Menu configurability: make all of them editable

[pitibonom]

Hi guyz

Am an old blender user…
I started using it on nux in its 2.30 version on a small pentium laptop running a Mandrake

Since this blender walked a long road ! and even if changes used to make me rumble, i never stopped using it.

The recurring idea that was mine when using blender along all those years was:
<< This would be so good if GUI was changeable/scalable >>

All the blender windowing system early came fully configurable ( i remember the 2.49 that i 1st used to set-up-windows at each new install ). This was really user-friendly.
Of course this is still a mandatory feature to me in 2.9 but IMHO it’s time to blender to go far ahead !

I think this personalization feature helped a lot blender to be accepted in the 3D CGI community. But many will agree with me that now 2.9 ( well this was also true for 2.49 ) offer/shows far too much features to a user.
Lemme explain:

• the guy who only does rigging/anim just don’t care with rendering and mesh edition
• If i unwrap models, i do not care with hair, modifiers, physics, particles, etc…
• when adjusting parameters for fluid or cloth simulation, the most rough render is mandatory and even EEVEE is out of topic
• a film maker using cam traveling and post effects do not care the texture, mesh, material, physics, etc tabs…

Few of us always and usually use all the features. and even if you’re alone making all things you must cut all the TO-DOs in smaller parts, changing each time the workflow.
And i hardly talk about this as i do not use all the blender features.

This is why i come here with this question/request:
It would be awesome that every visual menu ( eg The T or N menu in 3D view or the tabs in properties or the view mode ( wireframe —> render ) in 3D view again ) could be configurable.
I mean that user could for example R-CLICK on a button and choose 'hide because it’s useless to me".

Programmatically it’s only a boolean added to the button I know behind it will add lots of python code for display handling.

Why i know this would be a great thing ?
BECAUSE IT WILL BE !!! lol

• Can Ton imagine how feels a noob 3D student when he 1st opens blender ?
• Can he even imagine me, a 15+ years old user, lost in 2.9 when i use 2.79 since… well 4 ? 5 years ?
• Can he think about my frustration when i hit Z in 3D view ? I haven’t save my work, hit Z for solid draw and misses the pie and go to mat preview !!! 15 minutes to wait till i can save/kill blender/or hit Z again to go back to wireframe ?

Windows configurability is absolutely awesome. I think now it’s also time to set up menus configurability.

Imagine you work on a sub-workflow with only what you need ( because you choosed the ‘only what you need’ )
Imagine the productivity growth for any of the users !
Imagine the 12 yold kid or girl opening the ‘blender 4 dumb noob’ and say << OMG this is damn so easy !!! >>

Blender is targetted each day to more and more features. IMHO it’s time to set up the ‘user friendly&easy’ feature.
This could be loaded just as themes are… teachers could make the setup for their students and could progressively load the mule with more features according to students knowledge/curiosity

So many things…

This is kinda message in a bottle

May some find and read it

Regards and happy blending !

[jenkm]

It would be nice if you could use a more descriptive topic titles.

---

It’s kind of already possible, with “Application Templates”.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/advanced/app_templates.html

For a more user-friendly (without scripting) implementation, it would be nice to see some mockups / suggestions. There should be a menu that allows you to hide/show panels. How to deal with the fact that panels are dynamically displayed depending on the context or object type…

I’m not sure about the ability to hide each button separately, (for me) it seems overkill. But, for example, custom panels where you can put frequently used items is a good idea.

T73178 Menu Editor for Quick Favorites
T68885 Customize favorite panels in the viewport

GSoC 2020: Custom Menus - Weekly Reports

[pitibonom]

Yes i agree for the title @jenkm

I didn’t even know about app templates.
Sounds to me like multiple preferences files handling ? Is there more to this ?

I’m okay with the themes, colors, addons, and for me viewport lighting should be tightly specified as it appears to me that there’s anything and even more in this 3D view menu

Quick favorites sounds nice to me but don’t seem to be aimed at cleaning/rationalizing the interface.
I didn’t try it out and then i dont know what i speak of but…
Adding one more menu intended to be my favs isn’t my basic idea.

Your later post seduces me much more than others hehehe
But i have to confess i’m like a lil ant watching at the stars on those reports.

Even if i know that everyone is able to get used of any HMI i keep beeing critic on most of them and
i think i first have to introduce myself for explanation
Years ago ( and for years ) i designed & developped HMI for planes digital instruments.
They are information panels that have to give a pilot all its needed info in just an eye shot, according to the plane satus & environment. Landing needs different info than taking off.
Info has to be as short and info-providing as possible ( this is why, without giving details, needles are far more info-providing than digits ).
In this work my sentence ( that my staff heard a billion time XD ) was: Simplicity is the highest sophistication.
It’s not from me, it’s from Leonardo Da-Vinci. But it’s always damn true.
Enough about me, and back to Blender

No mistake for my sight on Blender. I use to rumble, want some more features here, less features here… I love this tool whatever its weaknesses are.

I recently switched to 2.9 ( simply because cycles finally works almost properly in 2.9 ) and felt like in other former versions that it had too many things shown at the same time.
My words here are just because the interface core code is quite mature and could be changed without months of coding just adding some boolean prop to each menu & button and handling the show/hide in python.

Though i think i dream ( and btw i’m getting used with the 2.9 interface ) and as you talked about mockup, here’s a lil shot, only about the 3D view.

Note that i use 2 display screens and mouse/keyboards ( and am eager to keep keyboard shortcuts )

The current interface in object mode:

[pitibonom]

<< sorry new users can only post 1 image per post>>
LMAO what shitty candle economy !!! These are those kind of ‘smallness’ that piss me off…

----> the following of my previous post:

And here’s what i dream of in object mode for the 3D view:

Of course this deserves looong writings and eager discussions
But as i think it will mostly make devs laugh i wont go further
… for now

Happy blending !