Typically I am one who messes up first and then from the chaos I find the solutions for the order …
For some time I have kept many addons activated, with the obvious that it is not possible at present to make good use of them … so I used the filters, which are currently customizable only via workspaces and the various modes, but from this I have heard slightly more customizable needs, depending on the type of work area and also on the working methods I needed…
From this I got an idea that I think is simple to implement but also very powerful …
Customizable presets of addons combinations:
My idea consists in being able to create customizable presets of combinations of addons, which activate sets of addons depending on the user’s needs, the essential thing would be that this can decide to switch from one combination to another according to its needs, and this would solve the problem of the chaos of the addons in a single blow.
the idea can be improved,
Can any of you good with mokups sketching something?
Currently, you can duplicate a workspace, rename it, make another addons combination and instead of loading another preset switch to this new workspace.
You can store workspace into startup.blend file of a template used only to store them.
So, do we really need a preset system for workspace addons config ?
Because currently, we can already really have user templates for both.
Addons config + layout adapted to addons UIs.
I know how it currently works, but I think it’s not enough, or rather I don’t think it’s too effective,
I would prefer to create various presets to work with a certain type of addons at the discretion of my types of work …
for example, if I’m in edit mode, and I want to do solid modeling, I’d rather be able to activate and display a collection of addons useful for solid modeling …
if instead I’m doing organic modeling, I would like to switch to a preset where I collected all the addons useful for organic modeling …
or if I’m doing an animation … I want to be able to select a collection preset of useful addons for animation
and so on…
believe me I have a list with about 30 addons activated, and I don’t want to create a new workspace for every combination of addons I need…
with custom presets, I can from time to time add a new combination of addons gradually as a “sort of quick preference” …
without having to care about the rest of the addons I have on the list …
all this helps me to better memorize my workflow with addons and make a gradual organization …
thanks, it’s exactly something like that i imagined …
obviously the list of presets should then be switchable quickly somewhere … maybe I would propose in 3dview sidebar?
I don’t know if a global or local override is better,
should be studied
Just not “presets of add-ons” but something like “sub-workspaces”. So you have a workspace and several child workspaces that can inherit, for example, current 3d view, mode, current editor size, and so on; but overwrite some other settings, add-ons, hide/show panels, buttons…
Currently, there are Application Templates but you can’t change them on the fly while you’re working. And Workspaces are unable to inherit the current state/settings. In addition, if you create a lot of them will be uncomfortable to switch due to the tabs design and lack of space.
I think most users continue to constantly reconfigure the current workspace, change editors and so on, instead of switching to a different workspace preset.
But when the Filter Add-ons is enabled, many import/export format is disabled for now. It’s a problem.
So I think the “Filter Add-ons” ignore “import/export add-ons”.
I don’t think something too complicated is useful. I honestly thought of something much faster to move from a grouping of add-ons to another, to focus on “work modes” convenience,
for this I thought that the list of switches would be useful to have it in the sidebar, because it is the area where the addons are more concentrated …
We already have the possibility to create all the workspaces we want, what is the use of creating sub-categories in the workspaces?
At present we have 10 default workspaces that contain 12 working modes each …
If I had to commit myself to wanting to configure each workspace so that it contains the right filter for each workspace and each work mode (considering that I can’t create multiple custom filters for a single work mode) I should create 12 filters 10 times … I can’t imagine how long it would take to configure everything cleanly sorting the 30 add-ons I activated for each workspace … and every time I install a new addon I should worry - remember to filter it between the various workspaces and work mode. …
No, I think it’s more useful for me to create global custom presets for the various working mode compatible for all workspaces … and I think I’d be pretty happy with this …
In practice I will be happy to create a bit of order in so much chaos, a little at a time, as I need it …
So I will have a progressive and easy expansion of the order as with the various jobs I create the various presets … without having to worry about configuring everything every time i add an addon
