The asset shelf size and display settings are per-mode because the amount of brushes can be very different. The asset shelf is also shared with the Pose Library in pose mode and animators would use much larger thumbnails with names enabled.
But that decision was also made because many users still do not tend to use Workspaces to customize the UI per task. Instead they change editors and modes and keep everything in one workspace …
Maybe that could change with the Synchronise Workspaces extension as a default feature?
I also don’t know how willing the UI module is to discourage working within a single workspace, especially with the upcoming work on Editor Tabs
I do certainly prefer workspaces over editor tabs, and get the point too, but this feature also feels like something that enables and encourages doing everything in same editor. For paint/sculpt modes it doesn’t matter how many brushes I have, I want size to be same, search bar to be at same place, and etc. Its matter of muscle memory and getting interrupted on every change. And I would honestly be surprised if there are users who set different sizes to different modes.
As for pose assets, I would really discourage doing anim and sculpting in same editor. It makes no sense, there are multiple overlay settings that are needed for each that contradict each other. Design should encourage users to use workspaces more, and this is opposite. It feels to me like we’re just annoying ourselves to allow imaginary user-base their freedom
For whatever it’s worth- I absolutely use different workspace tabs on a constant basis, and almost never rearrage and drag/add/delete different UI windows around. At most, I might split a 3D window in half, to get a different view angle, or change the bottom editor from something like geonode to shader.
I cannot imagine the constant hassle of changing a workspace from “modeling task” to “animation task” by dragging windows around and adding/deleting related editor windows. It’s a good feature that a workspace can be modified in such ways, but all day long? OMG, no.
So i don’t think the shelf should be designed to “work nicely” favoring a strange workflow.
(I do use a synch workspace addon which makes most 3D views sync up, and find it invaluable.)
This, I think anything related to the control of the asset shelf should be individual to the editor and not the mode.
For example, I’ve been working on 4.3 for the last week and everytime I switch to sculpt mode (either on a mesh or a hair curve) the asset shelf pops up immediately on both editors. Usually the second editor (the one on the right, used only for preview, I work on the left one) takes a couple of extra seconds to load all the thumbnails.
Apart from being distracting, it adds to the annoyance that I have to keep closing the asset shelf on that second editor everytime I switch between modes.
IMO Blender should be smart enough to detect on which editor my mouse was positioned when I switch modes and open the asset shelf only on that editor, leaving anything else unchanged.
I agree with this too, I use workspaces all the time, I only split 3d viewports when I need to isolate something I’m working on but need another view of the complete model like in the example above. I haven’t used any addon to sync workspaces though.
EDIT: Just wanted to add, that after a couple of days of continued work on 4.3 I still think the vertical scrolling on a horizontal layout for the asset shelf feels unintuitive. If the shelf is horizontal, scrolling should be horizontal, and viceversa.
I would ask the ability for the “shift” key to use the settings of another smoothing brush.
Currently even if u duplicate the smooth brush change the settings and hotkey, the key will use the default smooth brush.
i would like to have color and palettes seperated from the brush assets itself, not included. avoids having to redo the color whenever i select another brush tool/“asset”. much like gimp. paint with a hard or an airbrush as tools and we paint with plain alphas. and some simple brush parameters. this is not substance smart materials or something.
also desired are animated or randomized image sequences that can be used as masks or perhaps textures including masks. webm video alpha channel support is fixed, so this should work. a greyscale would be enough for an alpha.
also textures and masks specific to a single project blend file or maybe collected in a common asset library. should still be able to be stored and be protected seperately to be linked and used to override a mask. old school on the fly mask switcheroni. you know?!?
Yay for brushes as assets. Now I’d like the option to share a file with someone who does not have my custom brushes, so how might I pack those into my file?
I just came across one thing that the new system changed - that is the Toggle feature that was available for selecting for example the Mask brush. In the previous system it was possible to toggle Mask brush on with M and then toggle back to the previous brush by pressing M again. Now it is not possible. Especially for the Mask tool this might be handy to toggle like this for quickly masking something and returning to sculpting where we left off. Now the user must re-select the previous brush which requires remembering its shortcut or clicking the icon. Generally slower.
@JulienKaspar Is there anything preventing “Alt” to be used to toggle Mask (by default on Blender)? Or is this used too often to the Emulate 3-button mouse?
@JaroslawDzedzej Yeah that and cycling brushes of the same type are keymap operator options that were lost. Would be nice to add support for them again at some point.
@dfelinto Actually since the keymap revamp for 4.0 there are unused shortcuts available for all keymaps to use Alt for the mask brush. It just needs to be supported for the operator.
If there were more “Stroke Modes” we can easily add shortcuts for them:
As such, I’d likely have a bit of a problem with that. Not sure if I’m an exception or if it’s a common practice, but I’ve always had MMB emulation turned on, even tho I have a MMB.
Reason is, the middle button is the scroll wheel, which while it works just fine for scrolling, it is actually a pain (even physically), to press and hold that thing as a button.
I’ve always then, enabled MMB emulating and used left and right buttons with ALT etc to pan/rotate the viewport around, with the MMB only used as said scroll wheel to zoom.
Currently, if there is no other issue than mouse emulation. That could become problematic in the future, for weight paint mode, if way to mask is unified.
Currently, there is no mask brush in Weight Paint mode. In this mode, there is a paint mask based on selected faces or selected vertices.
And Alt Left click is used to select weight group to paint, by selecting bone or mesh.
Now, that we have brush assets stored in catalogs. That would be pertinent to have an operator to cycle brushes according to catalog.
