Snapping & precision modeling improvements: New defaults, snap icons and removals

[Schiette]

@1D_Inc

X sign better be an edge snap, because intersection of a lines defines a precise point on an edge.

I love this mockup. Granted, I am biased because I come from an architectural/engineering background, where these snap symbols are common place.

To me, the arguments to pick something different than the industry standard are not that convincing. I trained 200+ users in Revit and Autocad over the last 10 years, and I have never noticed anyone having a difficult time to remember these supposedly generic icons. People seem to internalize it very quickly that triangle means mid, square means point, L means perpendicular.

I do think it would make sense to adjust the symbols in the snapping menu to match the indicators that show up in the viewport.

[1D_Inc]

The measure tool and placement have used these snap options together by default for a long time. Now they follow the same options in the menu.

Not sure that measure tool and placement are the rulers and not exceptions, since they require snap overrides to be driven.
There are no other usecases when you may need vertex+faces snapping together since they represent different level of a precision.
I think a simple vertex snap by default could be a better choise, since it is properly distinguished.

[1D_Inc]

If you have something named “Mixed” or “Multy” by default, it is not very discoverable during first try.
This is why, for example, the default cube is not located in several collections by default, despite the fact it can.

Tried Jun 23 build (Blender Builds - blender.org).
Windows version - snaps works as intended
Linux version - snaps seems to behave weird (like completely broken).

[Hologram]

@nickberckley

Remembering what those extremely generic symbols mean is going to be a pain in the ass, and for those who are not in the CAD and use snapping infrequently it means looking up meanings on every single use.

I never bothered looking what the snap icons stood for, really, if you use it for a bit, you’ll get the hang of it intuitively. Just look at which icon is present for obvious snaps to vertices, midpoints, etc.

I prefer sticking with conventions, whether that’s Autodesk’s (& Rhinoceros’) or FreeCAD’s. Both are fine by me, I do want to emphasize that the CAD sketcher addon uses FreeCAD’s symbols for constraints. So it would be worthwhile to use those to infer relationships with (perpendicular, parallel, tangent, etc.).