‘Filter Add-ons’ is a hot mess. We all know it.
PROBLEM
Currently Blender ships with around 100 add-ons; if you install the ‘testing’ category as well.
I also scour sites such as 'blender-addons.org, gumroad.com, blendermarket.com, etc. My add-ons are getting close to 200 at this point. The list in each workspace has become unmanageable. I have a few ideas of how this could be remedied; any of them alone would be better than the current situation, but shooting to do more than one would be ideal.
SOLUTION
- It would seem logical, and hopefully not to intensive to execute; to have drop-down menus like we have in the properties panels.
- Each addon already has a prefix that is included in its description, (Mesh, Object, Curve, etc); make that how it is categorized by default. This would clean up this single long list into manageable nested groups. So you don’t have to scroll for 1 min+ to get to the bottom, where your newly installed add-on is waiting to be checked (in each workspace).
- Optional: Allow the user to make their own categories; and change how they group add-ons to their own choosing. I imagine this ideally, to involve leaving a section in a standardized add-on preference panel; where the user could change the prefix that then automatically finds the appropriate folders with the same name (in the add-ons folder)- which create the custom named categories in the properties or n-panel. (*I’m not certain if this would work with it being a python directory.) Even just allowing user folders/groups that could be renamed in the UI panel; is a great step short of any of these other niceties.
*Optional No. 2) -Why isn’t there a ‘search’ field at the top of this list? If there was; it should act similar to when you install new add-ons in the preference panel; auto-populating with the last installed plugin.
The following screenshot shows the endless list in the N-panel; with the preferred type of drop down menu to the right of it in the Properties Panel.
