General Category > Ongoing Anim8or Development

Fast Selection

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Raxx:
That is the same behavior with widgets. Only one widget would be shown for all of the selected objects, located in the centerpoint. All selected objects would be moved in unison when clicking and dragging on that widget.

Rotation and scaling may or may not be different. Anim8or rotates/scales multiple objects around their individual pivots. Blender rotates/scales around the centerpoint between all the objects by default (as if grouped), but has various pivot options that can do like what Anim8or does. XSI does the same as Anim8or by default, but has a "Center of Geometry" option that allows it to transform around the centerpoint like by default in Blender. I'm sure it varies between programs. I think there's a feature request for centerpoint manipulation, so that's something to consider as a toggleable option.

Steve:
Thanks for the explanation - I think that would work quite well. I need to watch at a few more you-tube tutorials on these apps. If you have any suggestions for good tutorials let me know.

thecolclough:

--- Quote from: Steve on April 21, 2014, 12:45:56 pm ---Currently Anim8or moves all selected objects in unison - is this capability important enough to preserve?
--- End quote ---
yes, it's definitely important enough!  i use this all the time.


--- Quote from: Raxx on April 20, 2014, 01:11:04 pm ---You can no longer deselect shapes by clicking in the empty workspace.
--- End quote ---
i think this might actually make sense when using tools other than Select, but i find it gets quite frustrating when using the Select tool itself


--- Quote from: Steve on April 20, 2014, 11:10:09 pm ---One advantage of the original design was that you didn't risk accidentally deselecting anything when moving or rotating something.
--- End quote ---
in my brief experimentation with Fast Select, i have found this to be an issue, particularly if you're trying to work on an shape which is partially or fully hidden behind/inside another shape; you end up changing selection to the foreground/surrounding shape instead of performing the intended modification.  the problem can be avoided by clicking in empty space, but only if there happens to be any empty space in the workspace at the time, which won't necessarily always be the case.


--- Quote from: Raxx on April 21, 2014, 01:56:05 am ---
--- Quote ---Uniformity in the interface is important. The more one tool works like another the easier Anim8or is to learn and use. What about using the original Select tool semantics for Move, Rotate, etc.? I'd have to remove the ability to move in the Z direction (i.e. into/out of the screen) with the right mouse button because that button would add shapes to the selection.
--- End quote ---

I was thinking about that. The fast selection disrupts that uniformity. The original select tool semantics applied to fast selection would feel a bit odd to me, personally. I can't imagine right-click and dragging to both add a new object to the selection and move it with the selection at the same time. And middle-click dragging to remove and move? Seems like it'd feel weird.
--- End quote ---
hear hear!  i'd much rather keep the z-move functionality.

now, just thinking out loud here - this might be a bit out of the blue, but thought i'd put it out there anyway: i can't remember off the top of my head whether ctrl+click or shift+click in the workspace does anything at the moment (correct me if i'm forgetting something here?), so i'm wondering whether, rather than having a Quick Select as such, it might be a good idea to use ctrl, shift or alt as a quick toggle back to the Select tool?  ???

Raxx:

--- Quote ---now, just thinking out loud here - this might be a bit out of the blue, but thought i'd put it out there anyway: i can't remember off the top of my head whether ctrl+click or shift+click in the workspace does anything at the moment (correct me if i'm forgetting something here?), so i'm wondering whether, rather than having a Quick Select as such, it might be a good idea to use ctrl, shift or alt as a quick toggle back to the Select tool?
--- End quote ---

My issue with falling back to modifier keys all the time to trigger alternate behavior is that it gets harder and harder to remember what the modifier keys do, if they do anything at all, and it's not very beginner friendly (think about Blender). With different alternate behaviors per tool, it kind of gets messy. Shift-clicking with snap-to-grid turned on does relative grid snapping. Ctrl-clicking with single select does paint-selecting. Ctrl+Shift adds selections when using other tools (falls back to the original tool when released).

Also, if widgets get implemented, then having modifier keys to toggle between fast/normal selection might make things even messier. It'd basically be three transformation systems in one. If widgets get implemented, it may be best to have fast selection/tweaking the primary system, and remove the original selection system altogether. This way the workflow would be like this:

* Click on move/rotate/scale.
* Click and drag elements around for instant manipulation
* Click on move/rotate/scale.
* Click on an object to select it.
* Click-drag on the widget to carefully manipulate it along the chosen axis
With the above system using a combination of only fast selection and widgets, there's no longer a need for the select tool since move/rotate/scale can perform that function, and you can perform careful precise actions with the widgets or make fast adjustments with fast selection. Ctrl can still be used to paint selections, Shift can be changed to rectangle select. Using the Ctrl paint selection tool, inverse selection (subtracting selected shapes and adding unselected shapes to the current selection) can be an inherent feature, thus replacing the middle/right click semantics of the original selection system. Relative snapping with grid snap can be changed to Ctrl+Shift, or instead toggled by right-clicking the button (change it to a different color?--can be the start of alternate function capability by right-clicking buttons). With this, you'd be simplifying the left user interface by removing the select, rectangle select, and non-uniform scale buttons, freeing up the middle and right mouse buttons for future features, and modifier keys share the same type of behavior, promoting that uniformity Steve speaks of ;)

Steve, I don't really have a library of tutorials to show, but I can probably put together a quick video showing the widget actions in the programs I have installed.

Steve:
Raxx, no need to make any tutorials.  I've found several that show what I was looking for.

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