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*** Update ***
FourMadMen Layer Manager script Version 1.3.1 Build 2 (Selection by Material patch) is now available. For more details or to get this script please visit the Layer Manager script home page. New in Version 1.3.1
FourMadMen Layer Manager script Version 1.3 is now available. First let me say Thanks! to all the testers. Some of the last minute improvements came from talking to them. And special mention goes out to Meta-Androcto for getting me back to finishing this re-write. To get this script please visit the Layer Manager script download page. Read on for more info... What's new in Version 1.3
 Features
Last edited by FourMadMen; 01-Jan-10 at 03:22. |
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#1
13-Sep-08, 17:33
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Thank You FourMadMen.
This script is a fine example of Python scripting in Blender. Congratulations! The feature set is Brilliant. Layer Names! No more: "now where did I put that?" Locking Layers = Gold No more selecting lights or ground planes by accident. Just Lock their layer, the objects are still visible but unmovable! Object selection tools. A fine set of tools for organizing, analyzing, selecting & viewing your scene content.... so many great practical features. I cannot speak highly enough of this script. As far as I'm concerned it is one of the Must Have scripts! Thanks again FourMadMen. It has been a pleasure testing for you. I will do the Wiki Updates tonight. meta_androcto
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Meta's Material Library's . My Site get python scripts> http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:Py/Scripts/2.4x External Script Bundle Blender 2.49a Packed Collections . Scripts_Bundles blender-2.49b |
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#2
14-Sep-08, 01:18
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Thank you, sir! I'm glad you find the script useful. And layer locking is something I've wanted myself for ages. And speaking of locking...
I do however post here tonight a little embarrassed. I got a report of an issue with locking. Nothing major but needed to be dealt with. So I have updated the download. I'm keeping the same version number (breaking a rule of mine but there you go). To get the update just download the script again and re-load (and activate) the space handlers. My apologies for the inconvenience. Anyone who has already download the script prior to this post, please do so again. You can confirm you have the updated script by going to "Menu -> About" to confirm you see "Version 1.3 Build 2". Like so: 
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#3
14-Sep-08, 02:37
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100 downloads so far. And half of those in the past 24 hours. I hope people find the new features and simplified usage as handy as I do. If not, don't hesitate to speak up.
FYI: I have an animation project coming up and am investigating some interface ideas for creating animated layers (i.e. layers turning on and off as the frame changes). I'm good on the back-end work just need to come up with something easy to manage for the front-end. |
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#4
18-Sep-08, 01:54
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Just got to say Thank You! very much for the fine work. I have loaded the 1.3 version and can't imagine working without it. It should be part of the main trunk! It is appreciated, even if their hasn't been a flood of appreciation yet....
Paul
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An eye for an eye, and the whole world goes blind... Gandhi/MLKing Greater consciousness is worth the effort. Be aware.... so sayest the Animated Fool. HARTWORKS http://www.hartworks.net |
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#5
18-Sep-08, 05:13
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Do I have to run the script with any .blend made with it in a previous session? In other words will the script break the .blend?
And can I have Blender auto execute a script so that it allways runs at startup, it just seems so cool, I wouldn't want to forget to run it. How long before this gets to be C?
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Cheers, David ABC TV Australia |
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#6
18-Sep-08, 08:24
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FourMadMen - great work! we owe you!
one suggestion: can this feature be implemented? layer to be locked but be snap-able at the same time. this is good feature when importing a .dxf layout from CAD and then build on top of that. that way you can put the CAD into one layer, lock it but make it snap-able, so I can use the layout, but I can't alter it by mistake. very nice work! - for sure this must be in Blender by default, without calling a script. best _a_ |
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#7
18-Sep-08, 18:49
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Impressive work. Thank you very much.
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#8
18-Sep-08, 19:57
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Quote:
Quote:
No, the script won't break it. If you have an old layer file from previous versions it will auto-load and auto-convert the old settings file and store them in the blend. After that you can safely delete the old layers settings file as it is no longer needed. You can also manually import any old layer settings file using this new version. Once you setup your workspace with the script running just go to "File > Save Default Settings" to have it running when you run a new Blender instance. Something else to try out... Make a few changes to the layer setup (names, visible, hidden, reveal, whatever). Then mouse over a non-script window and press Ctrl+Z (undo) a few times. And Ctrl+Y (redo) for that matter too. Neat huh? It's something I wanted the script to be able to do. Turns out that Blender handles all that automatically. Massive Kudos to the Blender Devs on that one. Quote:
Please forgive my ignorance on your request, but I'm not sure what you mean by "snappable". Can you elaborate? I Goggled it in the context of layer locking and saw several pages that mentioned this, but no real definition on the term itself. Quote:
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#9
19-Sep-08, 03:54
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1. Snap-able = will be the ability to "snap" to objects in that layer. for example I import a floor plan that I created in a CAD program (in my architectural company we use SolidEdge, then import that in Blender). Now once the floor plans and elevations, sections are in Blender, I want to build "on top" of them the real walls, slabs, etc. So it would be great if my floor plans/elevations/sections would be there, I can snap to every single entity, but I can't select it and move it, alter the entities that are residents of that layer.
So entities are there, I can snap to them but they are locked at the same time. 2. This somehow relates to one of your previous questions: what else can be done to animate layers? each layer (or group) could have these "meta-properties" applied to them that overwrites/or mix w/ other properties. Let's say you want to have a group/layer where all objects looks like ghosts. You prepare a "filter", than apply that to your layer/group. It is somehow similar to "render layers" tab, but allows for an easier layer manipulations. 3. Very useful tool "selection" inside of layers. That is really great. If you could extend that and offer other "filters" to select the objects inside of that layer, would be even better. Let's say I want to select by "material" (name of the material), or by other property of objects, or could be by name of the object, etc. This way you can narrow down your selection and make a very, very powerful tool. In any case , even as IT IS right now your selection is VERY USEFUL!!! GREAT WORK! THANKS! _a_ |
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#10
19-Sep-08, 13:31
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One other feature that could be a plus, would be to have the color changed of layers where "selected objects" reside. So for ex. I have selected three objects, each one belong to a different layer (1,5,8). Then the second tab to change to red (or other color) so it signals me that the objects selected belong to those layers. Once I deselect the objects, the color of those layers would move back to gray. That way the work flow of project is better. _a_
 
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#12
19-Sep-08, 19:22
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stanmarsh: You are very welcome sir.
studioa: Snappable - Ah yes, I see now. Well if Blender allows for snapping to an object when it's not selected then I'd say it would work as is (but at present I doubt that it does). Object selection - Selection by material was originally on the plate for object selections. However there is a problem with the "Tree Menu" control that stopped me from using it. There seems to be an issue with the top level menu not computing it's width (based on the text it contains) properly. Maybe I'll add it back in as an optional setting and if people can live with the menu issue (or it gets fixed) then great. In fact I have a short list of things I found during this update that I believe to be bugs in Blender. I intend to report them as such but just have not made the time to write up the list. Color changing of buttons based on selected objects - I don't think the button colors are changable at this level (for a theme yes but that applies to all buttons). But it is a good idea and I'll see what I can come up with when I add the Layer Visible "IPO"s. The line of layer controls will be changing a bit for this anyway so we'll see. Your object "filter" idea is also something to think about. Most of the useable filters I can think about have to do with object material, loc and size settings. To do this properly would likely require an additional script where the filters can be created and named. Then link those to the layer (or just to an object for that matter). In this way you can have a proper separation of concerns between scripts while still have them "interact" with each other. I don't think this one will happen anytime soon especially not really knowing what people would find the most useful, but I'll keep a few brain cells on the lookout for ideas in this regard. Last edited by FourMadMen; 20-Sep-08 at 01:39. |
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#13
20-Sep-08, 01:35
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I'm in the process now of implementing an object "clipboard" class for the select objects by layer functions. Effectively it will require only one iteration of all objects in the scene (to create the menu). After that the select operations will read the needed area of the clipboard to get either (at best) the exact list of objects needed and (at worst) only those objects presently in the layer.
The interface of the Layer class already abstracts knowledge of this away from the caller but internally can be made more efficient using the "clipboard" (or cache if you prefer). Last edited by FourMadMen; 20-Sep-08 at 04:12. |
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#14
20-Sep-08, 04:03
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I've been working on an architectural project and a couple of things have come up.
1) Apparently Blender will let you snap to the vertex of an unselected object. Yay! 2) While working I needed a couple of different render setups (different layers on, different objects locked, etc.). So... I added some context sensitive Render menu items to the main menu. For any layer group that starts with "Render" it adds that item to the menu. When you select that item the script starts a render with the settings of that render layer group. As an example: I'm in the "Model" layer group. I select the "Render All" menu item ("Render All" is a name of a layer group that turns on the floor, walls, camera, lamps and shows all objects in the room). Those layer settings are set up. The render kicks off. When done I'm still sitting on whatever layer group was selected before the render selection. No fussing with changing the group, hit render, change the group back. Also in my case I have a "Render Cabinets" layer group. This layer group just has the cabinet objects, the walls, floor, camera, and lamps. Selecting that one will render the room with just the cabinets in it. But, again, when done It's still back to showing the layer group that was selected before the render. |
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#15
21-Sep-08, 06:15
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!! this looks like quite a fine script, thank you for your work and for sharing with the blender community!!!!
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#16
21-Sep-08, 09:55
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i keep getting a console error on OSX PPC 10.5.5 :
SyntaxError : invalid syntax File "<string>", line 1757 if anyone can help it would be much appreciated, i'm eager to test this one out. Thanks :-) |
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#17
21-Sep-08, 10:20
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I installed 2.47 with Python 2.5, and not it works on PPC OSX.
it kept giving the error i mention above with the Python 2.3 2.47 available on the blender.org site. Thanks again FourMadMen!!! |
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#18
21-Sep-08, 10:27
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Yes I never should have used that ternay construction, especially if there are custom builds that don't yet use Python 2.5. Only used it once, I will release a patch that removes that syntax. Stay tuned...
Last edited by FourMadMen; 21-Sep-08 at 17:06. |
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#19
21-Sep-08, 14:32
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Version 1.3 Build 3 is now available for download. You won't need it if you are running Blender with Python 2.5.
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#20
21-Sep-08, 17:08
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