Improve Undo by Adding History list, checkpoints, save in file.
Blender's Undo feature has improved, but it can be hard to use:
A common problem is you find yourself repeatedly Ctrl-Zing, and not sure where you are, accidentally Ctrl-Z too far, then frantically Ctrl-Shift-Zing to try and get back where you were. It's very hard to find where you are because there's no feedback (even harder if you were in isolate mode!), and if you hit the wrong key during this process your changes are lost anyway. For this reason, I find multiple Ctrl-Zs rarely if ever recover your work to where you want.
Suggestions:
- Provide a history list, so you can undo to a specific place without multiple, blind Ctrl-Zs.
Trivial Example: "1. Create Mesh 'Fubar'", "2. Edit Vertices", "3. Select Face", "4. Scale". Pick item 2, and it jumps back to that state
UPDATE: @-L0Lock- points out there is already an Edit -> History feature. However it's of limited use because (except for Rename) it provides provides no names. e.g. 'Select', 'Hide', 'Delete', 'Move' so still too easy to lose place. Propose it includes the name of the object it is operating on.
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Provide a checkpoint. If you're about to do something risky, set a checkpoint shown in the history list, so you can easily jump back to the exact point before you embarked on the risky changes.
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Ability to save Undo history in file. AFAIK currently if Blender crashes - or you just save and exit for the day - you lose your undo operations. Would be nice if you can keep these in file like ZB. BTW By default ZB stores a whopping 10,000 undos which are very easy to navigate through (though they use a scroll bar instead of a history list).
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Bonus round: The ability to have separate undo histories on different objects. Sometimes you make a change to object A, make a mistake but not realize it, do something to object B, realize your mistake on A, but realize if you undo that, you will also lose object B - which is fine. Having separate undo histories by objects would overcome this.
This idea originally in comments in blender.community/c/rightclickselect/29pv/ posted here at @Stimes suggestion.
4 Comments
We already have the undo history:
Thanks @-L0Lock-. I've amended Point 1 to suggest it includes names.
It should be something like "Move Vertices (Cube.002)", "Rotate Faces (Cube.002)" as distinct from "Move Object (Cube.002)". If we were to have Undo Histories based on individual objects, it would be just "Move Vertices" with the object name as a panel title. Could there be some possible complications, however, with object based histories? Are there 3D apps that already implement this feature? I'm just wondering if conflicts could arise by undoing something within an object history that affects aspects of other objects or the scene more broadly. As for undo step limits, OF COURSE it should not be limited to 256 steps. Perhaps have a warning message if you go above 256, but arbitrary limits like this make no sense. As long as there are always warnings when it matters, there should be no limits to stuff like this.
#3 is THE MOST important and actually biggest pain point. As long as Modifiers completely ruins original object shape - there's no chance to change it without Undo the other day, when you really realize sth is terrible wrong. Especially when working with 3D prints (STL). This is PAIN!!! #4 Plus Bonus: even Fusion360 can actually change action parameters itself without loosing further actions in history.