I suggest posting the issue as a paper cut.
A feature I would love is a RMB context option in the outliner to open the blendfile that contains a linked group or object. It is so hard to quickly make an edit for linked stuff. Maybe this is more relevant for the asset manager? I donât know⌠but in the meantime it would help.
6 Likes
Regardless if such an option is âeventuallyâ provided with an asset manager, it still would be useful to do such from the outliner. (Maybe an override âmodified material settingsâ could be created and an override input with save as options, such as save as material, save as material override, etc.)
This would allow the user to maintain a base material and the ability to create various overrides for the base material or save as a new material or save over the preexisting material.
? Asset manager + Overrides + Outliner ?
2 Likes
Hi Nathan,
it will be nice to have an isolate selected button ( what the â/â button do in 3d view) that
will do the same thing also to Collection .
and it will be amazing if it will isolate the objects in the outliner also.
Also i find it very confusing that filters work in View Layer mode and not in Scenes mode
The Scenes mode is what most 3d app users calls outliner.
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Maybe adding the isolate selection and the corresponding hotkey from 3D view to the outliner could be considered as a paper cut?
Seems if such additions to the outliner are being requested and implemented; the outliner would become a very useful and powerful asset to Blender.
Hmm⌠Blender devs release Everything nodes and end up developing Everything outliner via forum discussions.
Everything outliner: to control them all â The one ring: to rule them all.
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@AlanNoble 3D view highlight previews have been suggested, but on searching, not mouse over. I like the idea, though I donât know how well it fits into Blenderâs design. (preselection highlighting doesnât really existâŚ)
Thanks for the reminder, I havenât gotten around to all the modifier keys yet. My primary focus is syncing selection right now.
Yes, I like that idea a lot! Not sure what is planned for the asset manager, but it could be a good temporary feature.
@alonabrany @Dev1 Not entirely sure how local view is implemented, or if having it also apply to the outliner is the intended behavior. This has been brought up enough though that it may be an issue.
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The command would be like an inverse of the hide selected object command.
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The command could act as an override or modifier for the outlinerâs display object; toggling off the display view icons for the nonselected objects. 1a. Added functionality maybe advisable. See Examples.
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Adding a current view/view override dialogue box would help resolve issues with users not knowing what happened when the override is accidently used. (The current view/view override would show the current view and âif activeâ the view override statues.)
Examples:
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Current View / Override: Ortho (Front) / Display Selected (The object(s) are selected/highlighted in the outliner and the nonselected objectsâ viewport visibility in the outliner are toggled off.)
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Current View / Override: Ortho (Front) / Display NonSelected (The object(s) selection/highlight are inverted in the outliner and the objectsâ viewport visibility in the outliner are also inverted.) 1a.
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Current View / Override: Ortho (Front) / Display All
(The current object(s) selected/highlighted remain selected/highlighted and All the objectsâ viewport visibilities in the outliner are toggled on.) 1a. -
Current View / Override: Ortho (Front) / Display None
(The current object(s) selected/highlighted remain selected/highlighted and All the objectsâ viewport visibilities in the outliner are toggled off.) 1a.
An outliner master (overrides) panel for view, render, etc. could be implemented. (Think about how Photoshop, Gimp, etc. have a master layers panel.)
This could eliminate most of if not all of the individual object control icons next to the object in the outliner.
If implemented; making selected, nonselect, viewport: display on, viewport: display off, etc. searchable catagories in the outliner would be useful.
I have some other ideas for an outliner UX. I could post them later.
I donât know if it was talked about but parenting objects using outliner still sucks in 2.8. Dragging multiple objects to a parent moves only one object to the parent. Same happens when dragging out of the parent. Please fix this!
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This has already been mentioned several times, and is already listed in the GSOC wiki page.
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Copypaste from CommunityâŚ
a) Unical names through ALL collections itâs meh.
b) If you rename element and new name already used, you just get old name after Enter. So you need again DoubleClick and type one more new name. Itâs annoying.
c) Blender definitely need using another unical IDs for elements than names.
d) It will be good if click on collection will select all its contains.
e) Selection between Outliner and Editor/Layout window definitely need synchronization. Both ways.
a-c is a part of one issue by the way. However, I guess itâs more core problem than Outliner.
d and e I guess are already reviewed in case we have great OutlinerIdeas page.
And I agree with Idea that Outliner (and Blender at all, actually) need more standard selection/deselection ways (Shift+Click, Ctrl+Click, Shift+ArrowUp, Shift+ArrowDown).
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@MrBeep Iâll work on it this summer 
@ZoolooS a) Not sure what you mean by this one. b) When I try this, the object I rename has the name I typed, and the old object with the same name gets a number on the end. c) This could be nice. Might be a large redesign though⌠not sure. d) That has been suggested quite often, It could be done. Iâm at the part of the synced selection implementation needs to make decisions like these. e) Working on it
About a)
You can not have 2 or more objects in different collections (or in same) with same names. Object names unical for all file/scene. So you have to use prefixes/suffixes in names to be shure it all unical.
b-c) Hmm, tried that yesturday and was sure that name just reseted to old. Rechecked just now and it work like you said. Anyway, it will be cool if we can have same names. But I guess for that Blender must assign unique (hidden or not) IDs for objects instead unique names. And this is core issue, not Outliner, I guess.
About auto suffix. It might be checkbox somewhere like âAuto Add number-suffixâ.
For B) it sounds super-weird that if I rename something to the same as another object that one changes name too. If anything the one currently renamed should got a number to its end.
This would also be an easy way to rename multiple objects in numeric order by just typing the part without the number - that would be automatically growing with each new object.
(This might be whatâs already happening but in a very weird order - constantly changing the numberless one)
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Iâ not sure about this. Iâd rather have a âselect contentsâ in right-click menu because usually when I select a collection itâs only to make it active, make sure new collections will be created under it. I donât want to lose my selection state at this point.
Agreed. I only noticed that because it was mentioned here⌠had to check if it happened the same in 2.7x - sure enough it does. I donât think itâs very reliable to have the unselected object change name instead of the one being renamed. In large scenes it could lead to accidental renamings that would easily go unnoticed. Iâm surprised I didnât notice this before actually. o_o
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Clicking on a collection already has a function: it sets the collection to active. (Meaning: that is where new objects or collection are created, or linked/appended/imported geometry is placed, etc.) I donât necessarily want to select all the objects in it. As @Hadriscus says: as a right-click-menu option it makes more sense.
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@Hadriscus @Zsolt_St I agree that the right-click option to select contents is the best (in fact, itâs already there).
And about the renaming issue, I just spent more time experimenting with renaming and I canât find a pattern to how it decides to rename. Sometimes the renamed object has the name and the other with the same name is incremented. At other times the renamed object is incremented or unchanged. Iâll look more at this, but it is probably not outliner-specific.
3 Likes
It also happens when the user renames from the object panel in properties, for instance. Itâs also the same when renaming workspaces (double click on tabs at the top).
Hi Nathan,
it will be very nice to have some kind of selection sets but not throw collections ,many times i find myself selecting the same objects for all kinds of purposes .
I think this is essential to be able to select child objects without spreading all hierachies cluttering the outliner in big scenesâŚ
30 Likes
sweet, I dont think Ive seen this in any software yet.