A new type of 3D viewport for just previewing render and info
There's one thing I find myself doing over and over to a point where it's unbearable but I have no choice. I usually have the main GUI on the main monitor, and on the second monitor, a 3D viewport with the camera view and the overlay but with only text enabled so I can see how many samples are being rendered in preview mode.
But sometimes I have to close that second window and if I have to open it again, it's a series of steps just to get it to what I need it to be, which is what I described above.
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In the main GUI, I have to go to Window, then select New Window.
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The window that opens can have anything at random. Sometimes it's set to 3D viewport, sometimes to the compositor, sometimes to the dope sheet, for no apparent reason. So I I have to turn it into a 3D viewport
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I have to maximize the window to the full size of the second monitor, minus the macOS menu bar.
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I have to click on the camera icon, so I can get the camera POV
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I have to go to the overlays preferences to uncheck everything except for Text Info
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Finally, I have to press the Home button to make sure that the camera frame takes up all the space in the window.
After doing this close to a thousand times in the year I've been using Blender, I got really fed up with it. I think a whole new type of area type has to be created that is just the camera POV, taking up the whole window. And there has to be a menu item that calls it directly, rather than just New Window that will appear with any random area type and then needs to be changed.
This would save users a ton of time in the long run.
7 Comments
Why not make a new workspace like Lauloque said, or at the very least save your default startup file to include this as your main workspace?
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I did. But I could never get the second window to save completely the overlay setup I wanted, meaning just the text, and in camera view. Haven't tried it in version 4.3.1, but regardless, my point is this: if I open a new window in which I want the dope sheet, or any of the other area types, it's usually easy, just select that from the left top button.
So if I want the graph editor, very easy, I select it and it's there ready to start working on it, as long as the object I want to work on is selected. But if I want to preview the final render, then it's selecting the 3D viewport, then several additional steps to get to that point.
To be honest, I wouldn't even set it as another area type (pardon me if that's not the correct classification), but in the main menu, under 'Window' where you can choose among others to open a "New Window" or a "New Main Window", I would add a third item (or first) called "New Preview Window".
That type of window would be always in camera mode, with the camera view maximized to the full window, and have only one overlay, the text info with the samples rendered and all that. And the passepartout always to 1 so it doesn't need to waste resources rendering anything outside the camera view, in case the frame dimensions are not 16:9.
I don't get it. You can make it and then set that to your default, but you say it doesn't preserve the settings you made? I just did it to make sure it can be done, setting the 2nd window to be in Camera View, dark passepartout, saved the Default file to my 4.3 install and closed. Opened up, the "preview" window in on the 2nd monitor as I had it. Try it and see for yourself.
Why not make your own workspace?
I tried all this, but eventually, if I need to close that second window, opening it again results in the steps I described.
"After doing this close to a thousand times in the year I've been using Blender, I got really fed up with it." - I hear your pain. If I have time, I'll see if I can Python it. If not, this would probably have to be done by the Blender gods.