Features requests - Things to make blender smarter

[moh taia]

Hi
First sorry for my english

i have some ideas to improve The modelling in blender
i saw some of them in another programs
so lets begin

* 1- when you select two Edges And chose ( Merge -> At Center )



you will have this Result



But i think the true behavior is to have this result



** 2- when you select one Vertice And trying to unconnect it ( By using V )
you should have Four little Arows Around the selected Vertice



by selectig one of them you can determine which vertice to unconnect ( for the image you select the upper right one )



*** 3- Extrude Along Curve
select A Face Then Ctrl and select a Curve



Press E and chose ( Extrude Along Curve )
select how many steps you want ( For the image 4 Steps )
And ................



**** 4- Inset command is very needed - i know that we can Extrude then Scale but see the images to notice the deference

Extrude + Scale



Inset



notice that all selected edges have the same length

***** 5- Spin ; Spin Dup , Screw ; Warp should move to modifiers panel
And have X Y Z to determine the rotation angle insted of view ports As now

****** 6- integrating Bridge ; shell python scrypts into blender as modifiers

thats what i can think about for now any comments or proposals are welcome

Thanks

[BeBraw]

Ideas 1, 2, 4 and 6 would be nice additions in my opinion.

You can already do idea 3 by using the curve modifier. Note that the curve modifier has been improved in the cvs version of Blender.

Idea 5 is doable with the array modifier.

[matt_e]

BeBraw:
3) Curve modifier just deforms, it doesn't extrude

5) As far as I've seen, the array modifier is not good for bridging up geometry. It can remove doubles when geometry is already there, but it doesn't actually bridge things up, which is what you need for rotation/spinning.


I think the request for 1) makes a lot of sense. More context sensitivity and smarter tools, please!

[z3r0_d]

I think the request for 1) makes a lot of sense. More context sensitivity and smarter tools, please!

so should it only merge edges like that when I'm in edge mode?

what if I'm in vertex mode too?

... I dunno, it seems like another "merge" option to me, not just a variation of the behavior

[matt_e]

so should it only merge edges like that when I'm in edge mode?

what if I'm in vertex mode too?

Then perhaps there should be a consistent 'order of precedence' that is applied in similar situations with other tools. Eg. it uses the mode of the 'lowest' selection type.

... I dunno, it seems like another "merge" option to me, not just a variation of the behavior

But that's the problem. Too much in Blender is considered as 'another option' which is the easy way out for coders, but sends complexity through the roof and makes actually working with the software a chore. The delete menu in edit mode is bad like this too, I always have to stop and think about what I'm trying to delete instead of it just happening naturally based on what's I'm working on. If I have edges selected and I tell Blender to merge them, I want those edges to be merged!

[BeBraw]

BeBraw:
3) Curve modifier just deforms, it doesn't extrude

If you extrude before and separate the extruded part, use curve modifier and a curve to modify it and join it back to the main mesh, it should do the trick. This is a bit clunky though yet possible.

[moh taia]

If you extrude before and separate the extruded part, use curve modifier and a curve to modify it and join it back to the main mesh, it should do the trick. This is a bit clunky though yet possible.

that is what i am talking about
you can do almost any thing but the way of doing it . thats some times a problem
so i want blender to become more natural
you can do spin dup by the array modifier but why when you have spin dup ?
you can also make spin dup and connect the vertices togither by hand but why when you have spin ?
you can simulate taper modifier by the lattice but if you have taper modifier that will give more sense to the new user

in my case i am trying to teach blender to my friends who use another 3d programs . whats my chance if i said to make extrude along curve you must .. extrude .. separate .. use curve modifier .. join the vertices again
when a mid 3d program like cinema 4d give it by pressing a button And even allow you to change the number of steps after the extrude ?

another point i want to ask about is
when we developed some thing like hair from the particle system
why we still use the particle system to make hair - i mean why the hair didnt have there own buttons and windows ( and still using the particle as it is but this known only for the developers and users who want to know )

sorry for the long post but i love this program and i want to see it the best

thanks and sorry for my english again

[Caronte]

In addition to the moh taia good suggestions, I think it's better if the Merge shortcut Alt+M is changed with the one of Mirror (shortcut M), because it's used many more.

Mirror = Alt+M
Merge = M

This way we can have a finger over the M-key, and another finger over the Shift-key so no need to move the hand.

Thanks!

[joeri]

Sounds to me the merging is in for an update, specialy because of the new selection methods.
The ever growing feature list needs to be tamed by the interface (context driven or otherwise).
I find the G key (repeat last action) of Maya very handy. Specialy when 'nitting' a model.

I'm not sure it's fair to say things are this way because it's easy for the programmers. Some examples just work fine in a mockup. But in reallife not all edges are nicely lined up parallel 2 selected ones (they can be crossed, non manifold, 5 edges selected), and then we still expect blender (the context) to read our minds.
This needs indepth discription of expected behaiviour on all sorts of situations, otherwise we will just get popups saying: "Don't know what you mean, please select 2 lined up edges" when all I wanted was to change all selected edges into a vertex.