Alpabetic List Menu Option in Settings
The pie menus can be hard to use as the options are spread out. Blender used to have a clear, compact and alphabetically sorted list menu, that was much more efficient.
Can we please have an option in settings to choose whether we want menus to show in pie or list format?
Blender 2.6
Blender 3.3
6 Comments
pie menus have been proven repeatedly to be more 'efficient' than normal menus. easier for new users? probably not. easier to read? probably not.
at any rate, if you don't like the pie menus it's pretty easy to change it back to a menu by changing the hotkey operator from
wm.call_menu_pietowm.call_menu.I respectfully disagree that pie menus are more efficient. Can you please share the source for this claim?
Thank you for the solution suggestion, but I have no idea how to change a hotkey operator, and hope that Blender gives us an option in settings, to easily switch between the two menu types.
It's basic math, there's nothing more to it than that. Here's an experiment for you to try. Imagine a pie menu with the cardinal directions on it- something you already have memorized no doubt (North, South, East, West, etc).
Next, have somebody test you on how fast you can find each cardinal direction in a pie menu vs an alphabetized list. There is no contest , it is absolutely faster.
What you're bumping into with this pie menu is a lack of memorization or contextual awareness for how they are organized, and that's totally fine- Pie menus are designed to maximize efficiency and speed.
They are not necessarily easier to use or understand, but they are without a doubt faster.
Pie menus are faster and faster as you use them more and more. Because you memorize the positions and not the text. You end up with an instant movement after tiping a shortcut.
But you are also right that at first it's harder to find and read the different options.
And so that's true that a preference selection would be a nice idea. That way everyone can choose the method that better fits the personal taste...
Blender needs an entire accessibility update at this point .
You don't have to use pies if you don't want to. You can disable them globally and individually in the addon's preferences.
Pie menus tend to put the most used items on the north,south,west,east directions and expand from there.
Furthermore, the issue with alphabetic sorting for pies is that adding/removing/renaming one item can change the entire pie. It's not a big deal on list menus, but since pies rely heavily on muscle memory: any layout change of a menu ruins everyone's experience.