But you have to wait for the menu to appear and then you have to reorient (or orient) - take a look at where the menu is, register the rectangle like you wrote. This might be very quick but it still adds a certain delay. With fixed menu I can actually get away with moving the cursor miliseconds before I right-click so technically I am not waiting for it. And I don’t have to orient or gauge any rectangle because I can make pretty good guess. The cursor is already on its way to the spot. This is why fixed menus are much quicker. With non-fixed menus you also task your brain with a little bit of extra processing - I know this is not much but it can add up. Working with fixed menus feel smoother. And that is important too. It’s not just about speed. I would rather think more about say topology than focusing on UI behavior.
But I think at this point this is just hair-splitting. The bottom line is that there is a perceptible delay when working with shifting menus. The experience is not as quick and smooth as with fixed menus no matter how you approach or adapt to shifting menus. Try using a well designed fixed context menus in another application for a while and then go back to Blender. You will see the difference. At least that is my opinion.
Like I said i will gladly trade this for quicker fixed context menus. I know I can’t have everything. There are also other ways and alternatives how to deal with those situations, also the repeat operation could be improved but that is for another papercut or thread.
There’s nothing wrong with cherry picking a very important (at least for me) context menu albeit from older version. This context menu is very important for me. This is where the fixed behavior would really shine. Simple, quick, intuitive. It should be brought back to Blender 2.8.
Why should it be a pie menu? That’s on every user to decide that. Pie menus are great but short context menus are often quicker (you don’t have to reach for any key and even remember any key).
Exactly. This is what I also wanted to say. When you are switching between various applications it is much smoother workflow when the basic UI and UX principles are harmonized.
Another compromise could be to make the context menus fixed only in the “industry standard keymap”. I personally would be OK with that because I will use the industry standard keymap.
Or just to make at least a switch in the preferences for those of us that like the fixed menus better.
To Antoiz: I don’t want to take this feature away from you. If it works for you that is all that matters but it doesn’t work for me. That’s why detailed options and switches work wonders. Everyone can fine tune their UI and be happy.
It’s subconscious, if you’re at the point where you’d be moving fast enough that you’ve memorised an entire context menu’s worth of options.
I do it all day in any other application I might use, browsers, image editors, whatever. Still prefer blender’s menus, because 99% of the time when using a context menu, I haven’t memorised the exact location of the item I want, besides a general area, and working off the location based on viewing the menu works in both settings. It also gets thrown off less by menus getting opened upwards instead of downwards when near the bottom of a window, and by menu reordering because of context.
Why does everyone seem to think that you need to click on the option, or press a key to select an item with a pie menu?
You release the button you pressed to bring the pie menu up whilst vaguely hovering in the direction of the item you want - literally nothing is faster and more forgiving of accuracy.
Good idea, it’s the perfect place for conventions people can’t let go of.
Plenty of people keep arguing ‘this is terrible ux’ ‘that is awful usability’, no, it’s just not what you want. These things weren’t designed this way without any thought, blender didn’t break conventions, and keep them broken, for no purpose.
We’re actually discussing the wrong thing. We are discussing a specific (unsuccessful) solution to the problem, but should talk about the problem itself. So the problem is “quick repeat action”, right?
The first solution is Repeat History… function, which can be improved and be more smart.
The second solution, you call the menu with a hotkey, pressing this key again will repeat the last operation. Very logical, repeat (hotkey) to repeat (operation).
Opening the menu to the last used operator does much more than that, it also handles similar work, for instance, if you’re marking edges, creases, seams, sharp are all nearby in the menu.
It’s not a solution to a problem, it’s a different way of working with context menus, born out of the most common ways they’re used and accessed. That being, for infrequent random operators, which you search the list for either way, and working with several similar operators that are each in a menu. And so they’re designed such that similar operators are grouped, and the last used operator which is therefore near similar related operators, is closest to the mouse when opened.
The menus order and positioning isn’t meant for the quickest muscle-memory access to random operators, because that’s impossible, and there are other solutions for that. Hotkeys, pie menus, favourites, and the single-letter hotkeys within the menus themselves handles that.
Give the people who designed these things in the first place a little more credit.
Repeat history is slow, and involves searching through a vague list, and automatically repeating the last menu item upon opening the menu again would not only just cause problems, but wouldn’t work in the same situation that the repeat operator doesn’t work, when using other operators between.
Positioning mouse cursor on last used function in menu makes sense because often you use similar functions around it. It makes it faster and less frustrating. Can’t imagine to see cursor on top all the time.
Nooo! I really like this part of Blender! Apparently this comes down to personal preference. So, if anything, an option to disable this behavior could be added to the user preferences.
I think you misunderstood me. I am talking about a key you have to press to call (bring up) a pie menu, not about a selecting an option from the pie menu.
Slightly moving my thumb and presing the right-click button on my Wacom Intuos stylus is still quicker than reaching for a key. In addition I don’t have to move my hand away from the Alt key which I use for navigation. When it comes to that I can do it even in pitch black (joking).
I agree that pie menus are quick and forgiving and all that but in Blender you cannot call/trigger them with a simple mouse click instead of context menus. If I could set up Blender to bring up a pie menu instead of normal context menu when I just right-click on an object (no keys involved) that would be even better. I guess that could be my next feature request. - user configurable context pie menus. Or just let me choose what triggers what. But that might be some low level stuff not easily exposed to user configuration. I don’t know.
This would be similar to Maya context marking menu which is pretty damn fast and thought out because you just right click (and hold) on an object and you can go directly to vertices, edges, faces or even switch component and object modes - all within one simple right-click marking menu (not possible in Blender):
It’s not about not letting go. It’s just that everyone is different and prefers different UX and methods. A good professional software should respect that and give users more options. I actually started my first 3D experiments (back in the day) with Blender and I didn’t like the UI. When I tried Maya I was in awe how much easier and logical can 3D software be. The old versions of Blender never really clicked with me. So this is not a case where I am “just used to industry standard” and not able to let go.
And I am not the type to say that certain UX decisions in Blender completely suck and are without any thought. These decisions are just not compatible with the way I (and certain people) work. And no amount of “getting used to them” will make them better or quicker. Like I said every user finds his/her best workflow. Now it is up to Blender to even allow us that.
Personally I am never for total removal of options. I almost always ask developers to “add an option” or “make a switch” because I don’t want to take anyone’s favorite workflow away. I, myself, would not be happy if it happened to me. For example I don’t care for right-click selection at all but I am glad that it has stayed as an option. This makes Blender richer and can attract more users because everyone can fine tune their UX. Blender has still a long way to go when it comes to pleasing wide range of users but I would say it is on the right track.
I don’t see any reason why context menus could not be (re)designed and used for rapid access. As far as bringing them up they are the fastest thing in Blender. Why not make use of this speed if the user wants to? Like I said let the users decide what suits them best.
If you bring up a pie menu, the last selected option is highlighted in the exact same color as your current selection. If your cursor is somewhere between those highlighted items it is quite confusing. It is not immediately clear what is selected and what is just marked as last option:
It would be great to have an option to turn off this last option marker or paint it with another color.
I’d like to suggest the Mesh Options (when in Mesh mode) be in the 3D view along with other object / mesh dropdowns. (I had to search online for the Automerge option in 2.8)
I have placed it inline with some of the object / mesh related dropdowns in the 3D view of my screengrab (below)
Ahhh, I finally found auto merge, thanks!!! So yeah I agree or would at least wish icons like in 2.79 would return. I think it would make a great use of the empty space if all of those options where laid out in a similar way to the left side. Them being tucked in away in drop downs made them feel disconnected as if they relate more to the scene, layers, or something.
In the modal map for the cursor tools, there are two shortcuts. One is a “place cursor” on left click, and the other is a move or transform.translate operator with “transform cursor” option ticked. This operator moves the cursor. Since the cursor also has an orientation now, this option might as well also exist in the transform.rotate operator so we can assign it to some shortcut and rotate the cursor if we need to.
