An idea about GUI: "user panel"

friendly · Post by **friendly** » Mon May 09, 2005 7:35 pm

Hi, I just registered here and I have a little suggestion, an idea, about Blender's interface.
The gui is very customizable but there is something that I miss. I'd like to have an empty "user panel" where you can easily drag and drop items (maybe with a combination between mouse and keyboard) from others panels in it.
For example in the new "user panel" i'd like to mix "mesh tools" (from the editing panel) with "material+shader+preview" from shading and "render" window from "render buttons". I know it's already possible split several times the area-panel, but I think a new user panel could be more elegant...
I hope to have been clear. Sorry for my bad english and thanks a lot for this software.

reed · Post by **reed** » Tue May 10, 2005 1:59 pm

I like this idea too. It would not be trivial to implement, since none of the buttons can be individually dragged AFAIK, but should be possible.

friendly · Post by **friendly** » Tue May 10, 2005 7:34 pm

hi, here is a pic about my idea

http://img119.echo.cx/img119/2116/userpanel3bi.png

SirDude · Post by **SirDude** » Tue May 10, 2005 8:17 pm

There is a lot more to it than just dragging buttons.

Currently there is no global event loop. There are different
event loops depending on what window your in etc...
So that needs to be worked on before this is possible.

Also some buttons will not make sense depending on the active
window so there will need to be something in place to do error
checking for if that button even works in that panel etc.. (or some way
to tie a button to a specific screen etc).

joeri · Post by **joeri** » Wed May 11, 2005 9:31 am

Sirdude:
Once python can do macro's or blender keys are passed on to the pop-up menus this could be done in python, is that correct? (haha, rebuilding all blender buttons in python form will ofcourse be a pain, but theoreticly?)

LetterRip · Post by **LetterRip** » Wed May 11, 2005 9:47 pm

Matt Ebb has been doing some concept code for a custom menu tool,

Ihttp://d658755.u30.infinology.net/blender/interface/toolbar/toolbarwip01.mp4

in the last meeting the need for the event refactor and allowing for customizable menus and key bindings was brought up, and Ton has a plan, but he stated it will involve a bit of recode of all blender tools, but will allow customization on the level of what is seen in modo or silo. Also his plan still needs some thought and fleshing out yet.

joeri,

yes you could do custom menus entirely with python, but it would be a pain, and currently python doesn't have access to all of the blender tools directly (could be done with passing key event equivalents, but a bit ugly).

LetterRip

Pierre-Luc_Auclair · Post by **Pierre-Luc_Auclair** » Thu May 12, 2005 12:38 am

LetterRip this vid is truly awesome. Do you know in which release it will be ?

LetterRip · Post by **LetterRip** » Thu May 12, 2005 2:03 am

Right now the code isn't even in CVS, it definitely won't be 2.37

Not sure if/when Matt will submit if for Tuhopuu CVS.

LetterRip

Delta · Post by **Delta** » Fri May 13, 2005 5:24 am

@ LetterRip: so that vid wasnt a mockup and was actually real interactive screencapture?

because if it is, that's REALLY cool

Regards,
~Delta

matt_e · Post by **matt_e** » Fri May 13, 2005 6:51 am

Yes, it's a real screen capture.

LetterRip was right to call it 'concept code' - the structure behind it, while working fine in the present, is probably not such a good thing for the long term, and I'm sure a better solution will be put in place whenever/if ever Ton's event system rewrite happens. Having said that, what I've got so far is fun and working here and now, so I'll put it in tuhopuu when I've finished off a few things left to do on it. Don't hold your breath waiting, I'm busy as hell and have no idea when I'll have some free time to spend on it, but hey...

Bellorum · Post by **Bellorum** » Fri May 13, 2005 1:18 pm

LetterRip wrote:Matt Ebb has been doing some concept code for a custom menu tool,

Ihttp://d658755.u30.infinology.net/blender/interface/toolbar/toolbarwip01.mp4

That looks mighty spiffy

joeri · Post by **joeri** » Fri May 13, 2005 1:52 pm

Looks good.
Why is it called toolbar?

Maya has a simular thing (as you might know).
Well that's not correct. Maya has the same thing, but is has 2 other simular things as well.

1. is a tool history, it adds the tool to on top of a list and G-Key repeats the last added tool (very powerfull).

2. is a personal shelf. Any tool or list of tools can be put on the personal shelf. Also pretty powerfull, but maya has a clunky interface to change the items on the shelf.