As in the title, I would love to have the speed up of a view oriented axis constraint…
e.g… if you are “mostly” oriented in the top view/bottom view axis are constrained to X,Y. If your view is oriented in the “mostly” side view axis constrained to Y,Z…and for the fror front/back X,Z…you get it…
It could be activated with a key that toggles between the two methods, much like proportional fall off. I would find this to be an enormous time saver when modeling…I may be the only one, I doubt it, but it is possible.
I read your post a few times, I still don’t really get what it is you are asking for? I always thought the only transform operation that didn’t really respect what view you were in was scale. If you are in top view for example and you ‘grab’ you can only move in the y and x axis, if you rotate its along the z-axis which would be the rotation axis in top view but scale would scale along all three axis.
Well, it could be useful. I’ve wanted movement restricted to the, say, X - Z plane, but wanted to see how it changed my scene in “3d”. Usually I split the viewport to achieve this tho: one in perspective, the other an ortho plane. The alternative is to stay in one view and axis-constrain every command (e.g., G Shift+Z, R Shift+X). The proposed alternative sounds more convenient. I like the key-toggle idea, but I’d like to be able to choose the action plane independently of present orientation.
The idea is you can stay in one viewport(3D, non orthographic) and simply rotate the view to be dominantly to the side or top, it is the same as grabbing the small rectangular manipulator handle between 2 axis(usually yellow)in other packages(I hate that comparison BTW).
So if you are in the 3D viewport and rotate up above your object(just a bit) your constraints are X,Y…this is still in a single 3D view…
*it increases the work area and speed dramatically due to the fact there is less view switching and you see more of the scene/model in one maximized window(not necessarily maximized as in ctrl+up arrow)no 4 split, or 2 split views that half or quad divide you viewing area. this is not good for every single modeling case, but what is?
@CubOfJudahsLion: I can see that you plainly understand what I mean…as far as hotkeys etc…I’m less concerned about implementation, I would just like to see an implementation, and Iguess it would not be too hard to lock one axis, so I guess calling it axis lock may be more appropriate. The ability to lock one axis(prevent movement in said axis).
Not quite sure what you mean… If you mean snapping the view orientation then that’s already in 2.5…
(hold down shift or maybe ctrl…don’t remember at the moment and not at my main computer…)
when you get close to the front or top or some varuent like 3/4 it snaps the view to position…
if you mean the manipulator movement then you hold shift (in 2.49 or 2.5) and click on the handle to move on the perpendicular plane (or scale on teh perpendicular plane with the scale manipulator)… i use this all the time! (no need to rotate the view first)
No, I don’t care about that, and I know it is there.
OK, sorry if I sound irritated…lol
I mean I want to be able to constrain transforms like when you select a vertex > hit the “g” key > hit the “x” key…
that makes sense right?..I hope…
now imagine I want to move in both “X” and “Y”, I need to lock the “Z”(because I don’t want any movement in THAT axis)…I want to do this based on a hot key or viewing angle…
imagine you are moving a chair in 3d space.
you want to put it under a table, but for some reason you want to stay in the current view.
if you hit “g” and start to move it, the chair will inevitably move up or down(screen coordinate system).
now my way allows you to move it freely, and it will be constrained to x and y…it will not move up or down, thus allowing easy placement of the chair.
Is the hotkey combo G,Shift-Z (or whatever axis you want to not move on) not working for you ?
I’m not sure how a non orthographic view could be determined by being “mostly” aligned to a pair of axes would work with any accuracy …
modo works like that.
in blender if you do a transformation without any axis constraints then the transformation happens in a plane which is parallel to the current view.
in modo the transformation happens in the xy, xz or yz plane depending on which one is most parallel to the current view.
in most cases i prefer the modo way. i find it way more useful and i am much faster with it.
i made a suggestion for having an option for this on blenderstorm a while ago but there didn’t seem to be much interest.
wholly molly crapolly! That is exactly what I mean… and the waste of thread space award goes to(drum roll please)…me.
on a side note the “accuracy” is based on the need to not use a hotkey so if the view is more aligned with the z axis than the x or y axis, then it would provide constraint along x and y, locking z…it does not matter though, due to the fact that I am an idiot.
That’d be at most 5 lines of code.
Just not very high priority right now.
Martin
yeah, I would assume as much on both counts…lol, but I guess I need to work on my “clarification” skills, as, g > shift+z locks the z axis…and so on and so forth…maybe someday though when people find themselves in the code around those parts, it might be a nice option. I’m satisfied with the current hotkey though. I was just un-aware…another semi hidden feature…maybe not SOOO hidden…
but.
If you don’t know the question, how can you get the answer.
I´m with you Justin (from the get go), I also like the way it is in Modo, and would like to see it implemented. If it´s only like 5 rows of code, it can´t take that long to implement, can it (not that I´m not greatful for all the other stuff the devs are doing right now, you rule!)
So 1+
Isnt the transform defaulted to view orientation anyway? So if you’re in top view you can only move on X and Y, if you want to constrain to Z and Y you go to side view which is Num 3.
modo aside, that’s what I was trying to explain in the second part of my post… using the manipulator if you click on the Z axis whilst holding shift you’ll be constained to moving in the the xy plane (of whatever the orientation of the manipulator is… this is cool because it could be the normal, local, global or any stored axis system) try it, it’s been in blender for ages… yoou may prefer the functionality to be triggered another way, but the functionality is already in blender.
I prefer it this way as it doesn’t matter what view angle i look at the model from I can always constrain how I like…
(this after loving lightwave for nearly 10 years before blender (it worked like modo does can’t think why? 
at risk of sounding stupid (and not knowing modo)…
aren’t the manipultor’s orientation choices enough? given that you can also create new ones?
the advantage of the modo way is that you don’t have to use any hotkeys, manipulators or switch to 2d views for working in the xy, xz or yz planes.
it would be really nice if blender had an option to switch this on and off.
@andrew, in perspective view only…of course dead on orthographic side view “in general” constrains to y,z.
@michael, sorry I did not understand, but I also don’t use manipulators…and in all honestly I was in a hurry and skimmed your message(I’m a bad person)…I humbly apologize.
@kakapo, exactly. you nailed it bud.
@isscpp, see kakapo’s statement.
@OldJames, wait…I don’t remember any OldJames.
You don’t need the manipulators, in grab mode use MMB and Shift.
yes, but you are much faster if this just works automatically in grab mode or when tweaking stuff.
choosing an axis with shift+mmb is slow if you constantly have to do this for every transformation for hours.
actually a full on tweak mode, kind like you have in Wings3d, would be good