Edit mode - Island selection mode
Current issue
You may already know the way you can select a part of linked mesh within an object in edit mode using the " select linked " operator from the shortcut L when hovering some mesh, or selecting some mesh first and using the shortcut ⎈ Ctrl L or menu Select ⟩ Select Linked ⟩ Linked .
In some cases, you may need to do a lot of these selections in a short amount of time. But the L shortcut is kind of unknown from a lot of people (unless browsing blender's submenus or reading the doc). There are possible confusions about the behavior nuances between using just L or either ⎈ Ctrl L / menu. And some people would like a more UI based approach too.
The solution
Have a component selection mode for islands, just like we already have in the UV Editor :
This could look like this in edit mode :
This could be at least a simple UI addition using the "select linked" function. And if possible, it could be used exactly like the other selection modes.
e.g. when enabled, all we have to do is click something to select its mesh island, we could use border selection to select multiple mesh islands in bulk, etc.
I think that would be great with a pie menu as well.
26 Comments
I absolutely support.
In 3D Max it's called " Element " and there probably exists from the beginning. There are of course a " Select linked " in Blender. But to do this user need to press a hotkey or go to menu while in Max it is a separate selection mode and is done in one click. When it need to work with lots of such selections it is a very BIG difference in workflow speed...
Same situation with Max selection mode " Border ". Which select edge loop of " holes " . It can also be easily made in the Blender as Select similar > Amount of faces. But Max lets user select+transform it in one click as in the previous case and select each individual " hole " separately from others. In Blender " Select similar " select all of similar edges in model so then it need to deselect unnecessary. So many extra moves.... Of course " Select similar " is more complicated tool than just select " holes " and I like it but do such simply operation with it is worse.
Always wondered why there is no same things in Blender. Blender has a lot of advantages. But the lack of such basic quick to use things sometimes looks like trying to invent squared wheel bicycle whenever it is possible when rounded wheel bicycle was already invented for long time.
@forestgumpovu4: If I'm understanding what you're describing correctly, you can easily do that in Blender by holding alt while selecting a single edge. It selects edge loops based on the edge you originally clicked.
@quargzon:
Alt while select is not work same as Max " Border " select mode in all cases. For complex mesh sometimes it was a problem.
Look at that.
@forestgumpovu4: I've personally never had a problem with the way Blender's alt select works. The little idiosyncrasies in how software tools do things often makes migrating between them irritating. That's just a fact of life, unfortunately. :/
However, if it really is less flexible/powerful, could you elaborate on the problem? I'm not getting a very clear idea from that gif what's wrong with it and what you expect it to be doing.
This seems like a great idea for a new proposal so you can get more attention and clarify the issue. You may even attract other Max users to back you up. (also because this is slipping off topic for this thread a bit)
@forestgumpovu4: I think this has more to do with Alt Select enhancing rather than "Linked Geometry selection mode".
@quargzon: Wrong? ... Wrong - nothing. But there is a difference. If you at least read a little carefully what I wrote and looked at both GIFs also attentively - you will understand what I mean.
@forestgumpovu4: Sorry, but your first post throws around the word "holes" a lot with little to no explanation, and the GIFs both appear to be doing what Blender's alt select does and is meant to do.
As I am not a Max user, the difference is not as obvious to me since I'm not as familiar with the Max behavior as you are. Again, it's not clear just by looking at this GIF because, to me, it looks like it's doing exactly what it should. I don't know what you're expecting it to do; I can't read minds.
Also, if there's nothing wrong with it, does it really need to be changed? Blender isn't on a mission to match other software's behavior as closely as possible.
As I said before, this isn't relevant to this proposal, so I suggest you create a new proposal where you can explain it with more verbosity and avoid cluttering this one with unrelated messages. Discussing it here won't do much good if you want developers to see it.
yeah that fits it all i think it would be great.
This really should be added, it's one of those little "quality of life" things that saves time once you know it exists.
super agree
Super agree. I'm not sure if island is the best choice though. It makes sense in the UV context, while in mesh editing select connected sounds more appropriate
@: I don't know if it's the appropriate word for it, English is not even my first language either. If another label is more appropriate of course, it should be used.
@: Outside of a UV editing context, I'd call them "surfaces" or "components".
Probably the best term would be "Linked Vertices" (or Linked Geometry) since, well, that's what's already used in the interface.
Granted, the term "linked" has been overloaded a lot in the interface, but at the very least it's what's there now and most Blender users are familiar with it.
Or "Connected Geometry", as referenced by Proportional Edit.
@Craig Jones: No, each object in Blender may have one "mesh" assigned to it. That is, a single "mesh" encompasses all the geometry in an object.
@Craig Jones: If you join several objects together (by selecting them an pressing ctrl+J), the mesh data of the active object "absorbs" all of the other mesh data. So no new meshes are created, and all the meshes just end up combined into a single mesh.
Mess around with some objects and observe what happens to the name of the mesh data (under the triangle tab in the properties panel at the top). That'll probably answer your questions. ;)
@loic.dautry: We say UV Island or UV Shell (in Maya).
@Danyl Bekhoucha: I know. ^^
But I was wondering if there was a particular name for "connected geometry" in the 3D mesh perspective.
@loic.dautry: In perspective view it is called Select Linked (L key), you need to be in Face selection mode to select an UV island in the viewport.
@loic.dautry: I really think blender should stick to island as a name. it's already an uv island and mesh is selectable by uv islands, so to keep it coherent I'd say select until connected geometry or uv seam and call it island.
@Danyl Bekhoucha: My proposal is for selecting linked geometry, not UV related geometry. But maybe it could change the behavior depending on a hold down key, i.e. Alt-click → select UV island. That would make that selection mode more versatile I guess.
This would be awesome! Editing an object with lots of mesh islands would be so much easier.
not quite max elegance but you can map "select linked" to doubleClick. You can test it with this keymap that works also for UVs: blenderartists.org/t/a-proper-keymap-for-blender-2-8/1145406
* @Ge Ro * no thanks, I'd prefer an actual selection mode like there is in other areas of Blender and in other softwares rather than a workaround (which most of us already know about and use)
good resource