Default view is confusing to new users (Feature Request)

Pierre-Luc_Auclair · Post by **Pierre-Luc_Auclair** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 12:32 am

There is a placement problem too. You can work in 3d all the time, but sometimes the top view or side view can be useful. Some objects are difficult to discern in the fake perspective viewports because you don't have a sense of depth.

Precision too. 3 point perspective distorts the objects, some things that may look completely flat can be rotated and the inverse is true too..

The_Nerd · Post by **The_Nerd** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 8:08 am

I think this is a good idea. However, I don't like the "four view" idea. I think fobsta's view idea is the best, except I would like to see the button box at the bottom.

Also, to end the cube-plane arguement, the starting scene origionally had a plane. It turned into a cube sometime after open-source.

Arathorn · Post by **Arathorn** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:53 am

But with four views you have very small views. Now that screens are quite big, this has become less of a problem, but how did they handle that in the beginning with those small screens?
I usually just switch between views with the numpad buttons.

joeri · Post by **joeri** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:36 am

Arathorn wrote:...but how did they handle that in the beginning with those small screens?...

With very expensive computers.

I think truespace was the first to come with 1 bigass 3d view. Still has.
Xsi opens with 4split, Maya opens with big perspective window.
And "first users" tutorial movies.

fobsta · Post by **fobsta** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:14 pm

How about the following screen?

It would have enough information to allow a complete beginner to experiment with the fundamental concepts involved with Blender (and 3d software in general).

No new coding involved just common sense

fobsta

ps the buttons window still scares me (after 10 yrs in the 3d games industry)

-efbie- · Post by **-efbie-** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:16 pm

it is quite nice. I would rather see the cube shaded. I don't know the help text is a good idea because i don't think it would be nice to always having that as a start. And you can't expect beginners to know the 'save interface' tool.

halibut · Post by **halibut** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:23 am

In maya screenshot,

"discover secret menus" rofl

MNME · Post by **MNME** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 1:09 am

novel idea i know... but, how about noobs just RTFM... im getting rather sick of all these changes to help noobs, afterall, your only a total noob for a couple of weeks, the rest of your blending life its all totally irelevent (and in many cases anoying)

If the new user is actually intimidated enough by there first look at the interface that it stops them using blender, no matter how friendly you make it look to them. there never going to stick with the program long enough to to learn ANYTHING usefull.. may as well just scare off the flakes early, then we wont have to answer all there questons

MNME · Post by **MNME** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 1:16 am

and anyway... the buttons are the scary bit, not the 3d window

pinhead_66 · Post by **pinhead_66** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:09 am

i'm sorry to say, but the proposed layouts are realy realy realy simple.
I agree on the 3d view, perspective would be more kind for a new person, the present top view (without good indication for a newbie wich view he/she's in) is confusing.

But the buttons window is a must in my point of view

Just ask yourself, how do the layouts of the other applications look? They interfaces are cluttered with buttons and icons too, sometimes even more so then blender.

Outliner is really handy for overview and renaming stuff and is easily forgotten tucked aways in the windows type list

my 2 cents

SamAdam · Post by **SamAdam** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 3:25 am

MNME wrote:novel idea i know... but, how about noobs just RTFM... im getting rather sick of all these changes to help noobs, afterall, your only a total noob for a couple of weeks, the rest of your blending life its all totally irelevent (and in many cases anoying)

If the new user is actually intimidated enough by there first look at the interface that it stops them using blender, no matter how friendly you make it look to them. there never going to stick with the program long enough to to learn ANYTHING usefull.. may as well just scare off the flakes early, then we wont have to answer all there questons

i have to disagree.

many here, including me, found blender a while ago, but were put off by the high learning curve. I rediscovered it about a year ago and have worked very hard to get accustomed to it.

i thought the interface was great, afterall, it is. but I couldn't find the spacebar, and so I was completely turned off. I think that this new start .blend is a great idea and I think it will be very useful.

joeri · Post by **joeri** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:03 am

samadam: The spacebar is the big key inbetween your alt keys...

Yingster · Post by **Yingster** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:03 pm

What about haveing it start up like Rhino CAD or Softimage. They have it start with a side,front,top, and iso view. In Maya they have it set up where you press a hot key and it toggles between the split window and a single one.

theeth · Post by **theeth** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 5:06 am

Yingster wrote:What about haveing it start up like Rhino CAD or Softimage. They have it start with a side,front,top, and iso view. In Maya they have it set up where you press a hot key and it toggles between the split window and a single one.

What's stopping you from creating a screen with split 3D views and one with a single one?

Martin

joeri · Post by **joeri** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:39 am

Yingster wrote:What about haveing it start up like Rhino CAD or Softimage. They have it start with a side,front,top, and iso view. In Maya they have it set up where you press a hot key and it toggles between the split window and a single one.

I think it's better to put emphasize on the 3d space sculpt aspect, not the 3x 2d cad-draw aspect, so better start with a single window with 3d space. Just like truespace.

Hotkey toggle between prefered (user) window layouts has been in blender since version 1.0. It even ships with 4 default layouts.