Improve the Move, Rotate, Scale gizmos for people coming from other software
Most blender users use the G,R,S keys chained with other shortcuts to transform objects without gizmos.
But for people coming from other software gizmos are comfortable and convenient. Blender offers gizmos for those who want them, but they come with certain caveats:
- Clicking outside the gizmo is doing a Selection rather than freely transforming the object.
- There don't seem to be shortcuts to activate the gizmos. (There is if using "Industry Shortcuts", but that comes with its own set of compromises, and I wouldn't recommend it.)
Let's compare these two use-cases:
- A user having the Move gizmo and click & drag anywhere in the viewport to move the object. They can rest with one hand on the desk and do multiple transformations with ease
vs
- Having to aim for the small white circle in order to move the object every time, or having to press a button with the other hand before every transformation.
I think it's good idea to keep the current behaviour of the "Transform" Gizmo, being the all-in-one tool, including selection. But for the dedicated Move, Rotate, Scale gizmos I think it would help more people to use blender, if the whole viewport can be clicked to make the transformations.
Example: gifyu.com/image/PlRF
4 Comments
I feel your pain and thankfully there is a new (free) add-on that solves this problem, and rather elegantly too: blendermarket.com/products/gizmodal-ops
Hi guys, thanks for your suggestions. It seems recently some options were added in Blender 3.0 which alleviate big part of the problems outlined here, specifically the "Alt tool Access" and the "Key Activates tool".
Basically they address both concerns I wrote here.
The downside is they take as much as they bring, so the user has to give up on the X,Y,Z keys to lock axis when using those, but they can still be useful to help someone make the transition.
You can set your own shortcuts to switch between gizmos. I personally set up W E R in my animation layout because that's where I really prefer this behavior by miles far.
As for the click / drag action, you can do this via the "drag" popover in the viewport header.
For moving in empty space I don't have direct answer and I think it would be a pretty good idea to have but for the shortcut for selecting gizmo without having to select it manually in the tool bar, you can enable the "Alt Click Tool Prompt" option in the preference > keymap. This allow you to select any transform tool by press and release the alt key, then press G for translation, S for scale and R for rotation (other tools work as well).