Multi-Object Properties Design #54955

New Issue

William Reynish · 2018-05-04T17:18:16+02:00

William Reynish commented

2018-05-04 17:18:16 +02:00

in Blender 2.8, we want to make it easy to adjust values on more than one object.

This is how we've decided to solve it:

When users only have a single object selected, editing items in the Properties Editor looks normal:

But when more than one object is selected, and the user edits a value, we display an orange selection box around it, to indicate that the change will apply to all selected items, like so:

When the user presses Return, it sets the value on all selected objects.

We also want to support relative changes. We do this by using an operator symbol, and then the relative change, like so:

Note: We've decided to use the § symbol instead of =

in Blender 2.8, we want to make it easy to adjust values on more than one object. This is how we've decided to solve it: When users only have a single object selected, editing items in the Properties Editor looks normal: ![Screen Shot 2018-05-04 at 17.14.38.png](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F3258951/Screen_Shot_2018-05-04_at_17.14.38.png) But when more than one object is selected, and the user edits a value, we display an orange selection box around it, to indicate that the change will apply to all selected items, like so: ![Screen Shot 2018-05-04 at 17.14.40.png](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F3258953/Screen_Shot_2018-05-04_at_17.14.40.png) When the user presses Return, it sets the value on all selected objects. We also want to support relative changes. We do this by using an operator symbol, and then the relative change, like so: ![Screen Shot 2018-05-04 at 17.14.41.png](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F3258952/Screen_Shot_2018-05-04_at_17.14.41.png) *Note: We've decided to use the § symbol instead of =*

William Reynish self-assigned this 2018-05-04 17:18:16 +02:00

William Reynish commented

2018-05-04 17:18:17 +02:00

Added subscribers: @WilliamReynish, @Sergey

Duarte Farrajota Ramos commented

2018-05-05 20:56:50 +02:00

Added subscriber: @DuarteRamos

Dalai Felinto commented

2018-05-07 09:24:53 +02:00

Changed status from 'Open' to: 'Resolved'

Dalai Felinto closed this issue

2018-05-07 09:24:53 +02:00

Okavango commented

2018-05-07 12:46:58 +02:00

Added subscriber: @Okavango

Okavango commented

2018-05-07 12:46:58 +02:00

Very important feature, been missing it since forever, one of the first things i noticed missing when beginning with Blender. Triples the workflow efficiency.

@WilliamReynish If you have 5 minutes to spare, read the PDF i attached, a page and a half in length. It is a small comment i gave to the author of the Blender Archipack addon, regarding possible multi - element property editing capabilities. I described the multi element property panel in CAD apps which i know and work with on daily basis. If you get a copy of QCAD application (GPL licensed) on one of your machines, you can see the it in action. The pdf describes the basic logic behind it, perhaps you can use in for inspiration. CAD apps are the best at this, no doubt.

MULTI_ELEMENT_EDITING_Okavango_001.pdf

Basic introduction of the panel, not showing the best feature - dealing with multi category element selection. Speed up x 2 - the video is slow.
[[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHLqtZ3bGgo |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHLqtZ3bGgo ]]

Very important feature, been missing it since forever, one of the first things i noticed missing when beginning with Blender. Triples the workflow efficiency. @WilliamReynish If you have 5 minutes to spare, read the PDF i attached, a page and a half in length. It is a small comment i gave to the author of the Blender Archipack addon, regarding possible multi - element property editing capabilities. I described the multi element property panel in CAD apps which i know and work with on daily basis. If you get a copy of QCAD application (GPL licensed) on one of your machines, you can see the it in action. The pdf describes the basic logic behind it, perhaps you can use in for inspiration. CAD apps are the best at this, no doubt. [MULTI_ELEMENT_EDITING_Okavango_001.pdf](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F3296467/MULTI_ELEMENT_EDITING_Okavango_001.pdf) Basic introduction of the panel, not showing the best feature - dealing with multi category element selection. Speed up x 2 - the video is slow. [[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHLqtZ3bGgo | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHLqtZ3bGgo ]]

Okavango commented

2018-05-07 13:05:41 +02:00

P.S. - What i mean you could try to expand multi element editing to whole property editor. Show only tabs (object / mesh / modifiers...) that are common for selection and on them only common values, according to selection. A selection filter drop down on the top for expanding the list of editable values - check the PDF...

P.S.P.S. - Industry standard for relative marker is @. Perhaps you can find some similar marker, because in my keyboard layout i can't find the 'double S' symbol. Perhaps you could try & or # or sth like that...

P.S. - What i mean you could try to expand multi element editing to whole property editor. Show only tabs (object / mesh / modifiers...) that are common for selection and on them only common values, according to selection. A selection filter drop down on the top for expanding the list of editable values - check the PDF... P.S.P.S. - Industry standard for relative marker is @. Perhaps you can find some similar marker, because in my keyboard layout i can't find the 'double S' symbol. Perhaps you could try & or # or sth like that...

William Reynish commented

2018-05-07 16:05:12 +02:00

Okavango: We cannot do it that way. It would be very very slow, because Blender then has to constantly compare values. If you select 1.000 objects, Blender then needs to check the the values on all those objects and continually compare them. That's likely to be hundreds of thousands of values compared constantly.

The design outlined at the top works around that issue, and can be fast, because it doesn't have to compare hundreds of values for every single object selected.

Okavango: We cannot do it that way. It would be very very slow, because Blender then has to constantly compare values. If you select 1.000 objects, Blender then needs to check the the values on all those objects and continually compare them. That's likely to be hundreds of thousands of values compared constantly. The design outlined at the top works around that issue, and can be fast, because it doesn't have to compare hundreds of values for every single object selected.

Okavango commented

2018-05-07 16:12:09 +02:00

Ah ok.
I trust you on this, i don't know the technical side of the implementation.

Ah ok. I trust you on this, i don't know the technical side of the implementation.

William Reynish commented

2018-05-07 16:13:18 +02:00

:) We may adopt @ though - we already discussed that as a possibility too.

Okavango commented

2018-05-07 16:17:05 +02:00

Cool :) Check the intellectual property though. Some big companies use it, although i think some open source do also. Check LibreCAD, QCAD, i believe it is safe.

Duarte Farrajota Ramos commented

2018-05-07 17:31:40 +02:00

Not sure if this fits entirely in this task, but since there seem to be changes in the way input values are treated, Would it be very hard to support ignoring leading zeroes?
Currently if one accidentally types 05 or 003 in a value box it fails to set the property, and the input is ignored and reset to previous value.

Not sure if this fits entirely in this task, but since there seem to be changes in the way input values are treated, Would it be very hard to support ignoring leading zeroes? Currently if one accidentally types `05` or `003` in a value box it fails to set the property, and the input is ignored and reset to previous value.

William Reynish commented

2018-05-07 18:19:06 +02:00

Huh, that would be good to fix, yes. Dalai already fixed the issue where if you pressed backspace to delete the value, nothing would happen. Now it resets the value.

William Reynish commented

2019-08-04 15:59:31 +02:00

Changed status from 'Resolved' to: 'Open'

William Reynish reopened this issue

2019-08-04 15:59:31 +02:00

William Reynish commented

2019-08-04 15:59:31 +02:00

This needs further design work

tintwotin commented

2019-08-04 17:48:01 +02:00

Added subscriber: @tintwotin

tintwotin commented

2019-08-04 17:48:01 +02:00

Maybe the selected value could be a little less than white, so a white box would be visible around the value, when the value is only added to the active element.

Nb. using the orange color for entire selection, would have to be consistent throughout Blender including the Sequencer, which currently doesn't use outline for selection.

Maybe the selected value could be a little less than white, so a white box would be visible around the value, when the value is only added to the active element. Nb. using the orange color for entire selection, would have to be consistent throughout Blender including the Sequencer, which currently doesn't use outline for selection.

William Reynish commented

2020-02-22 17:13:17 +01:00

Closed as duplicate of #54987

William Reynish closed this issue

2020-02-22 17:13:17 +01:00

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Multi-Object Properties Design #54955