Pen Tool

valar_king · Post by **valar_king** » Tue Nov 05, 2002 9:26 pm

Does anyone use the "pen tool"? You know, the thing where you left click and drag around to make various symbols to do stuff. Could we possibly find a better way use the Mouse 1's dragging?

Goofster · Post by **Goofster** » Wed Nov 06, 2002 12:37 am

::WARNING!::

Removing Gestures in blender CAN and WILL result in heavy punishment by Ton Roosendaal. only do this in life-threatening situations (example: End of the world, Nuclear Winter...yadayadayada)

seriously though. I think there ARE a lot of people that use it ( I don't

)
maybe set up a questionaire for it?

but of course, if you want too, you can rip it out anyway

Roel

alltaken · Post by **alltaken** » Wed Nov 06, 2002 11:27 am

pen tool?

could someone fill me in i have never heard of it.

is it currently intergrated into blender or this a concept.

thanks!!!!!

wavk · Post by **wavk** » Wed Nov 06, 2002 11:39 am

Don't remove it! It's great, gives you the sens of casting a spell

And I do use it, expecially when I'm lazy and have my left hand supporting my head from falling off and I can't reach the keyboard.

Have fun,

Wybren van Keulen

Bandoler · Post by **Bandoler** » Wed Nov 06, 2002 2:39 pm

valar_king wrote:Does anyone use the "pen tool"? You know, the thing where you left click and drag around to make various symbols to do stuff. Could we possibly find a better way use the Mouse 1's dragging?

I really thing these feature should stay. Even more, it should be developed further so you can issue more commands this way (a la Black and White). Maybe it's faster to use the keyboard, but i think it can become more intuitive to issue commands this way if one gets practice with them...

It could be improved with:
- adding more symbols
- allowing the custom association of symbols with actions
- making it more explicit ( you never know what symbol has been interpreted from your gesture until you see the effect, you could be informed somehow,Black and White did this through blending the symbol in the view for a second when it was interpreted. )

(Bandoler)

alltaken · Post by **alltaken** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 12:55 pm

is there a tut on how to use this

i am very interested!!!

it sounds cool.
cause i have played black and white.

what symbols do what.

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!!

kaktuswasser · Post by **kaktuswasser** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 1:56 pm

what symbols do what.

nobody knows that

I haven't seen any reference for them

cya henrik

Bandoler · Post by **Bandoler** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 2:48 pm

alltaken wrote:is there a tut on how to use this
what symbols do what.

In the Blender Knowledge Base there's a question (and answer) about this. As far as i know there are three gestures: straight line (grabber tool), angle line (scale) and curved line (rotate).

(However, these questions should go on elysiun)

Bandoler

slikdigit · Post by **slikdigit** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 4:26 pm

I'd keep 'em. they lead to a nice 'unconcious' mode, where you do a command without realizing you had. More would be cool, so long as the symbols were simple enough to do. As for feedback- I don't think its neccessary at the moment- your feedback is that you ARE rotating/scaling/grabing, you cans see the values changing and the object moving. More would be counter to the unobtrusive nature of this method.

Mats78 · Post by **Mats78** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 9:51 pm

I never use the mouse gestures. My first contact with Blender was when I bought a magazine a few years back - they had a cover cd with blender, and tutorials. This was the only place I ever saw mouse gestures mentioned =) Anyway I'd like to ask: why remove them? do they disturb anyone? They are there so let them stay, I can't think of much else to use instead and believe there are lots of more annoying things about Blender out there

nemesis · Post by **nemesis** » Thu Nov 07, 2002 10:21 pm

I use it often to move objects around. Don't get rid of it, it's useful

alltaken · Post by **alltaken** » Fri Nov 08, 2002 9:56 am

i don't use it but i don't see a reason to change it either.

if someone posted a good reason to replace the pen tool with somthing else in its place (another tool that is more important) then i might consider it but really the mouse set up is pretty good.

except there should be a way to turn it off for macs couse trying to do three buttons on a 1button mouse sucks.

na leave it i say no point in changing.
i think it a definative descision

LethalSideParting · Post by **LethalSideParting** » Fri Nov 08, 2002 3:42 pm

Hiya guys.
I know a fair bit about this tool, so I'll try explain.

For those of you who don't know what it is, insert a cube to a scene. Then, left click and drag and you'll see a line form underneath your mouse. Try moving it in a straight line and then let go of the mouse button. Result? You just put your cube into grab mode!!!

OK, let's try again. Put the cube down, start as before, but this time make a 'V' or 'L' shape. The object goes into rotate mode. Brilliant! Now try a curve shape (a circle or spiral or something), and you'll begin to scale your object. Magic!!

OK, patronising tutorials aside, it's not normally meant for people who use mice (though some people with mice like to use it anyway - and it does feel extremely cool

). It's meant for people with graphics tablets. That's where the real speed-up is, and is what this is normally meant for. I don't think we should remove it at all - if Blender ever wants to get used in professional circles, then we'll *need* to keep something like that in. I wouldn't object to a few more commands with it though...

LethalSideParting

sedgetone · Post by **sedgetone** » Wed Nov 13, 2002 2:10 pm

I find it rather clumsy with a mouse, put with a pen & tablet is great. That's how I work with it anyway; I treat the pen as if it's a two button mouse.

Sedgetone

Blender.org

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