[Addon] Advanced UI Menus

Update: New Blender 2.8 Version - 1.8 | Blender 2.7 Version - 1.6

Hello All,
This started out as an addon to replace the Pie Menu functionality within blender with traditional menus, and has grown into an addon to provide powerful UI elements to aid your interaction with blender and make it as fast and effortless as possible. Through context sensitive menus, layer/collection managers, popups, user customizable menus, and anything else that helps to make your workflow easier and faster, the aim is to provide an immersive experience that allows your focus to stay where it should be: your art.

Download:
2.7 Version:
Advanced_UI_Menus_v1_6.zip (545.7 KB)

2.8 Version:
Advanced_UI_Menus_b2_8_v1_8.zip (805.7 KB)

*Note: This addon is incompatible with the official Pie Menu addons. If you experience conflicts, disable any official Pie Menu addons

DEVELOPMENT VERSION:
For those interested in helping out or trying new features,
visit Github and switch to either the development branch, one of the 2.8 branches, or one of the experimental feature branches.
(the master branch is boring and only contains stable 2.7 releases at present)

Shortcuts:

  • Curve menu = W (works in: Sculpt, Vertex Paint, Weight Paint, Texture Paint)
  • Custom menu = Alt-MiddleMouse
  • Delete menu = X
  • Dyntopo menu = Ctrl-D - Tap for toggle(on/off), hold for menu
  • Layers window/Collection Manager = M
  • Manipulator (2.7) = Ctrl-Space - Tap for toggle(on/off), hold for menu
  • Manipulator (2.8) = Alt-Space
  • Mesh Selection menu = Ctrl-Tab
  • Mesh Extrude = E - Tap for extrude, hold for menu
  • Mode menu = Tab - Tap for toggle(last/edit), hold for menu
  • Paint Options menu = V (works in: Sculpt, Vertex Paint, Weight Paint, Texture Paint, Particle Edit)
  • Pivot Point menu = .
  • Proportional = O - Tap for toggle(last/off), hold for menu
  • Proportional falloff = Shift-O
  • Shading mode = Z - Tap for toggle(last/wireframe), hold for menu
  • Snapping = Shift-Tab - Tap for toggle(on/off), hold for menu
  • Snap To menu = Shift-S
  • Stroke menu = E (works in: Sculpt, Vertex Paint, Weight Paint, Texture Paint)
  • Symmetry menu = Alt-S (works in: Sculpt, Texture Paint)
  • Texture menu = R (works in: Sculpt, Vertex Paint, Texture Paint)
  • View menu (2.7) = Q
  • View menu (2.8) = Alt-Q

Custom Menus:
The Custom Menu is a menu that you can customize with Operators, Separators, Labels, Properties, and other Menus as you see fit. Custom Menus can be created for any mode in the 3D View as well as for other editors like the node editor, dopesheet, console, etc…

To Add An Item:

  • open the menu (Alt-MiddleMouse), and click Edit Custom Menu.

  • (Required)
    Select what type of item you would like to add from the drop down list at the top of the window.

  • (Required for Operators, Menus, Properties)
    Click on the button to the right of the path field, this will bring up a searchable menu with a list of all paths, click on a path and the path field will be filled in.

  • (Optional, Operators Only)
    The Args field will autofill with all possible arguments with their default values. Warning - If you want to modify them make sure to leave a space between the comma and the next argument.

  • (Optional)
    Fill in the Name field if you want a custom name, otherwise the default name (for the operator/menu/property) will be used.

  • (Optional)
    Select an icon from the list.

  • (Optional, Properties Only)
    There are a number of checkboxes that control how the property is displayed in the menu, e.g. if you check the slider checkbox the item in the menu will appear (and work) as a slider and allow you to click and drag to change the value or if you just click on it you can type in a value.

  • (Required)
    The last field on the window controls where the item is placed in the menu; the item will be placed directly under the item you specify from the list.

  • (Required)
    Click the Add Item button to add the item.


*Note - clicking the OK button does nothing and just closes the window

If you make a mistake the item will still show up in the menu, but it will be greyed out and have a warning icon. To fix this remove the item and re-add it.

If you make a mistake with Operator arguments a submenu will appear at the bottom of the menu with a list of the items that have invalid arguments.

To Remove An Item:

  • open the menu and click Edit Custom Menu.

  • Select Remove An Item from the drop down list at the top of the window.

  • Select which item to remove from the list.

  • Click the Remove Item button to remove the item.


And now because a picture is worth a thousand words:

Blender 2.7 Version:

Blender 2.8 Version:

8 Likes

Give us some images! I’m curious what your solution looks like but am nowhere near a blender install.

Updated first post with images.

Hi Imaginer,

I have installed your piemenu and I am very glad to use it! Very simple and speed!
But the supprim menu (x) don’t run in edit mode! Is it normal?

(Blender 2.69 win Vista SSE2 32bits x86)

Hi LiquidApe,

I love your great Piemenu add-on but you must add his feature: make inactive the option you quit (like grey with a 1/2 transparent picture above the option menu may be?). If you are in object mode and you want to go to edit mode with tab key, the object mode must be inactive, grey…you see what I mean.

Congratulations for your very nice job.
Spirou4D

Does this require pie menus to also be installed and/or active?

On blender 2.69 win64 i get the following error when attempting to activate. (with or without original pies installed or active):


@Imaginer
i think its great and more friendly to new users.
but when working solely on modelling for example, the ideal fast way to work will be to have the default tab-edit-tab-object mode. fast and efficiant.
but then if you finished modelling and want to quickly reactivate this addon for an overview workflow combining all blender aspect there should be a short activation.
i suggest that after manually activating the addon, have an odd key shortcut (like left shift + right shift +tab [easy to remember but odd enough not to press it regularly]) to activate it. this will be ideal when wanting to switching from overview workflow, to specific workflow, as blender already offers, without needing to travel to the addon activation menu. just using hotkey.

@Imaginer + @LiquidApe
i wish these things were integrated automatically in blender builds.
might i also suggest that the two of you will cooperate into combining these two scripts into one addon?
having the user an option to choose between pie menu and straight line menu in ONE addon will be really better. and REALLY awesome.

@Spirou4D the delete menu isn’t working for you in edit mode? Are you getting any errors? Anything in the console?

@jandress Pie Menus don’t need to be installed, but if you have them installed you need to deactivate them because their hotkeys conflict with the hotkeys in Alternate Pies. I don’t know why you are getting that error, I’ll look into it and release a new version soon.

@CHRONOMASTER The reason I made it replace the edit/object mode toggle is because when you are in either object mode or edit mode when the menu comes up, your mouse is already over the other mode so you just have to click. Same with the shading menu when you are in solid view the first item in the menu is wireframe and when you are in wireframe the first item is solid.

I agree that Pie Menus and Alternate Pies would work well together as one addon. If LiquidApe doesn’t have any objections I’m fine with combining them.

@Imaginer It’s a convention in UI design not to remove entries from lists, but to grey them out. This allows to remember the position of entries in a list, without them moving around. Maybe this would work in your case.

I get

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “C:\Users\oem\Desktop\blender-2.69-windows64\blender-2.69-windows64\2.69\scripts\modules\addon_utils.py”, line 298, in enable
mod = import(module_name)
File “C:\Users\oem\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.69\scripts\addons\alternate_pies_2_init_.py”, line 26, in <module>
import alternate_mode_menu
ImportError: No module named ‘alternate_mode_menu’

when trying to activate it. Official reease, 64bit Windows.

I think I have fixed it. Please re-download and intall it. This time you should also be able to use it as well.

@PLyczkowski I could grey them out, but its alot easier to switch between pose and edit/object mode on bones with only two items in the list as opposed to eight. But let me know what you think now that you can use it. If after trying it you still think greying out all the items would work better then I will release a version doing that as well.

Updated addon to version 0.2. New stuff includes edit mode mesh element selection menu, e.g. vertex, edge, face, select mode and all combinations of the three; partial fix of the disabling the opposing hotkeys; and some stuff under the hood.
Please test, have fun, and give me your comments. If anyone has information (or a screenshot) of the silo delete menu (I heard it had very good context sensitivity), I might be able to improve my delete menu.
Thanks.
Imaginer

In the shading mode, can you add “show wireframe” on the surface, with all the edges draws plz ?
Maybe Xray too. ^^

And in the 0.2, we need to deactive and reactive the addon. Even active at startup, it dos not work.

Yeah I can add some display options to the shading menu. Do you know if the draw all edges checkbox is used for anything other than the show wireframe on surface option?

I know. I’m not exactly sure how to fix it yet, but for now it’s not a big deal to deactivate and reactivate the addon.
Version 0.3 will be out soon.
Imaginer

I’m using the Draw all edge only for the wireframe !
This tool should not be exist.

It will be great for the wireframe, smooth and flat to work on all objects if no one is selected.
Like that we can put the wire on each object in the scene instead of one after one.

Thank’s for your work :wink:

Updated the addon to version 0.3. New stuff includes a painting options menu, display options for the shading menu (e.g. name, wire, x-ray), and as PLyczkowski suggested current modes are now greyed out instead of gone.
Happy Blending.
Imaginer

Updated the addon to version 0.4 New stuff includes: selecting brushes from the painting options menu, fixing the conflicting hot-keys bug(you don’t have to deactivate/reactivate it anymore) and various other improvements.

I am thinking about adding a context sensitive right-click menu and am asking for your opinions on if you would like/use it and what to put in it.

Happy Blending.
Imaginer

I am thinking about adding a context sensitive right-click menu and am asking for your opinions on if you would like/use it and what to put in it.

Here is a section about RMB menu in my doc, maybe you will find some of it useful.

Thanks PLyczkowski. There’s some interesting stuff in that doc.