Add-ons Editor (n-panel fix)
Instead of cramming addons into the n-panel give them some space to live
I propose a new editor type for Add-ons. Each Add-on has its own Tab with an Icon like in the Properties-Editor.
| active Add-on icon in color | toggle n-panel visibility |
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5 Comments
I also think that the N panel options can be dragged to sort and easily renamed (every time I install a plugin, I will manually specify the category in the N panel in the plugin code).
I fear it would lead to the same issue in that new editor. Also I would question the need for an entire editor "just" for that. Many addons have nothing to do with the viewport or a particular editor, but end up in the viewport sidebar only because the UI doesn't really provide a better place.
I would love for the API to give more options to addons devs though:
Being able to make a new tab in the properties editor or creating an editor for example, is AFAIK not possible with bpy. We could have a tab dedicated to addons in the Properties Editor.
An easy way to make user-friendly popup UI panels would help a lot, many addons just do not need their UI to be displayed at all times anywhere. ANT Landscapes found a half-way solution by using the Adjust Last Operation panel, but it makes it hard to use as doing any action makes its options permanent.
And lastly, making the UI customizable, just being able to drag any panels around to reorder them is fine, but imagine being also able to drag them to another tab or even a different editor, that would make a massive difference.
Yeah having a separate editor for addons will just lead to having clutter in that editor. There needs to be a way to filter addons in the N Panel so I can have visible what I need.
Agreed on this, but I've noticed that many addon devs don't even utilize some of the the options that are already available.
I won't name specifics as would be unkind, but I've more than one addon that installs as it's own tab - when it would work just as well to be as part of the standard View or Tool tabs.
I actually recoded one in particular to do that, as the entire tab only contained a single button and a checkbox...
You will always have people not following guidelines, either by ignorance or in full knowledge. Doesn't really matter. Right now we are also having a new wave of new addons developpers that only use chatGPT with no knowledge of scripting, nor Blender's guidelines. And chatGPT doesn't know any better either.
All you can do about that is propagate the knowledge and initiate the changes yourself.