Expanding the menus (updated 21/09)

beatabix · Post by **beatabix** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 3:17 pm

that was something that always bugged me when i was on 800*600. i thought it was such an oversight, really annoying.

now it doesn't bother me, because i'm on a decent sized monitor, and because of the nifty new button that collapses the menus.

still, the info header really should scroll like everything else. i can't see any usability reason why it shouldn't.

later
BEAT

matt_e · Post by **matt_e** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 3:21 pm

UPDATE:
Finished the enormous task of adding the mesh editing tools to the edit menu. Now the menus have proper 'check mark' toggle capabilities, as illustrated

Also some small cosmetic enhancements to the size of the top menu entries so they span the full height.

UPDATE 2:
Made the Game menu more standardised, using the nicer check marks instead of the weird system before:

Also updated this plan a bit. I'm still very interested in feedback - trying to get discussion on the funboard list...

Pablosbrain · Post by **Pablosbrain** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 3:45 pm

I like what you have done. I've been following a little of the discussion on the funboard. Its looking great! I don't really mind that there are submenus in the navigation now. Although it makes it harder to get to the items it does a very nice job of organizing the commands. At the same time... there are so many commands! You've done a fabulous job! I hope to see this in the next BF Release!

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 4:28 pm

While you're doing this marvelous job you (or someone else) also can (or should) consider to do the (almost) same arrangement for the SPACE-menu.

I mean, there are menus there which has the same names as the top menus but the content is different &/or different arranged.

bleber · Post by **bleber** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 8:40 pm

HI!!!

I think tat the menus are too big !!!!

a solution.....I don't know but I t'ink that put the basic menu in a blender window like a object edit eindow, and make it sensitive to the state of the selection or wat are you doing change the menus in the mwnu window, amd in these window I cam put a specific menu for increase speed.
I don't know if it will work but is a posiblity, je je

basic example:
|---------------------------------------------|
|.....>FILE>EXPORT>VRML 1.0..............|
|.....EDIT.................DXF......................|
|.....OBJECT.............VIDEOSCAPE........|
|.....ADD.............................................|
|.....VIEW............................................|
|.....GAME...........................................|
|---------------------------------------------|

kaktuswasser · Post by **kaktuswasser** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 9:37 pm

i have to agree! you are doing a great job broken!!
I hope to see this in tuhopuu asap

cya henrik

alt · Post by **alt** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 11:19 pm

Congratulations!

This is a *good* thing. This must go to the next official release.
Since there are new features and new hotkeys coming up all the time it's useful to have some quick reference and list of them all.

Also making the spacebar menu to list all actions currently available would be nice. IMHO, at least. I guess this has been talked over and over in the past, though..

Yes make it dark yes!

hanzo · Post by **hanzo** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 12:54 am

great job man I can't wait until this gets into the offical release.

IT IS BLENDERS DESTINY!

Fred_Pyo · Post by **Fred_Pyo** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:23 am

That's so cool! I wanna try it already...
(isn't there some tuhopuu version with those new menus implemented?)

nyoxi · Post by **nyoxi** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 8:58 pm

Hey people, don't be so mad from it

I know that it look good, but take it easy

matt_e · Post by **matt_e** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 11:34 am

A bit stuck right now still trying work work out issues regarding functionality and organisation on the funboard. I did some research today looking at other packages so I'll write up a report.

But for now, I made a little cosmetic improvement, hacking in 'proper' arrows for sub-menus instead of those ugly text > characters, and also a 1 pixel line down the left edge, so its easier to distinguish the sub-menus from the parent menu (look up the page at the 'edit mesh' submenu for a before/after comparison)

Sorry for spamming so much, it's just like a WIP thread on elysiun.com, and I like to get feedback

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 11:54 am

Wonderfull!....not much more to say really.

Pablosbrain · Post by **Pablosbrain** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 4:08 pm

Love it! Keep refining it and there should be no reason not to add this to the main code tree.

matt_e · Post by **matt_e** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 8:09 am

Ok, it's been a while since this thread was active, and now's a good time for an update. We've had some good discussion on the funboard since then, regarding the structure and organisation of the menus. I wrote up a report with a bunch of different proposals, and after some experimentation, testing and revisions, have settled on a modified version of a proposal by Mark Luffel. The organisation is done with regards to the different 'contexts' in Blender - global 'scene' item reside in the top info header menu, while window space headers contain menus with items relevant to that window space/editing mode. I hope to write up a doc explaining the organisation in more detail soon when I can get a chance. Part of this work also includes removing all the cluttered, hard-to-understand icons from the window header since they're in the menu, and adding clearer controls, like a mode-selector with text labels.

Still remaining is to extend this approach to other window spaces than info and 3d viewport (such as Ipo, Sequence, etc.)

A Windows build for testing is available here: http://reblended.com/www/broken/blender ... 030921.zip
and the menus have also been added to tuhopuu2, for those with other OSes.

I'd love to hear any feedback and results of your own testing. I've put a fair bit of thought into the organisation, been through a few revisions, and done a fair bit of testing in my own Blender work, however wider feedback is needed.

Here are a bunch of screenshots of the major things that have been changed:

Info header (top menu bar):
File: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... o_file.png
Add: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... fo_add.png
Timeline: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... meline.png
Game: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... o_game.png
Render: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... render.png
Help (mainly placeholders): http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... o_help.png

3D Viewport header
View: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... d_view.png

Object Mode
Select: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... object.png
Object: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... object.png
Object (2): http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... bject2.png

Edit Mode
Select (mesh): http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... t_mesh.png
Mesh: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... d_mesh.png
Mesh (2): http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... _mesh2.png
Mesh (3): http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... _mesh3.png
Mesh (4): http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... _mesh4.png
Mesh (5): http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... _mesh5.png
Curve/Surface: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... _curve.png
Curve/Surface (2): http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... curve2.png
Text: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... d_text.png
Armature: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... mature.png
Metaball: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... taball.png
Lattice: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... attice.png

Face Select Mode
Face: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... acesel.png

Pose Mode
Armature: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... d_pose.png

Vertex/Texture/Weight Paint Mode
Paint: http://reblended.com/www/broken/interfa ... _paint.png

Phew!

Friday13 · Post by **Friday13** » Sun Sep 21, 2003 9:12 pm

Whoa! Everything looks perfect! Downloading now!