Make 3D cursor only a tool
Update:
The new left click select layout implements the first part of the proposal.
Currently left click is used to place the 3D cursor whatever tool is selected, the only use of the 3D cursor tool is to be able to drag the 3D cursor across the screen. Also the 3D cursor is mostly used as a 'place object here' or an anchor. The first is a clear action where we use the 3D cursor as a tool. In the latter case we want to place it once and keep it there and not accidentally left click and move our anchor.
My proposal is simple: make left click dependent on the currently selected tool.
This way the 3D cursor can be moved when the 3D cursor tool is selected, but won't be (usually accidentally) moved when another tool is selected. Left click is also free to be reused for other purposes elsewhere. For instance it can be object select when the select tool is active or place starting point of ruler for the ruler tool, etc.
Overall it would make the left mouse button fully for tools.
Later addition:
Another thing that this would allow is make using a two button mouse (or simply avoiding the middle mouse button, which I find unconformable to press) a lot more viable by swapping the functionalities of the middle and right mouse button (select is still available as a tool, and thus can also be achieved via left click, albeit slower).
A toggle to swap right and middle mouse buttons would be something interesting in any case as it seems more ergonomic to me (but that should be another proposal).
5 Comments
I absolutely agree.
For me the 3D cursor is just a tool for positioning one specific empty object the 3D cursor. But unlike the empty object it doesn't have rotation and scale and can't be selected, moved, duplicated and manipulated with other tools.
Let's wait developer.blender.org/T54963
@theredwaxpolice: Thanks for the link! This is something I cant wait to see in Blender.
In my opinion the 3D cursor is one of the awesome versatile parts of Blender. It is not a tool, instead many tools revolve around it when it is used as intended (before 2.8 came along anyway). The 3D cursor can be used for much more then just object placement. One can also align vertices along an axis by scaling them to 0 along the other axes. Also you can move all selected objects towards or away from the cursor without changing their scale when scaling with Manipulate center points enabled.
I believe adding an extra step to move the 3D cursor is contradictory to its purpose.
* @魔大农 * I was fairly new to Blender at the time of writing and indeed the 3D cursor has more uses than I initially thought.
The main idea of my proposal was that the left mouse button is a bit too prominent. I'm thinking of swapping the right and middle mouse button (in the left click select bindings) for my use case.