Use mouse hover + hotkey over an edit mesh component to run edit mesh operators
Blender mesh editing makes user click mouse too much.
Ideology seems to be click to select, then perform an operation on the selected element.
However, many things could simply be performed by hovering over a mesh element, and then invoke the operator with a keyboard shortcut;
- Hover over a vertex, press shortcut to move it
- Hover over an edge, press shortcut to bevel it
- Hover over a face, press shortcut to inset, delete, extrude or do whatever else is possible in similar way
This would work great with preselection highlighting of items the mouse cursor hovers over, but highlighting is extra. These operations can be simply performed based on mouse cursor position, like Blender now does. Clicking a vertex selects it, so we already know Blender can raytrace (or use whatever method to figure out which component the mouse cursor is over), so the same "mouse click" can be automatically performed when user presses a shortcut of a suitable operator.
I attached a gif that shows how painful moving a single vertex is currently, at least the first click can be removed.
4 Comments
Please explain why clicking the point, or edge, is problematic for you.
And, how you would want the software to accurately interpret a mouse hovering over multiple points/edges/etc that you might not wish to actually be part of the upcoming action.
I wrote a script that does this as a mode and use it frequently.
This doesn't really require an explanation. Its problematic because it can add hundreds if not thousands of extra clicks to a workflow. Blender is already encumbered by unnecessary actions to perform many things, and options to reduce the effort to achieve a task are welcome.
How does Blender currently accurately interpret a mouse click while hovering over multiple points/edges etc that you don't want to be part of an upcoming action? This doesn't change, it simply adds the mouse click action to be performed before it performs the bevel/extrude/inset/etc.
Blender should absolutely implement a mode similar to preselection without the highlight, that can be toggled on/off, that tacks the select action prior to other actions. Although I understand this workflow can be a little bit hacky, so it may best be implemented as an included addon to be installed & enabled similar to many others that come with Blender.
@thorn - well, I already explained why and also explained that Blender already knows what element it is over - and if that fails there is already undo which you can always use in such cases. This pattern works fine in other softwares. And see what iagito said (pretty much the same). When you have to perform tons of repetitive clicks, you want to minimize those. This pattern will become obvious to anyone, when you have done something like this long enough.
I find it annoying that most users are simply wishing for the next shiny thing, when UI, UX and the whole workflow overall would need polishing. Ordinary and boring suggestions like these don't really seem to be getting any visibility. Not that I expect Blender devs to have much time for all kinds of suggestions, but you never know :).