With the new volume cube node, blender is getting functionally closer to mCSV.
Obviously, it’s a lot slower and limited because it’s not specifically specialized for voxel editing, but I like having the option of doing it in blender, especially if you’re just making a small sculpting base.
This would only make sense if you could combine switching tools and modes simultaneously. Otherwise, I see way to many hotkey conflicts arise. Besides, I need these modes to be able to use single key hotkeys, I think it’s an absolute necessity to have at least 5 different modes in Blender for that matter. But, the ease of switching modes by tools would make the process a lot more seamless.
How does that work? I know Revit has something where if you hit a single key, you need to press space and with two or more keystrokes it starts invoking particular commands. Mesh Machine Y + Key is also really convenient, (invoke menu, type first letter of item name in the menu). But, you can also map search to D for easy typing or Spacebar with nodes. Then type to search. It could be nice though if you could set aliases for a particular search like in CAD software…
Blender should become smarter and do some things for the user in the background, such as adding an empty to the mirror modifier like 3ds Max does (it’s called Gizmo there) or like the Modifier list addon does. There are plenty of opportunities to do this across the software. Why doesn’t the polypen create a vertex if you go to the tool with only one mesh in Edit Mode? And why doesn’t it do this for multiple meshes either? It could easily add an object with the source object’s name and add the suffix: “_Retopo”.
Am I the only one who thinks the new Geopen (aka the new Polybuild) looks pretty underwhelming as of now? I was hoping it would at least have these nice highlights of edges and way more advanced tools like Retopoflow. Instead, it looks way too basic.
could add checkboxes named after the default modes as an additional option, each to be activated for when one wants f.e. the tools of the edit mode together with those of the sculpt mode in the same interface, thus giving the user the freedom to clutter their interface according to their needs.
or maybe just a per viewport mode override. Would be great to go around the mode switching somehow.
As far as development goes, infusing a new tool with a ton of power, performance, and flexibility is only asking for problems if you do not have the basics down first (ie. get it working first, make it pretty later).
Hopefully, this will not be one of those cases where the devs. forget about really polishing the tool or feature after the initial steps are done.
Yes that’s why. I’m hoping it’s just the beginning of something great and not the end of something promising. Surely there will need to be a bunch of tools to get a complete retopo set of tools.
I am under the impression that a lot of research has been conducted, bugs were fixed etc. but up until last month I didn’t see a lot of progress on new features. Mostly snapping refactoring/ enhancements and the geopen. Now apparently there won’t be a retop mode. I really hope the scope of the project hasn’t been severely shrunk down.
Curious question: this is sculpt paint symmetry settings:
Love the Tiling feature. Are there any plans to add this to texture painting or it is only limited to sculpt paint?
I like the idea of all kinds of modes if the transition from mode to mode is more or less seemless. 3DCoat also has many many different modes and it just makes sense imo. Less clutter, more focus…
That’s the same as in Blender and Mesh Machine. It may just need a custom menu editor/ make quick favourites work per mode. And it should be given an editor to change the order of the favourites + a search box to add items easily.
Really? Am I missing something, because it seems completely useless to me. It only goes along the X/Y/Z planes and doesn’t follow the mesh surface at all.
I made a RCS about this a long time ago, watch the videos to see what I’m talking about:
https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/NHfbbc/
Not really…
Can you have, let’s say, 10 different quick favorites on different keys working at the same time?
Iirc there’s only one quick favorites per mode…
One of the reasons I’m staying away from 3dcoat… 
I normally use it on planes only for tiling textures or making patterns however way I want. I can create it on the fly without having to use uv tiling and then go in and add unique details where I need them. Makes texturing or sculpting way faster.
We should get this added to texture painting mode too.
I honestly do not see how hundreds of operators (of many different types) can be bundled together in one mode without requiring a many-layered monstrosity of a UI element such as Microsoft Ribbon. Some others might cite the Maya hotbox, but that thing also reportedly has many layers and can end up filling much of your screen.
Barring some blast of incredible genius that creates a UI organization breakthrough, I do not see how it can be done better than having at least a few modes around. Sure, a couple like vertex/texture paint could potentially be merged together, but you still have several others with very different tasks in mind.
This might be an issue on programs where you can’t fully customize the ui, like blender etc…
Tools/operators and stuff don’t have to live in the ui, they just need to be accessible through the menus or something like that…
What to put in the ui should be decided by you (the user) depending on the task… no point trying to display everything in the ui all at once or trying to figure the best ui possible, it doesn’t exist…
Customization is the key…
I do recall one goal Ton once had for the 2.5 project, where he cited that the future of Blender’s toolset would actually be just a few tools, but each tool had a ton of different options that would make it useful for many different things (in a way similar to how a Swiss Army Knife can replace a bunch of small items). That never actually came to fruition since we now have more operators than ever (with some of them being narrow in scope), though it would’ve made it easier to prevent the UI from getting overpopulated.
Polypen kind of stuff? Hehehe… That would nice…
I mean, they could start by merging all the different extrude tools into one tool… 
Those things should have been like Kekit’s Context extrude, wherein the tool determines the ooerator that is used based on vertex/ edge or face mode and extrusion direction.
As for a fully customiseable UI, sounds nice, but than none of the tutorials would use the same UI and your co-workers may not either. That can create issues too.
Quick favorites is a menu.
When you have a menu, it has automatically generated shortcuts for each item.
Numerical shortcuts. First item of list can be called by pressing 1, second 2, third 3,etc…
And underscored letter indicates shortcut for item.
So for any quick favorites, you have a two key shortcut.
Quick favorites is an easy custom menu for beginners.
But you can create several custom menus through python.
Difference is that tools called by menus that way are not active tools.
In Blender, Alt E menu gives access to all extrude operators pertinent for selection.
It doesn’t correspond to changing active tool and then, redefining selection.
To do that, you have to use ways to change active tool :
To follow your example, shortcut for Extrude Manifold is shift spacebar, shift 4. The one for Inset Faces is shift spacebar, I.
So, what you are asking for is already there.
The only thing that user don’t have control on is set of tools displayed in toolbar.
That was understandable because developers had to create active tool version of existing tools.
Before 2.8, there was no gizmo for all of them.
And, now, there are still modelling tools that don’t have an active tool version (like Warp or Bend).
But with inflation of tools in sculpt mode, that is something developers have to give an easy way to customize.