More Sculpt Modes for the [Shift + Left Mouse hotkey]

Other Development Topics Usability
#1

Please add more actions (brushes) when a paint stroke is made, especially when the user presses the [Shift + Left Mouse] hotkey.

PROBLEM
While sculpting, it is currently not possible to assign another brush to the [Shift + Left Mouse] hotkey. It currently smoothes but some users might want it to flatten polygons (or else).

The only allowed parameters (in Sculpt Mode) are Regular, Invert and Smooth, but it would be convenient to be able to flatten, or else…

STEPS
Since I couldn’t select Flatten in the Stroke Mode drop-down menu, I tried to assign another brush to the [Shift + Left Mouse] hotkey.

So I tried to:

  • disable / untick the Sculpt > [Shift+Left Mouse] hotkey that smoothes by default (in Sculpt > Sculpt (Global)

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  • assign “Flatten” to this [Shift+Left Mouse] hotkey by right-clicking on the Flatten brush (located on the toolbar on the left). Doing that created this hotkey:

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It works (sort of) but it switches to the Flatten brush completely and if you want the Draw brush to be active again, you have to use Space+X (or to click on its toolbar icon), which is a bit annoying, especially with a graphics tablet.

SOLUTION
Allow the user to be able to assign the brush of his/her choice for this [Shift+Left Mouse] hotkey (in the Sculpt Mode drop-down menu) instead of Only Regular, Inert and Smooth.

Related suggestion on Right Click Select:

6 Likes
#2

Yeah, I requested something like this before for the mask brush, (coming from zbrush, it’s quite painful to use the mask as a toggle in blender). But here’s the thing, this is a function that should be added to the entire keymap system, like in other apps.

In Blender we have keymap options like Press/Click/Release/Click and Drag etc, so we need to have another one like “Press and Hold”, that way we could use this function with any hotkey inside of Blender.

But yeah, in the meantime (if things have to be hardcoded), here are the brushes that I would like to see on that “stroke mode” list…

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2 Likes
#3

Yes please. This is a must.

1 Like
#4

I have just got great news from @jfmatheu on Twitter :

2 Likes
#5

The mask brushes are there too?
Those are the most critical to me as zbrush user.

#6

Hi! Can You try the build to test the patch stability? https://blender.community/c/graphicall/7jbbbc/
Any feedback is welcome!

4 Likes
#7

Quick test here, works beautifully… much better way of working, thanks.

I just wish all the brushes and tools from the toolbar were available on that list so we could choose any brush/tool with no restrictions, but that’s probably asking too much… :smile:

The mask brush alone on that list is already a huge workflow improvement… :+1:

3 Likes
#8

Yay! Good to know is working fine for you! To just support the mask had to add a few more things in the code but others are part of the same blocks of code anywhere, so now adding a few more is just few more lines for each “block”. Also had to split the property because was shared across texture paint and sculpt and that was bad, I don’t know why was like that but… well, I added the brushes that are probably common of switching to use temporaly as secondary brushes but frecuently. But I can add all them if there’s much people that agree with it.

5 Likes
#9

Working great so far. Can’t wait to see it in master. :slightly_smiling_face:

And yeah, like red wax said, all the brushes would be nice, but I believe they can be added as a separate patch in the future? after this one is accepted and committed :wink:

2 Likes
#10

I have tested the branch and everything worked fine here. :+1:
I haven’t noticed any error.

I would prefer to see all the other brushes (and not necessary in another commit), I fear a decision from the official devs that could want to only add the most used ones (whereas some users could want to use any brush).

2 Likes
#11

Perhaps you could post a message on Twitter (with the hashtags #b3d #blender #blender3d …) to ask for more testers ? (just a thought… the patch seems to work fine).

1 Like
#12

Man, this is great. People have been crying for this since forever. hahaha
And yes, all brushes if possible. :+1:

2 Likes
#13

No more news but here is the patch :
https://developer.blender.org/D6515

#14

What’s wrong with this @jfmatheu ? No news, no reviewers?

This is a “small” patch but a huge workflow improvement.
Where’s the UI/UX team when you need it? Is the tracker dead? :disappointed:

#15

New answers have been posted and developers have expressed their opinions (for some reason, I haven’t been notified) :

https://developer.blender.org/D6515

1 Like
#16

@jfmatheu Still no positive answer on your patch? Damn, that’s unbelievable.

1 Like
#17

I guess core devs have their design plans when Asset manager comes so I believe in their words, but I believe it’s going to take some time, not just to have the asset manager but to have that specific features that users want now, like using any shortcut for any brush. For the meantime we can’t do that much until it is done. You can have the same feature with an addon easily, supporting any brush, but the thing is to have it in source for everyone as it’s something useful for all people not for only “4 cats” as we say here…

#18

The thing is, the asset manager is totally unrelated to what we are asking here. I have no idea why they are even mentioning it there.
I believe the people in charge of it they just don’t understand the feature we are requesting, which is a shame. You need to have zbrush (and other software) experience to fully understand how crucial this feature is.

2 Likes
#19

LOL. No way… People are mixing asset manager with this?
This can’t be real. :upside_down_face:

#20

As you may already know, today, Pablo Dobarro answered some sculpt-related questions in this Blender Today Live stream:

It’s unfortunate but (at the end of the video, in the Q&A) none of us were there to ask him his opinion about the topic that matters to us (this topic, and about jfmatheu’s patch).

Later today, he asked Blender users to share videos about their workflow, to show how they use the sculpt mode.

Here is the DevTalk thread where to post videos:

Maybe it’s the chance for us to explain (in a video) why merging the patch (or at least, reviewing it) is important?