[Tetsuoo]

Hi Reiner

Little problems I noticed so far :

1. The first thing I did after executing BforArtists was to take a look at the Themes in the Preferences. I like that colored theme you created but unfortunately you can’t go back to it if you choosed any other theme, as it’s not in the presets list (too bad for me). If you push “Default”, it goes back to default Blender theme, not BForArtists theme. So I had to use a new fresh version of the program and save a new ‘BForArtist’ preset. Not good.

2. The EditorType Icon is gone for some panels while it’s still there for others, for some reason. It’s there when you create a new panel though, which seems logical after all, but kind of disturbing at first. But no big deal overall.

3. Wrong hotkey ?

E = Rotation

R = Scale

Why this choice ? Blender, Maya, or Zbrush, would use E as scale and R as Rotation, while 3DS Max go the other way. Why, I have no idea. But that may be misleading the Blender fanboys even more… Just saying S for Scale, E for Extrude and R for Rotation kinda make more sense to me. Oh well.

4. While the layer system in Blender is still odd to me, I wonder why the simple Ctrl+C to Ctrl+V combo is not available anymore in BFA ? M for Move won’t work either (I also tried Ctrl+X). How do you copy or Move an object to another layer ?

Note: I’m testing BForArtists ver.0.4.0 (based on Blender 2.76)

[Reiner]

Hey, thanks for your observations

For the future, you can also directly file a bug report when you want, and make it directly an issue in the tracker. Just click the Report Bug link in the help menu of Bforartists. It leads to the Bforartists tracker

 

1. The first thing I did after executing BforArtists was to take a look at the Themes in the Preferences. I like that colored theme you created but unfortunately you can’t go back to it if you choosed any other theme, as it’s not in the presets list (too bad for me). If you push “Default”, it goes back to default Blender theme, not BForArtists theme. So I had to use a new fresh version of the program and save a new ‘BForArtist’ preset. Not good.

That’s indeed bad. Issue created:  http://www.bforartists.de/content/add-standard-bfa-theme-and-standard-blender-theme-themes

it goes back to default Blender theme, not BForArtists theme.

 Yikes! Issue created: http://www.bforartists.de/content/reset-default-theme-resets-default-blender-theme

2. The EditorType Icon is gone for some panels while it’s still there for others, for some reason. It’s there when you create a new panel though, which seems logical after all, but kind of disturbing at first. But no big deal overall.

The idea to hide the editor type menu is to free some space. And to give newcomers less confusion by fewer available elements. The concept of Bforartists is simplicity. Even for experienced users this menu is mostly visual noise, eating space for no reason. When you want to UV map, then you usually switch to the UV mapping layout. To permanently change the layout and to pull around editors for normal workflow is one of the diseases that i want to cure with Bforartists.

But you can display the Editortype menu if you want. Right click at a free space in the menu bar, then untick Hide Editortype Menu. And the menu is back showing. See screenshot

3. Wrong hotkey ?

E = Rotation

R = Scale

Why this choice ? Blender, Maya, or Zbrush, would use E as scale and R as Rotation, while 3DS Max go the other way. Why, I have no idea. But that may be misleading the Blender fanboys even more… Just saying S for Scale, E for Extrude and R for Rotation kinda make more sense to me. Oh well.

Welcome to the world of keymap design

I cannot care for Blender hotkeys and habits. They are part of the problem. I have to break them! And a new hotkey map is a special minefield. Everybody has another opinion here. The oldtime Blender users users hates change. Why relearn what works? One of the reasons why Blender is stuck with more than one bad thing. The Blender developers tries to develop a new keymap since many years now, since the 2.5 series, and with several developers involved. And did not manage it yet. I could manage it since i am not bound to any limits. I was able to start really from scratch.

The reason why i personally have chosen W E and R is that the order of the navigation tools is translation, rotation, scale. And so i follow this pattern at the keyboard too. W is translation, then one key to the right becomes rotation, which is E, and one more key to the right becomes scale. The R key. That way the navigation keys are all in one row, and besides each other. The design principle behind this has even an official name, it is called homerow

And then we need of course another key for extrude now that E is occupied with rotate. So you start to have a look what hotkey makes most sense here. And so on. That way the keymap has grown up to the current point

The problem with assigning hotkeys corresponding to the first letter of the tool can be seen with the default Blender keymap. S for scale, R for Rotate, and m … , oh wait, it’s G, for Granslate? Anyways. The main problem is it is not in a row, and not even close to each other. And so you have to look down to the keyboard if you have your finger at the right key.

4. While the layer system in Blender is still odd to me, I wonder why the simple Ctrl+C to Ctrl+V combo is not available anymore in BFA ? M for Move won’t work either (I also tried Ctrl+X). How do you copy or Move an object to another layer ?

Whoopsie, seems that i have broken something here. Thanks for this bug report. I will have a look at it

Issue created: http://www.bforartists.de/content/move-other-layer-features-broken

I am still busy with fundamentals like double menu entries and stuff. I just slowly come to the workflow issues now. We will surely discover even more roadblocks. But that’s development. Bforartists isn’t really ready for productive work yet

Note that it may need a pretty while until the fixes arrives. I don’t have a nightly build like Blender, and work alone ^^

Kind regards

Reiner

[Tetsuoo]

Thanks I didn’t know about homerow (at least not the word). After more than 20 years using a computer I still look down on the keyboard haha xD

[Reiner]

Yeah, me too, that’s the problem with hotkeys at all

[Reiner]

4. While the layer system in Blender is still odd to me, I wonder why the simple Ctrl+C to Ctrl+V combo is not available anymore in BFA ? M for Move won’t work either (I also tried Ctrl+X). How do you copy or Move an object to another layer ?

Hm. Cannot reproduce the copy and paste problem. I tried it, and copy and paste with ctrl + c and v between the layers works fine.

What is of course missing is the M menu. It’s a popup, which i have removed. I could have a look if i can resurrect it, and put it into the tool shelf. But then not longer as a popup but fixed integrated. Will do some tests

[Author]

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