Hi everyone,
My name is Micah. I have been using Blender since 2.49 and still use it today, because it is SO AWESOME!:yes:
I am the host of a youtube channel called Film World. I did an episode on Blender 2.70. I will admit that I should have mentioned more about whats new.(like volumetricts in Cycles) But… I mention in there about the new panel in the compositor(the node stack) on the left and how it does not have tabs. I think this would be one of the best places to ad tabs! It would improve the compositor so much. If you would like to see this video you can search youtube for “film world blender 2.70 overview” and it should be the first to come up.
I would love to see tabs put in this panel. And if you would like to see that as well, say it in your reply.
I personally don’t see the point of tabs here. Tabs are useful when you are doing things associated with a part of you workflow. So the tabs should be organized such that you don’t have to switch between them often, otherwise they add nothing to the menu.
I don’t mind this idea, if you are adding nodes from the same class it may speed your workflow. Also it aides in discoverability as you could more easily find a large button than a small menu entry, especially as you have hover over the menu options.
I really wish we could rip an stick these buttons into user favourites tab.
@PhysicsGuy, I accept the point you are making but I think it is an improvement to the current workflow.
this is how the compositor toolshelf currently looks. You have to open the panels in order to find the right buttom for the node you want to add. If you don’t close the panels afterwards, you’re just getting more UI clutter.
Switching tabs is almost a similar workflow, except that you don’t have to close panels to avoid clutter, anymore. IMHO using tabs is also more intuitive. Plus you have the ability to pin panels you use more often (shift + LMB or RMB-context-menu on panel header), so that the panels are shown on every tab.
Those are the reasons why I personally would prefer tabs.
@3pointEdit, I have some ideas in conjunction with user defined tabs but I’m afraid that this can become a quite fancy thing to code but it is definitely on my to do list.
I personally always add stuff with alt+a, as it means I don’t have to much my mouse very far. So I don’t understand the use of tabs to put stuff in for operation like adding a node or an object. Consequently, I don’t use the tabs in the 3d view. The only thing I click in is the smooth shading button. In the mce, I am a big fan of the tabs, because there there is a bunch of settings that you use (default tracking setting, keyframes etc.). If you would want to organize the tabs for the compositor and add something with respect to the menu you get when you alt+a, I would group stuff in the tabs based on a certain job. For instance, group the nodes that you would use to pull a key in one tab. You can put a button that does a quick key (dump a whole node tree for you to tweak) at the top of the tab and then put button for the individual nodes in that tree and there alternatives. This would assist in workflow I think.
I know that most users do not use the toolshelf to add nodes but some newer might do. I don’t want to force you to use it but it shouldn’t hurt you if we decide to include the tabs, anyway
