Object Hierarchy Browser

GullyFoyle · Post by **GullyFoyle** » Fri Dec 19, 2003 12:09 am

Now I realize that the OOPS window does some of this, but what i'd like to see is a window that would display a collapsible Object browser, which displays any and all relational/parenting information much more cleanly. It would also be nice to be able to rename objects or whatever from that window and perhaps some rudimentary numeric settings, what layer it's on (or other relevant object data), etc.

I'm new to Blender and haven't explored it fully (in the case of OOPS) but I would find it handy for sure.

Gully Foyle

mikew · Post by **mikew** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 6:05 am

GullyFoyle,

Me, too. See my posting on this forum today, "Object Browser?" (entered before seeing your post).

Did you ever get a reply or further info on this issue?

solmax · Post by **solmax** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 3:05 pm

i also agree. XSI has a nice view/solution for this. the functionality of the OOPS window could be extended, so that the user can switch from icon view to a structed tree-view (like common file-system views). however, tree views are problematic when displaying complex networks with shared data - this leads to large numbers of redundant entries and makes the list longer and harder to read.

marin

Monkeyboi · Post by **Monkeyboi** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 6:13 pm

I had a similar idea a while ago and made these mockups:

Had I thought about it more I would have made the [+] and [-] arrows instead to fit Blenders style.

solmax · Post by **solmax** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 6:37 pm

yes - exactly what i meant. perfect.

Monkeyboi · Post by **Monkeyboi** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 6:42 pm

Heh, yeah I'm also an XSI user, so I admit I was a bit inspired

. Blenders datablock system lends itself extremely well to this system. Each datablock already has a symble and an abbriviation (lamp datablocks are called LA for example).

This would sure help me too.

ilac · Post by **ilac** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 7:18 pm

I like that too. the only problem is that it doesn't show shared data! Any ideas regarding how to solve that problem?

solmax · Post by **solmax** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 7:21 pm

ilac wrote:I like that too. the only problem is that it doesn't show shared data! Any ideas regarding how to solve that problem?

of course it does - notice the "TE: Carpet_tex" entry? this looks like shared data to me. on the other hand - maybe using (yea, as in XSI), italic fonts for shared data might be handy.

marin

ilac · Post by **ilac** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 7:31 pm

solmax wrote:
ilac wrote:I like that too. the only problem is that it doesn't show shared data! Any ideas regarding how to solve that problem?
of course it does - notice the "TE: Carpet_tex" entry? this looks like shared data to me. on the other hand - maybe using (yea, as in XSI), italic fonts for shared data might be handy.

marin

in a list with only 12 entries - sure! But try spotting doubles when your list is longer than what fits on the screen...

A possible solution would be to list the number of users beside each item as is standard in the rest of Blender ie.
0 = no user (will be deleted on close file)
1 = 1 user
2,3 etc = shared data.

Then we could have an option where clicking on the number of the shared data would momentarily highlight the other entries while the mouse is depressed. If the shared data is within a non-collapsed section we could either highlight the visible parent or uncollapse the relevant branch.

solmax · Post by **solmax** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 7:40 pm

however, tree views are problematic when displaying complex networks with shared data - this leads to large numbers of redundant entries and makes the list longer and harder to read.

Monkeyboi · Post by **Monkeyboi** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 7:59 pm

Ilac wrote:A possible solution would be to list the number of users beside each item as is standard in the rest of Blender ie.
0 = no user (will be deleted on close file)
1 = 1 user
2,3 etc = shared data.

good idea ilac! This is better than italic fonts because this is the same system used other places in Blender. It's a good thing to keep things fairly consistant.

ilac · Post by **ilac** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 8:11 pm

solmax wrote:
however, tree views are problematic when displaying complex networks with shared data - this leads to large numbers of redundant entries and makes the list longer and harder to read.

If its orderly and well presented it wont be hard to read. Collapsibility allows to control amount of visable data.

2 more suggestions:
1) What would be a cool system would be the ability to set which type of data is the parent data.
2) the ability to uncollapse only a specific type of data (similar to the current selection buttons in the oops window.

Arathorn · Post by **Arathorn** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 11:24 pm

I like that first mockup, it reminds me of the very usefull model tree in Pro Engineer.

Blender.org

Object Hierarchy Browser

Object Hierarchy Browser

Me, too?