Modo-Me, Modo like action centers in Blender, Smart Action Centers and Axis Management

[kkar]

Brief

Modo-Me add-on tries to mimick some of the interface elements and functionalities from Modo in Blender.

(Please see the Release Updates section for the new features and the corresponding images)

At the moment the main goal is to get the Modo action centers to be represented reasonably in Blender 2.79 and 2.80 via an accessible menu.

Since these two applications work with different concepts in many levels, it is not fully possible to match all such functionalities one to one, however it is possible to replicate some of the Modo’s loved usability ideas to Blender.

Up to date Features

• Automatic center

• Selection center

• Selection center Auto Axis

• Selection center Object Axis

• Element

• Screen

• Origin

• Parent

• Local

• Pivot

• Pivot Center Parent Axis

• Pivot World Axis

• Cursor

• Custom

• Component

• Bounding Box Sides

• Element Edit

• Element Edit with Falloff

• Gizmo Toggle

This add-on works both in object and edit mode.

v1.0 cover

You can grab it from here
Gumroad

And here
Blender Market

Who is this for?

• You are coming from Modo and you just miss your action centers

• You want to have a more organized way of setting transformation centers and axis.

• You are just curious to see why people brag about action centers and you do not want to spend lot of money on Modo to find it out

Release Updates

1.1

(See the v1.1.GIF for the changes)

• Parent action center now respects the actual rotation axis of the parent
• Pivot with Parent axis now respects the parent axis
• Selection center offset bug fixed. It was not taking world matrix into consideration
• Some other optimizations

1.2 (Initial 2.80 support)

• This release now supports 2.80 and 2.79 together. This was a major refactoring since the 3d viewport got the one of most API changes
• Added a new cursor action center (see the screenshot)
• Some improvements in the logic

1.25

• [New Feature] Now the user can choose to have the manipulators to be enabled always, which should make it more feel like Modo’s transform tools
• This release is the proper release that deals with both version of Blender

1.30

• [New Feature] Custom pivot point. This will add a new .PIVOT empty and use it for reference. If it does not exits it will create it. Use .PIVOT liberally as you wish
• [New Feature] Pivot center with World Axis
• Fixed the add-on registry issues that was especially an issue in Blender 2.79b release which uses Python 3.5
• Fixed better parent handling

1.40

• Recent API update broke the addon. This is now fixed
• No more class annotations related warnings

1.45

• API fix
• Annotations fix again

1.47

• [NEW] Selection Object Axis added. This mode uses local axis in edit mode.
• [FIX] The element mode now respects the last selected component
  
  

1.48

• [FIX] Fix Custom location center

1.50

• Fix Custom Location center errors
• Added Tweak mode for the Element action
• Cursor action now uses the Cursor rotation for the transform axis

1.51

• [NEW] Modo-Me menu now can be accessed from the Toolbar Header menu.
• [NEW] There is now a new section for tools
• [NEW] Element Edit and Element Edit with FallOff (Tweak modes)
• [BETA] The Element Action now relies on the last selected component

------------------------------------------------------------

1.52

• [NEW] Placing the action center to the sides of the object’s bounding box.
• [NEW] Enable disable the header menu drop down via preferences.
• [FIX] Better Pivot mode handling in Edit mode.
• [TESTING] Blender 2.81 Nightly compatibility.
• [! IMPORTANT !] The operator name has changed. Please see the screenshot below or in the assets folder for the release for the new settings to invoke.

1.53

• [NEW] Component mode lets you set custom axis and center based on the selected faces/edges/vertices. It will toggle back to the Object.

• [NEW] Predefined shortcurt for alt-W

#1.54

• [NEW] New menu order base on pie menu structure
• [NEW] Dedicated transform Gizmo toggling

#1.55

• [FIX] Better Gizmo handling
• [FIX] Better handling of Transform Orientations. It wont override the objects’s TO.
• [FIX] Handle error with element mode in Edit mode when there is no active mesh component selected

#1.56

• [NEW] Cursor to Selection moves and orients the cursor to selection
• [FIX] Fix Gizmo Toggle

#1.57

• [FIX] Blender 2.93 update

#1.59

• [FIX] Blender 3.0
• [NEW] Pose/To Cursor function
• [FIX] Maintainance updades
  
  

See the video in the post

Video

------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some demos of 1.30 release

Custom Pivot

Pivot World Axis

Install

• Either uncompress the provided zip yo your ad-dons folder or use “Install add-n from File” in the “Add-ons” tab in your preferences window.

• Once the install need to assign a shortcut for it. This is done by putting the values in the “Input” section of Blender Preferences. See the image below.

Keymap Setting

I recommend Shift-Alt-Q as your shortcut for this menu as I found it to be very much accessible.

Find the 3D View generic under 3D View

First Add New then put the values below as seen in the pic. Assign the shortcut as seen in the picture. Here I have choose Shift-Alt-Q to call the Action Centers menu

v1.51 and down

Put wm.call_menu_pie at the top left box in the new keymap area, once done the bottom box will open up. And paste object.modoactioncenters into the box that is on the right side (one that is with Name:)

v1.52 and above

Put wm.call_menu_pie at the top left box in the new keymap area, once done the bottom box will open up. And paste OBJECT_MT_modoactioncenters into the box that is on the right side (one that is with Name)

v1.51 and down

v1.52 and up

How to Use

Once you install and assign your shortcut properly, all you do is to press your shortcut to call the menu. From there choose the functionality you want.

• One of the main different between Modo-Me and the Modo action centers is that there is no left click to put the operation center and drag if you are using Left click to select mode in Blender. Therefor in ‘Automatic’ mode you will use right click to relocate the operation center and left click to operate.

• If you are using Right click to select then relocating the center is much more easy (done by RClick) however you will loose ability to drag the transformation. So you need to pick your battle in that front, this is how Blender operates fundamentally. Blender cursor has to be located with one and operated with the other.

FAQ

Sample demonstration of the addon

v1.52 Bbox demo

v1.1.GIF (with the new parent and selection modes, updated pivots)

See my other add-ons

Summary

Originie

BaseMesh Temple

DuWamf+

Temporizer

Easy Lattice

Modo-Me Modo Helpers

Weights to Vertex Colors

IO Guru

MeshLab Gourmet

Save Temp Versions

Verts2Edges

[obsurveyor]

Can you explain what this addon offers and how to use it for someone not familiar with Action Centers and their use at all?

[kkar]

Hi @obsurveyor

Thanks for asking. The addon is mainly geared towards Modo expats (hence the terminology) but it is very useful for the regular Blender user as well, at least that is my take on it.

I added a sample .gif in the original post.

Basically this add-on makes setting “center” of action easier based on the original Modo’s concept. However these apps work differently so it is not easy to match all the original ideas back in Blender.

I will add more features to it and refine it more as I go. Like better edit mode and object mode differentiation for these modes. And maybe even convert it to a modal operator of its own

[obsurveyor]

Thanks, that GIF is perfect.

I can see this being useful, never having used Modo but is it only gizmo based or does it(will it?) support traditional g/s/r hotkey based transformation?

[kkar]

Well the gizmo is there to show what is going on, also a Modo user is nobody without a gizmo

The addon does not activate the gizmo, but that is something I contemplated.

That aside, the addon sets Blender’s properties so it is compatiple with whatever tool is relying on the current pivot and the orientation stuff.

Btw forgot to mention, in some instances it also sets rotation axis, so the idea is not just the center of transformations.

2.8 offers rotation with 3d Cursor, so the addon should be able to take that into consideration whe I release the 2.8 version soon.

[obsurveyor]

One last thing: I saw your post in the thread that spawned this but I think you’ve forgotten to include the gumroad link in the first post.

[kkar]

Wonderful is not it. I think I was unwillingly teasing. Thanks for letting me know, fixed now.

[kkar]

V1.1 with new updates and fixes, see the first poar for the release notes.

thanks

[ByteC]

Super!

By the way, maybe you can add a Rhino feature I use every day:

Click on any of these arrows to popup an edit window. Enter a value to move the object or selection.

Such a function would make my work much more faster

[kkar]

Hi

That sounds like a good idea and why not.

Meanwhile enjoy just typing numbers while you are doing any kind of transformation in Blender

Press g(r(s)) [x,y,z], and start typing some numbers, even fractions

However it is good to have a typebox for sure, I will consider it,

[ByteC]

Ha, thank you kkar,

old dogs muscle memory versus ‘new’ tricks, you know…

[kkar]

Sure, I actually like the idea. There could be even checkboxes for local/world/absolute/relative type thing.

[kkar]

2.80 is here!

V1.2 (Initial 2.80 support)

• This release now supports 2.80 and 2.79 together. This was a major refactoring since the 3d viewport got the one of most API changes
• Added a new cursor action center (see the screenshot)
• Some improvements in the logic

If you are one of the supporters and have issues with downloading the new version, please let me know.

[Shiv0r]

I tried to download via Blendermarket but it seems like it dosen’t work:

This is what blender installed via the zip file from blendermarket:

[kkar]

HI

Sorry about the issue you are having. The files look fine.

Couple questions.

• Can you please tell me the exact full location path of the intalled addon (under Blender profile folder
• Did you enable the addon? (it needs to be enabled)
• What platform are you on?
• What version of Blender are you using?

You can just pm your answers, we take it from there. No worries it will work.

Edit: I was trying to avoid making separate releases for 2.79 and 2.80. I guess my solution broke fresh installs.

@Shiv0r please try the fixed version and let us know if you are able to use it without issues

[Shiv0r]

It works now! Thank you for the fast support!

[Zimlorog]

Thank you for getting it working with 2.80! Giving it a go now

[kkar]

We have a new update with some internal refactoring and a new feature.

You can now enable the transform gizmos by default when any of the action centers are set from the menu. It is off by default, because that could drive regular Blender users crazy

Please treat this as beta release, and download the new files from Gumroad/Blender Market please.

V1.25

• [New Feature] Now the user can choose to have the manipulators to be enabled always, which should make it more feel like Modo’s transform tools
• This release is the proper release that deals with both version of Blender

thanks

[brandroid (Branden Coker)]

This is a great addition to the Blender toolset! Greatly simplifies the orientation/pivot selection and makes this ex-modo user much more comfortable modeling in Blender. One questio: is there any difference between Selection and Element modes? I know what the difference was in Modo, but it doesn’t seem to replicate the behavior here. Thanks again for making this!

[kkar]

Hi

I am glad it is helpful to you. Did you also see that you can make the gizmo enabled at all times (in the add-on preferences) when you fire a mode with the add-on?

Not sure if you were able to read the add-on’s details but it is not really fully mirror Modo stuff in Blender but I am trying to make it as similar as possible. Element/selection is one of them. I will try to refine some of that stuff in the upcoming releases.