for a while (just RMB instead of MMB :wink: )

Vino : One thing i don’t really understand : Canceling extrude leaves duplicate geometry. If a user engages an extrude command and then presses escape to cancel it, there remain extra faces on every edge of the polygon.
It can’t work with the actual “extrude & grab” shortcut (E). Sometimes you want to extrude/cancel and scale (S/Alt-S), so i think it’s great as it is now

Most of your propositions are clever… and I think it should be in trunk.

Personnaly, when I rig, I really need a “pick object in viewport” function. In exemple, when you add a position constraint, you must type the object name to follow. Sometimes it is cool, because you know its name, and it is hidden, but sometimes you just want to pick it in the viewport. Instead of that, if you don’t remember the name, you have the select it, check the name, and then reselect constrained object, and type the name. A great waste of time.

Maybe it it possible to pick object, if someone knows, please tell me!

And, like bobizib, cancelled extrusion, or cancelled duplication (with the right click) shouldn’t let a face, or a duplicate object superpose. It’s very tricky when you don’t know it.

A collapse/expand all button for the rollouts at the top of each panel (especially the N-key properties window) would solve a lot of issues for me.

Oh and in the properties panel, how about combining the transform panel with the cutom properties panel? Is there a reason they are separated?

Fix the horizontal layout please for the love of god. only being able to have vertical button layouts in 2.5+ is really step backwards in terms of flexibility/customizability

Add an “X” to each dropbown/listbox item which can remove that item.

Bad Idea. If you multiply delete buttons, you increase probability of accidental deletion of something, you don’t want to delete. Especially for newbies, deleting great things that they don’t understand will not help them to progress. Maybe hiding is better.

FPS-style navigation. A feature where WASD controls camera dolly and the mouse directly controls the viewing angle.

already exists -> Shift F

Canceling extrude leaves duplicate geometry. If a user engages an extrude command and then presses escape to cancel it, there remain extra faces on every edge of the polygon.

It is wanted in some cases like bobizib said.

Face-preserving edge delete. If the user deletes an edge, all faces touching that edge are also deleted. I propose an edge deletion which preserves surrounding faces and vertices. (Not edge loop delete, this merges the edge’s vertices.)

make no sense. If you delete the edge, you delete quad or triangle. There is already “dissolve” operator to keep an Ngon.

A method for allowing clicking on empty space to unselect.

what about actions that will be lost : 3dcursor placement (left click) or Drag immediately (right click)

what i’d like to see is the ability to expand any list type entry in the properties panel. like vertex groups, shape keys, bone groups, materials, textures an so on. especially for vertex groups only seeing 5 at a time makes working tedious when the mesh has more vertex groups, like for example a rigged character.

already exists. shift+mouse wheel with mouse cursor over the list to expand.

Personnaly, when I rig, I really need a “pick object in viewport” function. In exemple, when you add a position constraint, you must type the object name to follow. Sometimes it is cool, because you know its name, and it is hidden, but sometimes you just want to pick it in the viewport. Instead of that, if you don’t remember the name, you have the select it, check the name, and then reselect constrained object, and type the name. A great waste of time.

ddjef you should do it, this way: select target, then extend selecion to bone which should have constraint and use Shift Ctrl C or go to menu Pose->Constraints->add (with Targets)

Oh and in the properties panel, how about combining the transform panel with the cutom properties panel? Is there a reason they are separated?

Properties Editor Panel -> transformations for object (same purpose in all modes)
N-key properties Panel -> transformations for active element or selection (different purpose in object mode, and edit mode)

It would be terrific if we could group floating buttons in floating panels. Moving each button after changing view angle would probably take a long time and could be very frustating.
Maybe it is too complicated for a gsoc but I think UI would be better with horizontal toolshelf and vertical header.

not sure if it has been brought to your attention yet, but:
http://i50.tinypic.com/fz2hr5.png

would be very welcome, indeed!
Hate having to scroll trough all that…

Already exists.
Delete only faces.

oh… snap :smiley:

Adding a search box on the properties panel - Instead of rolling and searching for your futures, just enter the name of the option and it will filter the panel to the desirable item. This kind of box exists on the dope-sheet and the outliner and it really helps consuming time, Why not add the same on the most important panel?

Outliner:
One click button to spread all the items and their children.
Drag n’ Drop not just with the icon of the item but also with the name.
behave more like Photoshop layers -
Ability to rearrange the items as I want manually.
Change visibility restrictions on multiple selected items by clicking on the icon (like the Eye for Viewport visibility) and this will get rid of the Right-Click menu.

Oh, my bad. Seems like Matjaz Lamut originally posted them on the bf mail list.

I think I vaguely remember in early 2.5 the search box used to be on the top of the tool menu tab & it would add buttons for what you wanted to do.

It’s a mockup I did in photoshop. Displaying an idea of what can be done to get horizontal panels back but still keep the expandibility of Blender 2.5.