UV Editor tools/panels hotkey and layout questions

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

Does anyone else find it strange that the UV-editor N/T hotkeys open the opposite sides as the 3dview?

According to the docs and labels, this is because on the UV-Editor, the “properties” is on the left (instead of right on 3dview), and the right side is labeled “scopes” not tools. However, the left-side is really a mixed “tools and properties” sidebar, so it seems just fine to call it “Tools” and let “T” open it on the left-side as in 3dview.

I tend not to care so much about the “meaning” of these side-panels, but I expect “T” to open the left side and “P” to open the right side, and it trips me up in UV editor every time – I have an almost seisure like stabbing of the keys as my instincts fight with the response.

Do others feel the same? Do you get tripped up? Does anyone prefer the opposite T/N meaning in UV editor? Why?

Some other questions that came up:

  • There could be some more clear feedback of canvas-mask-texture on the uv-editor, perhaps some lower-left white-text… or a header-row “enable/disable” button
  • why does the canvas-mask-texture disappear when the mouse is over the sidebar? This makes it really hard to make adjustments, because you can’t see them until you move your mouse over the view. One step better could be creating an “edit canvas-mask” mode, where the canvas-mask would be an object movable with standard move/scale/rotate tools… somewhat like node-group-edit “zoom in”
  • why is the canvas-mask-texture pinned to the lower-left of the uv editor, instead of being pinned centered on the middle? Seems odd.
  • Why can’t users just load/pick a brush-texture or canvas-mask-texture from the filesystem or data, without mucking around with materials?

Here is a re-layout and renaming that I think makes UV-editor properties and tools consistent with the 3dview, makes tool meaning more clear, and also may improve some space utilization. In practical terms, this flips the “view mode” histogram/

  • Left-Side-Tools
    [LIST]

  • (paint mode)
    [LIST]

  • Brush (formerly Paint, Brush in 3dview)

  • Brush Stroke (formerly Paint Stroke)

  • Brush Curve (formerly Paint Curve)

  • Brush Texture (formerly Texture)

  • Canvas Mask (formerly Texture Mask)

  • (mask mode)

  • Mask Tools

  • (all modes)

  • histogram

  • waveform

  • vectorscope

  • sample line

  • scope samples

[/LIST]

  • Right-Side-Properties

  • Grease Pencil

  • Image (Properties)

  • Game Properties

  • Display (Properties)

  • (Brush) Appearance

[/LIST]

Thoughts?

2

I use only the UV editor for some basic stuff, so I can only comment about the first part:

Yes, it confuses me most of the time. After lots of time modeling and getting used to the T opens left, N opens right, when I do the unwrapping and need to change something in its properties panel, most of the time I press the wrong button.