Colour coded icons

This type of context sensitive relantionship between the outliner and the properties editor is something I’ve been dreaming of since forever. So yeah, +1000 to that workflow.

Will we see anything of that approach in 2.8, or will it be taken care of in a later release?

It’s actually more complicated than it sounds. Users may have several Properties Editors open at a time. How would Blender determine which one gets affected when you pick datablocks in the Outliner? You would think it would be the one just below the Outliner, but in Blender you can subdivide the screen however you want.

A toggle “sync with Outliner” will do the job.

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I was going to write an improved pinning system but I think it’s the same thing

I find the vertical better and easier on the eyes. The mockups shows to much attention goes to the group or the curly brackets. Perhaps softer tone or color would be better. But why not drop the last one, 2 is taking more space than one. And use a single curly brackets also shows its a collection of something. You see this done in many design items. They use curly brackets to show a group or a gathering of objects or items. I think that will look great in a soft grey tint.

See quick adjustment

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This would do the job! A user who is experienced enough to change the layout for any special needs, should understand the concept of using a toggle to “sync with Outliner” .

It could be a RMB option of each icon in the properties manager, or a RMB option for a full properties manager.

Toggle for each icon (RMB) would be handy, because you could set up a single properties manager to have a switching behavior when clicking on materials in the outliner, and at the same time to have a non switching behavior when (accidentally) clicking on a modifier or something else in the outliner.

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Maybe this is easier to find. Also space is sufficient without looking crammed.

That solution is not unreasonable IMO. I wouldn’t have it as an always-visible toggle, but in the contextual menu like that it could work I think.

Does Blender use a common font for GUI? I’d like to recreate the look in Inkscape to bring my mockups’ appearance to the original as much as possible.
If so - is the font avaliabme for download?

This is a major issue for new users of blender. I know it was for me. Even now after using Blender on many projects, I don’t see a need to have a separate selection for the outliner and 3d view.

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I assume we came to a conclusion, that separate selection in editors and Outliner will go away. My sketches will from now on illustrate the state in which the object selected in Outliner will be selected in the editor and vice versa. In this context, we will deal with the postulated state “selected” = “editable / under editing”. We can distinguish two states: “selected and editable” and “edited (activated appropriated edition mode)”.

And now more pictures of Candy Crusch Outliner!
From the left: nothing selected, Object mode, Mesh ObData in Edit mode.
I made many iterations with different visual accents, but with only three of them I was pleased enough to share them:

A - the clearly underlined edition modes dominate over the other marked blocks of data:

B - edition modes less prominent, but it’s still my favourite one:

C - kinda like ver. B, but edition modes are more extragerrated but somehow messy:

Mind that on all sketches Modifier and Material blocks are highlighted only for the Active Object. It’s like that, because I can not imagine editing of different Materials / Modifiers / Constraints, at the same time.
After synchronizing the Properties Editor with the Outliner, it should be possible to automatically switch to the Properties Editor tab corresponding to the clicked Modifier / Material / Object / other data. Clicking on Modifier or Material assigned to another Object, should change this Object to Active, highlight all materials assigned to it: modifiers, constraints and so on and finally open the appropriate Properties Editor tab.
Same thing with ObData - taping Mesh ObData block should mark its Object as Active. Double click should do the same and then enter Edit mode. Double clicking on a ObData shall work with multiple Objects selected as well. Klicking more ObData with Shift-key should add them to current Edit mode session.

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First off, i didnt read through the thread yet, but the mockups posted here look awefull, sorry.
Looks like Las Vegas at night, its wayyyyy too noisy.

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Other fast mockup
I forgot to highlight with another color tone the active object, but I think you can understand the idea
I think it’s more elegant than using circles that dirty the visibility.

Unselected | object mode selected | edit mode
mockup_outliner

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I agree with You about the cleariness, but ther’re many situations, when only an aicon is visible, with no text - I tried simple making it just lighter and didn’t find it sufficeint enough (No 1).
4f6d8f1dd6232a096b4a8eea810ea47bd2311dec
Besides No2 doesn’t follow the rule.
The Las Vegas effect gbothers me as well. It’s kinda ugly, I must confess. -We’re still in progress! It looks like some more research has to be done.

Even if it’s just an icon it’s quite saturated with respect to the rest and it is most luminosity I think it could work, anyway that would be almost an exception, it would happen very few times.

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It’s not an exception - in heavy loaded scenes You muyst be able to spot at a glance, that an ObData is selected, even if it’s inside collapsed Collection.

In any case with so many colored circles I don’t distinguish anything at a glance, the other way is most clear. Difficult to distinguish between a round icon and a selected icon

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Anyway wait untill tomorrow - now I can’t work on this, but I deffinitely will take Your ideas into consideration.

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I’m not sure if could do something, but is more elegant and subtle like that. Like the typical corners of a boundinbox. Is another idea.
mockup_2

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