This is technically how it works now. The view layers are the analog to the old layers we had. Collections are more like tags that we place on objects in order to tell the layers what to show. Instead of working with one view layer and excluding/including collections within it all the time, you could try creating a new view layer then exclude all the collections you don’t want to display in it. For example, you could create a view layer for the characters in a scene and switch between that layer and a layer with everything else included to reproduce having those things on two separate layers. Since you also want to be able to see everything at once, you’ll also want to make a third layer that includes all collections.
There is still more setup involved, and we don’t have a widget we can use to switch between view layers, but the current system does have infinite layers.
Just a correction here: the View Layers are simply what used to be called Render Layers - they were renamed because they also affect the viewport and not just the rendered result.
The old limited 20 layers with no names have been replaced by Collections, of which there can be infinite, and they can be named, nested and linked.
If some users really really want, there exists addons which adds a UI to the 3D View header which makes Collections behave like layers did in 2.7x and earlier.
Hanging onto a horrible interface is a bad idea. CONTINUING to make boneheaded UI decisions is bad also. The fact that you had to grind thru their initial bad decisions is immaterial.
Sorry for being too lazy to ask this in the Blender Development forum, but I was just wondering why the decision was made to assign the number keys to hiding named collections by default. Aside from a few commands that are only on the number pad by default (focus on selected, and expand/contract selection), these are the only shortcuts I struggle with in Blender 2.80 because now we are toggling component types with 1,2,3 in edit mode, and sometimes it’s not entirely clear if you are in object or edit mode and then pressing a number just hides everything.
I think it would be nice if instead of having these shortcuts enabled by default, they should be enabled optionally if the user is using the collection manager add-on, since that is designed to mimic the Blender 2.7 behaviour.
To be clear, I have removed the shortcuts on my configuration, but I think a lot of people have had a similar issue where they inadvertently hide everything when they think they are changing to vertex, edge or face selection
I agree, in object mode, these 1 2 3 4 5 5 6 7 8 9 0 hotkeys are annoying since they hide collections (and I also think that a many users got confused when they accidentally saw their objects and collections disappear). I also disabled (unchecked) these hotkeys.
@Mr_Flamey: Instead of having these hotkeys disabled by default, maybe ALT+1 / ALT+2 / ALT+3 / ... / ALT+0 could be used. This way, there wouldn’t be any risk of confusion.
btw, I created my own custom keymap preset, mixing the Blender and the Industry Compatible presets. It works like a charm and it is now much faster to switch from Object mode to Edit (vertex/edge/face) modes and even Sculpting & Texture Paint modes.
For those who’d want to add these hotkeys (from the Industry Compatible preset) into your custom keymap preset, here are the required hotkeys to add into Object Non-modal : https://imgur.com/a/fTcEJft
That’s why I also had to disable these “Hide Collection” hotkeys in 3DView > Object Mode > Object Mode (Global).
New comers asked for 1,2,3 shortcuts in edit mode. And old users asked for numbers to hide collections like there were used to hide layers in 2.79.
I don’t think we should use those shortcuts for collections that can be nested or re-ordered in outliner.
Collections are not layers. That is misleading and does not encourage people to use View Layers.
Yes, after i’ve been annoyed by accidentally hiding all collections with 1 key and then in confusion trying to figure out what happened, i disabled the shortcuts and then eventually disabled the addon. As collection manager it worked well though.
@Mr_Flamey, @xan2622, @lsscpp, @zeauro, @BlackRainbow
Not sure whether you’re talking about Blender’s default behavior here or the Collection Manager addon (which I’m the author of), but if it’s about the Collection Manager then both the object mode and edit mode shortcuts for switching QCD slots (collections) can be disabled in the addons preferences (the edit mode shortcuts are off by default). You can even disable QCD entirely in the preferences.
Again, not sure if you’re referring to the Collection Manager addon here, but I know of no bug or annoying feature when pressing M while in Local View; it just calls the main Collection Manager window. If you mean that there’s no option for removing objects from Local View, I wasn’t aware of that feature until recently, but it will eventually be added.
I was talking about Blender’s default behaviour. I don’t have Collection Manager enabled, as I assumed it was to give users a UI to treat collections as if they were the old Blender 2.7x numbered layers. I was suggesting that the 0-9 key shortcuts, which isolate collections by default Blender 2.80 object mode should be removed and perhaps made a part of the Collection Manager addon so that users who don’t want to treat collections like they were 2.7x layers don’t accidentally press them and get confused as to why everything just disappeared.
Pablo was actually talking about this very issue in a recent Blender Today livestream, when questioned by a user and admitted that he doesn’t use them and that they can be quite confusing.
Personally I’m hoping that these shortcuts will be removed from the defaults along with other default shortcuts cleanups, such as making sure all core functionality can be accessed without a numpad (i.e. on all laptops, and compact desktop keyboards).
Actually the Collection Manager has lots of functionality unrelated to the QCD system (2.7x layers). You don’t even have to have the QCD system enabled. It’s only for the 2.83 release that the QCD system was even added. You should check out the non QCD features (which also received major updates for 2.83).
As to the default hiding shortcuts, I wouldn’t mind them being removed because I think my addon now provides a much better solution.
Are you aware that you can already navigate without the numberpad or viewport widget in 2.8? The ~ key, give you a pie menu that has all the important views that you normally use the numberpad for:
No problem with the camera views, as I use the alt+drag shortcut, which is both intuitive and quick, but I bound a shortcut for view selected because I’m not very good at navigating pie menus quickly and don’t really like them much. I honestly can’t remember the old shortcuts for expand/contract selection, but I feel like that must have been on the numpad, since I can’t do that easily since I changed keyboard
EDIT: It was ctrl + numpad +/-. I just bound it to ctrl+up/down, which doesn’t seem to have any conflicts… I also just discovered the “Face step” option! I had tons of PC trouble today, so finding a new Blender feature just made me happy
Wow, never seen this menu. You mean the key at the top left, underneath ESC? Problem is, this key only works on a US keyboard layout, on my keyboard I have the ^ (with shift: °) key here, and it does nothing in Blender. None of the other keys (including the ones where ’ and ~ are assigned) opens this menu. At least I’m not missing much, there aren’t any important shortcuts on this key.
