+1 please move this into the trunk!
Yup. It´s an essential function for the outliner, IMHO. If the code isn´t all bonked, I don´t see a reason why not to add it. +1
+1 for trunk please 
Awesome feature! +1 for trunk please! Campbell and Nathan were just talking about making it easier to reverse engineer rigs in Blender in a recent podcast and this would be a huge help!
Read this:
:no:
doh… there are far worse and unintuitive parts of blender where we have to click and scroll like hell where we rather would avoid it. but here it would map sense, especially since we already have the drag+drop feature ready to drop names, to drop materials etc.
Add it!
Considering Ton added DnD functionality not too long ago I wouldn’t count this out yet (although Aligorith makes some valid points).
I personally don’t see why drag & drop can’t be in Blender if some effort is made to address the issues mentioned in Aligorith’s blog.
In the drag &drop parenting for example, I notice that when dragging the item across the outliner, the item below the mouse isn’t highlighted, if it was highlighted so as you can see where the drop would be it would reduce amount of error after multiple drags.
Then there’s the idea that this could be done without dragging items, if it’s not there already, tweak the selection system to allow an active object like in the 3D view, select the initial object, select the others, and press a key to parent all of the objects to the active one.
There’s also the issue that dragging a bunch of assets from the outliner to the 3D view in rapid succession can’t be done real easily with dragging, perhaps instead of needing to do that, a feature can be added where you select the item to add in the outliner, than simply click in the 3D view to place as many copies as needed which would be faster than dragging, which I think could be a very useful tool for game developers who are used to picking from an asset list and also for setting up complex scenes in general if the objects were to be rendered as instances by default.
Lets not overlook that outliner needs more than drag and drop. I need to be able to select 350 objects quickly, not one at a time. I need to be able to lock 350 selected objects with 1 click, not 350 clicks… Talk about RSI, sheesh!
A folder system, like in cinema 4d is needed so much. It would make the organizing in the outliner so easy…
But hey i cant code, so we have to wait another lighyears to get an useful outliner…
yes. i was looking this week if i didnt know about a folder system in the outliner. we need something to organize
Yes, I totally agree with William - a better graphical feedback on what you are doing while dragging . . . please
Can t imagine with Groups when you can place object to several groups . . .
. . . and Fahr is right too - why doesn t work “B” -borden selection as in other windows, or just simple -click first and with Shift select last for multiple selection?
I just noticed - I can drag material icon and drop it on object in 3D window, but it is not working in outliner . . .
I hope to see D&D in full functionality through blender soon . . . big THANKS to Scuey for this step.
As was written here - Outliner could be much more useful for managing objects than it is now.
Interesting to see how this thread randomly got some attention again.
Anyway…
Yes, target highlighting is something I’ve been meaning to do. Haven’t gotten around to it yet. As for “B” border select tool, I have written the implementation for this tool in the outliner but haven’t posted a patch yet. I use it on my own system along with d&d parenting. I actually still need to update that code with the new outliner code changes (though parenting patch is updated). Anyway, it works just as you would expect, only for now it just works on objects (i.e. not materials, etc.). This is part of the reason I haven’t posted the patch.
You mentioned the existing functionality of drag and drop of materials onto objects in the 3D view. You’re exactly right, this would be great to have within the outliner as well. I hadn’t thought of that one (or maybe I did long ago, but forgot). This is something almost as obvious as drag and drop parenting for the outliner.
Now, I’m willing to do all of these things. But for the time being, there hasn’t been much interest in the parenting patch in the tracker. So until that happens, any work I do in this area will probably be slower than you would hope. In other words, if there is not any interest (from maintainers) in merging these things into trunk, then these features probably will get done, albeit at a much slower pace since I’d only be coding them for my own benefit - i.e. my own blender with a cool outliner :).
Now, on another recent topic: ergonomics of drag and drop as mentioned on Aligorith’s blog. First, this is not the type of drag and drop situation where you’re typically moving the mouse very far. Most of the time you’re just dragging something up or down a few rows maybe. Second, panning or rotating the 3D viewport is no different from performing a drag and drop operation and is much more common - frequent even! So, to me adding drag and drop support here and there in a 3D app does not worsen the ergonomics of users’ workflow that much. Not to mention that drag and drop in this case (and in fact, almost all cases) is an optional way to perform an operation that already has another mode of execution (e.g. for parenting this is an alternative to CTRL+P). So no one would be forcing users to use this option.
Currently Shift+Click allows the selection of individual objects within the outliner, but it would be nice to also have the option for select many object all at the same time and I have to agree that having some sort of folder option would be nice too. If you have a scene with a bunch of objects, it can get very messy.
Thanks for coding this!
This looks great! Its a simply yet very practical function that has been largely ignored.
- Read > 20 books about usability and ergonomic never saw any negative remarks about drag and dropping. Au contraire.
I really don’t see how clicking xx numerous times is that much better from an ergonomic point of view.
-
Making errors. There is always room for errors even if you disregard drag and dropping. When I use programs that have drag & dropping and there is an error I can just undo it.
-
Efficiency - I don’t see how clicking xx numerous objects (you cant shit select for example multiple items in 2 clicks like you can do in a lot of programs that use some kind of outline system) is that more efficient.
I really hope Blender doesn’t become the new Gimp or Gnome where they are different just to be different or they go straight into standards.
Hi Scuey,
Do you have any recommendations on how we may be able to persuade maintainers to start showing some interest in your work? I know they are busy, but adding your enhancements to Outliner would be a HUGE upgrade to it’s usefulness.
EDIT: Since we’re on the subject of ongoing development, I know that you’ve added “b” box select, which is consistent with many other parts of blender, but would it be possible to also add SHIFT select functionality (left click the first object, then shift select the second object with everything in between getting selected as well) that allows you to select large chunks of objects in a row, with additonal modifiers (control click?) that would let you further refine the selection. Shift clicking is generally considered to be intuitive for most users and is already a part of outliner, just largely useless at the moment since it only works for one object at a time.
Additionally, once that selection is made, clicking one of the widgets to the right (hide, lock, render) would ideally be applied to the whole selection at once.
Thanks for your efforts! It’s one of those small additons to blender that can make a huge difference in your workflow.
@Sceuy:thanks for your response I totally understand your opinion. I love to see some progress . . .
note:there is more things I cant understand, like missing any useful library concept. I tried to open discussion, but almost no interest,an from my view its one of the primary function that can speedup our worflow. With drag and drop it can come better (right now we can d&d images from any file browser or finder into blender) but without complex concept it will never work for us.
I was close to asking the devs about this patch at this morning’s weekly meeting, but I’m still kinda new here and not a coder, so I chickened out and remained silent. What’s the proper protocol for patch begging?
trunk, oh please, trunk. The outliner needs some love, its seriously lacking in MANY ways IMO.