Blender UI paper cuts

Maybe the oldest complaint - I totally concur. I’m sure it’ll be addressed one day.

Shift + A search bar

In other node based programs ( nuke mainly ) hitting the search shortcut automatically allows keyboard input in the “search field” but in blender you have to click the search field. this is a pain as the popup appears to be ready to accept keyboard input but doesn’t. Can this be fixed to make using shift + A default to be ready to accept keyboard input no matter the context?

it would speed up not only node creation, but also object creation if one could just;
hit shift + A
begin typing the node/object they want
hitting enter to create the item on the top of the list

you guys are doing great work and fixing the small things is SO HUGE in getting blender more exposure

thanks

4 Likes

Shift-A is not a search, it’s a menu.
You can add your own hotkey for “Search…” to get what you want.

So I began dabbling with scripts for the first time…

  1. Console “clear all” clears nothing
  2. Print “hello world” prints nothing

I really wish somebody “official” would give the reason – Part of me thinks Python can do it, but another part of me worries that you are right about the fundamental issue with UV…

Wow… a third (or is it fourth?) selection color/state in the Outliner…

image

  • Despite me filtering on name, I see objects without the name.
  • No obvious way on how to select or hide the filtered object.

EDIT: The solution is apparently to hit “A” while the mouse cursor is inside the outliner, but why on earth isn’t this in the right-click menu???

2 Likes

Oh, that reminds me… Pablo Dobarro just posted this:

Since developers almost never post in this thread, or mention this thread, it’s anyone’s guess if that comment includes this thread or not.

Some developers do ask for suggestions, but still I am left wondering if we are just shouting into the void.

@ideasman42 @brecht @billrey @julianeisel @dfelinto

1 Like
  • By default, the box select selects the objects of any geometry you drag across.
  • By default, the circle select selects only objects if you drag across their origins.

This is inconsistent behavior to a beginner. If this is a pro behavior, pros know how to switch. Beginners do not (I’m starting to understand why Ton Rosendaal wanted a “beginner mode”, but just like the “industry compatible keymap”, there could perhaps be a “consistent/logical default” and a “pro-workflow default” instead).

You could add a button to select the opposite hue to the current color.

This is easy to calculate. It can be done with current_value%1 but it doesn’t support module in the input float hue ui property, just support add and subtract operations.

Another way to go is:
if the current value is less than 0.5, add to the current value 0.5 to the hue value, but
if the current value is more or equal to 0.5, then we subtract 0.5 to the hue value.

With a simple button would be much simpler, here my mockup:
color_propose_00 color_propose_01

3 Likes

I back this, it’s frustrating to need to reach for the mouse when I’m renaming collections and objects to organise my LOD groups.

Remove bones names duplicates in the channels,I think they’re really unnecessary and adds more clutter to the editors.

Before
Before
After
After

9 Likes

Upgrading to newer version of (portable) blender requires you to set up your startup file path for the new version. So you open your old blender version and see if there are any hints where the file is. There are none. Blender doesn’t have any way to tell where its current startup file is on your hard drive. Solution is simple. Add new menu option under File>Defaults>Open startup file in file explorer which shows where it is (C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.81\config). Clicking that option opens that link in file browser.

Official guide for startup files is also bad because it doesn’t tell the location of the file. Googling you’ll eventually find a random blender stackexchane question where the path is shown.

The scrollbar for the Toolbar needs to be on the left by default.

And on the Sidebar a few pixels margin away, which overlaps with some of the UI elements, that if you compare it with the other editors like the Outliner for example.

2 Likes

They’ve got a task opened for this, hold tight

If you move the scrollbar to the left, what happens when you swap sidebar and toolbar? You’ll run into the same problem with it being on the wrong side.

Hey guys, this little bug is always bugging me, hehe, every time I make a mantaflow simulation.
That is, in Blender 2.83 (and lower), the small arrow UI that appears on mouseover for the frame selection range in physics tab for fluid mantaflow does not working correctly.

That is, it cannot go down from 1 to 0. Unlike the timeline frame range arrows that work as they should.

(This bug is also present on the “Frame Step” selection range in the Output properties.)

Please, someone, fix this.
Thanks!

1 Like

Hey guys,

I would like to propose a small but significant change in the default Blender start file.

That is the default timeline frame should start at frame 0 and not frame 1.
The way it’s done in every single NLE, (non linear editor), DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro etc.
This is an industry-standard in the video editing world. And Blender should work the same.

I come from the video editing world. And I instantly noticed that. It looks very amateurish.

This should be a very easy fix.
Thanks!

3 Likes

It’s as easy as saving a startup file. So, very very easy.
But I can’t understand where is the amateurish part of all this.
Having start 0 and end at 250 produces 251 frames that in standard fps of 25 makes exactly 10 seconds of footage plus 1 frame. Doesn’t sound very professionalish to me :wink:
Really, we’re talking of frames not seconds, so frame 1 makes more sense than frame 0. Imho frames below 1 are useful for pre-rolling simulations, which is actually a feature I miss more

1 Like

I can tell some projects that one day they discovered that they animations have 1 more frame that necessary because they use 0 frame like origin and they must to change all the animations of the project because that stupid thing break all project

This shouldn’t happen, since start and end frame are saved with the file