I have helped modify and improve an addon that could potentially replace the Modifier Tools addon included by default ( by salaivv). I’d love to have this new iteration included by default, as it follows consistency, improves UX and adds some modifier stack power.
But… what is the addon inclusion suggestion system? Where do I commit this? Where do I suggest this? Where can I put it to be included into master?
(by original developer) Added overview box that’s similar to materials, particles, vertex groups, weight groups, and more taht use stack like UI box systems - now better for UX consistency with modifiers
fusioned some functinonality from the Modifier Tools addon included with Blender.
Added missing global toggles to delete all and to show/hide all
Added a division to the modifier stack to make sense that one is to manage the modifiers and the other is to work on the stack (reason being that you may need to tweak multiple modifiers at once and understand how the stack works - after the global ordering)
Added missing iconology
Changed name from other addon to show/hide
The reason I divided the two systems is that now there are two ways to show/hide and add/delete. It would feel redundant and disorganized - so for a better UX I made the new system as an overview, the other as the stack.
Oh man, this is awesome! I really hope this could get into 2.81! It would be such a huge improvement!
The thing to do would probably get some feedback and build some support here, then after 2.80 is released (the UI is frozen before release right now), create a diff here.
One thing-- I would suggest removing the “Modifier Stack” label, I think it’s a bit redundant when the modifiers are right there.
And, yeah, as @HooglyBoogly said, the ‘Modifier Stack’ label could be removed.
And also, I feel those two buttons on top of the list (Apply All, Delete All) can be brought to the bottom of the list. May be, we can also add ‘Apply Selected’ button as well.
Regarding the icons on the buttons, I think no part of blender has any icons on buttons. So, I think it would be better to leave the buttons with just the labels.
Of course, I ll be glad to see if this makes into blender.
Good feedback! I’ll have to take a look into the process of applying to add addons to Blender. Though, to maintain this may need me to fork from Github?
Using it extensively had me hover and cross the Apply All and Delete All often when it was to the bottom, one miss-click and all my work on the stack disappears (and CTRL+Z for accidents on heavy stacks is not fun…) I moved it to the top as it was more out of the way of all the repeated work and it would also make it concurrent with the global modifier panel and the stack panel, keeping their header buttons consistent between the two workflows for modifiers. So rendundance is not there, as one is a list, the other is a stack - so it’s more consistent to keep them seperate.
Applying selected as an exposed would be somewhat inconsistent as they already exist per modifier - and the buttons are all global. Adding a local function to a global group would not make too much sense.
I had the title removed at first, but the issue with that is that now the two Add Modifier entries and the double entries of the stack re-ordering arrows don’t feel categorized to their specific UI feature, which are not the same (one stack, the other list). I would opt to change the first title to “Modifier Overview” or something similar because without the seperator/titles, the entire system would add a disjointed UX, allowing for the user to confuse UI area functionality as similar or double entries for no reason, adding to the idea that it’s redundant instead of two workflows to optimize.
I am no fan of text only entries and buttons, as reading take that much more brain power to process than just looking at an icon. It’s the visual cortex and visual memory that triggers faster than the language processors in the brain (which require quite a few more brain areas at once to read), so iconology is more efficient for searching and recognizing buttons and functionality.
Keep in mind that if this was merged I don’t think it would be as an addon, it would be as direct changes to the UI code. So you would need to refactor some of these modifications anyway. In that case you’d want to clone the repository as described here.
If you’re talking about this getting included as a bundled addon that’s a different process.
Also in my opinion there’s enough visual separation between the elements without the “Modifier Stack” label. I suggest you look around the other properties panels and see what it looks like there. The empty particles list does look pretty silly without any label at all though.
Right. I have coded features into a build/branch/fork before (not committed to Blender though). I would probably opt this as an addon inclusion… but looks like there is a lot of reading to do!
Good point on not having a title in the particles editor… hmm… If I had a collapsable panel, maybe that would make more sense.
