The outliner is a hierarchical diagram displaying a list of data in Blender
and its dependencies. The 'databrowse' doesn't really show it, and Oops is
too chaotic still. And most of all, the former two don't offer much tools.
After discussions on irc, Matt came with this design proposal;
http://mke3.net/blender/interface/layout/outliner/
Which is closely followed for the implementation.
The current version only shows all 'library data' in Blender (objects,
meshes, ipos, etc) and not the 'direct data' such as vertex groups or NLA.
I decided to make it inside the Oopw window, as an option. You can find the
option in the "View" pulldown, or directly invoke it with ALT+SHIFT+F9
Here's a quick overview of the Outliner GUI:
- Header pulldown has options what it can show (Visible = in current layers)
- click on triangle arrow to open/close
- press AKEY to open/close all
- Leftmouse click on an item activates; and does based on type a couple of
extra things:
- activates a scene
- selects/activates the Object
- enters editmode (if clicked on Mesh, Curve, etc)
- shows the appropriate Shading buttons (Lamp, Material, Texture)
- sets the IpoWindow to the current IPO
- activates the Ipo-channel in an Action
- Selected and Active objects are drawn in its Theme selection color
- SHIFT+click on Object does extend-select
- Press DOTkey to get the current active data in center of view
TODO;
- rightmouse selection; for indicating operations like delete or duplicate
- showing more data types
- icon (re)design...
- lotsof options as described in Matts paper still...
The changelog is very long... it's on the web too:
http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Mesh_editing_rewrite.425.0.html
EditMesh refactor notes (user)
**** New selection modes
When entering Edit Mode for a Mesh, you now have the choice for three selection modes. These are shown as icons in the 3D header (hotkey is being searched for!).
- Vertex Select
Select vertices as usual, fully compatible with how previous version work
- Edge Select
Vertices are not drawn anymore, and selections happen by default on the edges. It is a true edge select, meaning that you can select three out of four edges in a face, without automatic having the 4th edge selected.
- Face Select
Instead of vertices, now selection 'points' are drawn in the face centers. Selected faces also get a colored outline, like for edges. This also is true face select, for each face individual regardless selection status of its vertices or edges.
While holding SHIFT, and press a selection mode, you can also combine the above choices. Now selection becomes mixed, and will behave as expected.
For example; in Edge+Face select mode, selecting the 4 edges of a face will select the face too.
The selection modes and optional drawing modes (like transparant faces, normals, or solid drawing) all work together. All of Blender's mesh editing tools now react to the correct selection mode as well.
Most noticeable it's in:
**** Extrude
Extruding in Edge or Face Select mode allows much more precise control over what's extruded and what should be excluded. Try for example a checker pattern selection, and extrude it.
New is the fixed translation when faces are extruded. This always follows the (averaged) face normal(s) of the old face(s), enabling much easier working in 3D views . A single 'G' (Grab) or 'R' (Rotate) or 'S' (Scale) will change transform modus as usual.
**** Other things to note
- Hiding edges/faces will also behave different based on Select Mode.
- while editing, normals of faces are updated always now
- Border select (BKEY) has 2 different rules for edges; when one edge is fully inside of the border, it will only select edges that are fully inside. Otherwise it selects each edge intersecting with the border.
- in face mode, adding vertices, edges or a circle is invisible...
- "Add monkey" now works as a normal primitive (rotated and on 3d cursor)
- Mesh undo was fully recoded, hopefully solving issues now with Vertex Keys and Groups
- Going in and out of editmode was fully recoded. Especially on larger models you'll notice substantial speed gain.
**** Todo
Add 'FaceSelect mode' functionality in EditMode, including zbuffered selection, display and editing of UV texture.
EditMesh refactor notes (coder)
**** Usage of flags in general
The "->f" flags are reserved for the editmesh.c and editmesh_lib.c core functions. Actually only selection status is there now.
The "->f1" and "->f2" flags are free to use. They're available in vertex/edge/face structs. Since they're free, check carefully when calling other functions that use these flags... for example extrude() or subdivide() use them.
**** Selection flags
EditVert: eve->f & SELECT
EditEdge: eed->f & SELECT
EditFace: efa->f & SELECT
- Selection is only possible when not-hidden!
- Selection flags are always up-to-date, BUT:
if selection mode >= SELECT_EDGE vertex selection flags can be incorrect
if selection mode == SELECT_FACE vertex/edge selection flags can be incorrect
This because of shared vertices or edges.
- use for selecting vertices:
eve->f &= SELECT
- use for selecting edges always:
void EM_select_edge(eed, 1) // 1 = select, 0 = deselect
- use for selecting faces always:
void EM_select_face(efa, 1) // 1 = select, 0 = deselect
- To set the 'f' flags in all of the data:
void EM_set_flag_all(int flag);
void EM_clear_flag_all(int flag);
- the old faceselectedOR() and faceselectedAND() are still there, but only
to be used for evaluating its vertices
**** Code hints for handling selection
If the selectmode is 'face'; vertex or edge selections need to be flushed upward. Same is true for 'edge' selection mode. This means that you'll have to keep track of all selections while coding... selecting the four vertices in a face doesn't automatically select the face anymore.
However, by using the above calls, at least selections flush downward (to vertex level). You then can call:
void EM_selectmode_flush(void);
Which flushes selections back upward, based on the selectmode setting. This function does the following:
- if selectmode 'vertex': select edges/faces based on its selected vertices
- if selectmode 'edge': select faces based its selected edges
This works fine in nice controlled situations.
However, only changing the vertex selections then still doesn't select a face in face mode! If you really can't avoid only working with vertex selections, you can use this call:
void EM_select_flush(void);
Now selection is flushed upward regardless current selectmode. That can be destructive for special cases however, like checkerboard selected faces. So use this only when you know everything else was deselected (or deselect it). Example: adding primitives.
**** Hide flags
EditVert: eve->h
EditEdge: eed->h
EditFace: efa->h
- all hide flags are always up-to-date
- hidden vertices/edges/faces are always deselected. so when you operate on selection only, there's no need to check for hide flag.
**** Unified undo for editmode
New file: editmode_undo.h
A pretty nice function pointer handler style undo. Just code three functions, and your undo will fly! The c file has a good reference.
Also note that the old undo system has been replaced. It currently uses minimal dependencies on Meshes themselves (no abuse of going in/out editmode), and is restricted nicely to editmode functions.
**** Going in/out editmode
As speedup now all vertices/faces/edges are allocated in three big chunks. In vertices/faces/edges now tags are set to denote such data cannot be freed.
ALso the hashtable (lookup) for edges uses no mallocs at all anymore, but is part of the EditEdge itself.
- Made unified API for undo calls, to be found in space.c
BIF_undo_push(char *str)
BIF_undo(void)
BIF_redo(void)
These calls will do all undo levels, including editmode and vpaint.
The transition is work in progress, because mesh undo needs recode.
- New global hotkey CTR+Z for undo
Note: 'shaded draw mode' still is SHIFT+Z, the old CTRL+Z was to recalc
the lighting in shaded mode, which already became much more interactive,
like during/after any transform().
Recalc hotkey now is SHIFT+ALT+Z
CTRL+<any modifier>+Z is redo.
- For OSX users; the Apple-key ("Command") now maps to CTRL as well. This
disables the one-mouse-button hack for rightmouse btw, will be fixed in
next commit. At least we can use Apple-Z :)
- Old Ukey for undo is still there, as a training period... my preference is
to restore Ukey to "reload original data" as in past, and only use new
CTRL+Z for undo.
- Added undo_push() for all of editobject.c and editview.c. Meaning we can
start using/testing global undo in the 3d window. Please dont comment on
missing parts for now, first I want someone to volunteer to tackle all of
that.
- Since the global undo has a full 'file' in memory, it can save extremely
fast on exit to <temp dir>/quit.blend. That's default now when global undo
is enabled. It prints "Saved session recovery to ..." in console then.
- In file menu, a new option is added "Recover Last Session". Note that this
reads the undo-save, which is without UI.
- With such nice new features we then can also kill the disputed
Cancel/Confirm menu on Q-KEY.
- Added fix which initializes seam/normal theme color on saved themes.
They showed black now.... (Note: that's in usiblender.c!)
separate it...
1) Curve/Surface editmode undo
Uses same syntax as mesh undo, so simple to integrate. Edit-curve data is
also quite simpler, so no need for any hack at all.
It re-uses the undo system from next point, which is nice short & clean
local code
2) Framework for global undo
The undo calls themselves are commented out. In a next commit I want to
enable it for a couple of main features, for further feedback.
The speed goes surprisingly well, especially with this new version that
'pushes' undo after a command, ensuring interactivity isnt frustrated
3) framework for texture based icons in Blender
Not activated code, but tested here. Part of 2.3 UI project.
btw: Johnny Matthews will assist in (and complete) the undo project
http://www.loria.fr/~levy/Galleries/LSCM/index.htmlhttp://www.loria.fr/~levy/Papers/2002/s2002_lscm.pdf
Implementation Least Squares Conformal Maps parameterization, based on
chapter 2 of:
Bruno Levy, Sylvain Petitjean, Nicolas Ray, Jerome Maillot. Least Squares
Conformal Maps for Automatic Texture Atlas Generation. In Siggraph 2002,
July 2002.
Seams: Stored as a flag (ME_SEAM) in the new MEdge struct, these seams define
where a mesh will be cut when executing LSCM unwrapping. Seams can be marked
and cleared in Edit Mode. Ctrl+EKEY will pop up a menu allowing to Clear or Mark
the selected edges as seams.
Select Linked in Face Select Mode now only selects linked faces if no seams
separate them. So if seams are defined, this will now select the 'face group'
defined by the seams. Hotkey is still LKEY.
LSCM Unwrap: unwrap UV's by calculating a conformal mapping (preserving local
angles). Based on seams, the selected faces will be 'cut'. If multiple
'face groups' are selected, they will be unwrapped separately and packed in
the image rectangle in the UV Editor. Packing uses a simple and fast
algorithm, only designed to avoid having overlapping faces.
LSCM can be found in the Unwrap menu (UKEY), and the UV Calculation panel.
Pinning: UV's can be pinned in the UV Editor. When LSCM Unwrap is then
executed, these UV's will stay in place, allowing to tweak the solution.
PKEY and ALT+PKEY will respectively pin and unpin selected UV's.
Face Select Mode Drawing Changes:
- Draw Seams option to enable disable drawing of seams
- Draw Faces option to enable drawing of selected faces in transparent purple
- Draw Hidden Edges option to enable drawing of edges of hidden faces
- Draw Edges option to enable drawing of edges of visible faces
The colors for these seams, faces and edges are themeable.
- Draw Faces in the UV editor
- Draw Faces, selected in the UV editor, in the 3D view
- Draw Shadow Mesh in the UV editor (for faces unselected in the 3D view)
- Select Linked UVs (LKEY)
- Unlink Selection (Alt+LKEY)
- Stick (Local) UVs to Mesh Vertex on selection
- Active Face Select
- Reload Image
- Show / Hide Faces in the UV editor (H, Shift+H, Alt+H)
- Proportional Editing (O, Shift+O)
- Stitch, Limit Stitch UVs (snap by mesh vertex)
- Weld / Align UVs (WKEY)
- UVs Snap to Pixels on/off switch
- RMB in Texture Paint or Vertex Paint mode picks color
- Select Inverse in Faceselect mode
I hope these are all the features that were commited. The new UV Mapping
panel (and code) will follow later.
(related to rounded theme)
- layer buttons in view3d header grouped
- outline colour now blends darker with respect to background (better
visibility on dark backgrounds)
- added some align calls to user settings menu
Now back to real bugs!
render opengl 3d window at this location gave unpredictable results, and
crashes occasionally. Moved it back to header as icon for now... the
view pulldown menu in 3d header is too full.
- fixed error introduced by coding color for panel, instead of just
implementing the right default color. this caused colors not possible
below value '100'... tsk tsk
BTW: text colors don't work everywhere yet... but this state should
be save to store themes in your .B.blend (CTRL+X)
and some fixes:
- leftmouse click now works in NLA and Action window to select a
strip in the left part
- faceselect+vpaint mode didnt show both panels
lines not drawn (triangles in buttons for example)
- correct colors for channels in texture buttons
- fixed bug: using proportional editing, the extra wire draw had incorrect
matrix
- fixed bug: drawing in imagewindow didnt work anymore... was a very old
one! the wrong pointer was read, and it accidentally went OK, until now
- selecting vertices with multiple 3d wins open works again
- changed the BIF_DrawString() function. it used to work different for
AA fonts as for default fonts. Now it's identical. Setting color for fonts
can just be done with OpenGL, for both font types.
Removed: BIF_DrawStringRGB()
- added theme color options for Buttons
- recoded DefButton, so it automatically chooses the right color.
- had to remove a 1000 uiBlockSetCol() calls for that reason...
- uiBlockSetCol() still works, to override automatic color
- removed entirely the silly old color system (BIFColorID). All color
calls can now be done with a BIF_ThemeColor() call, including fonts and
buttons and opengl stuff
- all buttons in button header have headercolor by default
- recoded drawing icons, it was a really bad & old loop doing manually
colorshading and blending... which was per pixel a load of code!
Now it uses a single OpenGL call to blend or colorize. Quite faster!
- (as test, for review) icons don't colorize anymore with button color,
but have a different alpha to blend in (when not active)
- recoded the entire interface_draw.c file...:
- drawing buttons is separated in three parts:
1. main drawing function for text and icons
2. free definable callback for button itself
3. free definable callback for slider
- removed a load of redundant code for this!
- coded a minimal theme, and adjusted Matt's buttons to match new
callback system
- adding new drawing themes is piece of cake now
- for coders, default 'themes' to be aware of:
UI_EMBOSS : the themable drawing style
UI_EMBOSSP: the pulldown menu system (apart from color not themable)
UI_EMBOSSN: draw nothing, only text and/or icon
UI_EMBOSSM: minimal theme, still in use for Logic and Constraintsa
this can be set with uiBlockSetEmboss(block) or in the uiNewBlock() call.
TODO: make UI API call for button alignment
(plus removed another series of warnings from code...)
Plus: fixed bug in Matts commit: he used a 'short' button for an 'int'
like: BIF_ThemeColor(TH_GRID); will be sufficient. Blender does the rest.
- fixed bug in CTRL-X (reload home file) with themes
- fixed bug in horizontal alignment of different height panels. Seems also
to solve the drawing error with constraints...
- made grid drawing using the main theme color
- was annoyed with the primitive grid... so coded something that allows
zooming in and out a 100fold without losing gridlines
- brought back 'NKEY' for mesh editmode
- added to this a 'median' option; when more vertices selected you see
the average coordinate. works nice when inputting values as well
(todo: make this for other editmodes)
- renamed the 'NKEY' panel to 'Transform Properties', also fixed in
pulldown menu.
I am off for the rest of the day. More committing fun tomorrow!
-Ton-
- panels work
- ipo window done
- buttonswindow done
Please be warned that saving Themes now wont work... it will also save
BLACK for all uninitalized colors... so dont panic when you see weird
things, just go back the default theme and copy a new one.
- currently only implemented for 3d window
- create as many themes you like, and name them
- default theme is not editable, and always will be defined at startup
(initTheme)
- saves in .B.blend
- themes for spaces can become local too, so you can set individual
3d windows at theme 'Maya' or so. (to be implemented)
- it uses alpha as well...!
API:
This doesnt use the old method with BFCOLORID blahblah. The API is copied
from OpenGL conventions (naming) as much as possible:
- void BIF_ThemeColor(ScrArea *sa, int colorid)
sets a color... id's are in BIF_resources.h (TH_GRID, TH_WIRE, etc)
- void BIF_ThemeColorShade(ScrArea *sa, int colorid, int offset)
sets a color with offset, no more weird COLORSHADE_LGREY stuff
- void BIF_GetThemeColor3fv(ScrArea *sa, int colorid, float *col)
like opengl, this gives you in *col the three rgb values
- void BIF_GetThemeColor4ubv(ScrArea *sa, int colorid, char *col)
or the one to get 4 bytes
ThemeColor calls for globals (UI etc) can also call NULL for *sa... this
is to be implemented still.
Next step: cleaning up interface.c for all weird colorcalls.
- cutoff of text in menus and buttons now even better!
- size of pull-up menu buttons is corrected
- pressing at 'menu button' had a delay, fixed
General: the 'outo open' wont become default, it will be removed or
become a user option. I am experimenting with it to get it all OK.
The 'auto open' for secondary levels in pulldowns will remain there
Check the latest state of pull-up menu buttons. for example the mode
selector: you can use such buttons in three ways,
- click on it, it opens and you can select
- click-and-hold-mouse, move, release at item you want to select
- move mouse over button, wait, it opens
The 'auto open' and its time threshold both can be user settings.
- automatic pulldown opening can now be controlled ( user setting?)
it has two thresholds:
- when no menu was opened before, it waits A milliseconds
- when (in the same block a menu was opened, it waits B millisec.
Currently A= 0.4 sec, B= 0.1 (or so)
- 3d window header; brought back old drawtype menu (test, compare!)
- another test: the old menubutton doesnt work anymore with hold-mouse
only, you can also use it as the other popups (old method still works)
- proposal; all buttons that pop up a block, get special drawtype (arrows)
this is part 1 of the UI makeover. It has:
- menu system from Matt integrated
- buttons drawing from Matt
- generic button panel system implemented
- converted displaybuttons (not the rest yet)
- cleaned up a lot in drawing spaces itself, to make it aligned and pixel exact.
- cleaned loads of little compiler warnings, protos...
still a lot of work needed, will all be in next week i hope!
(warn: 2 new c files! butspace.c and buttons_scene.c)
