Use Select Hierarchy on Multiple Objects/Collections in the Outliner
Problem
Blender currently only allows you to use Right Click > Select Hierarchy on a single object or collection in the Outliner.
If multiple collections/objects are selected, only the children of the collection/object that is right clicked will be selected. Alternatively if you attempt to extend your selection by right clicking on another object/collection, the initial selection is immediately de-selected.
Proposal
Make the Select Hierarchy operator apply to all selected collections/objects and not just the one that is right clicked
9 Comments
Another piece of evidence that shows flaws with "Apply to Active over Selected"... Blender UX generally needs easier methods to apply to all selected as default use to save time. If we want to apply to one, we would only select one. If we want to apply to selected, we would select. We don't want to decide to which element an action is applied after we have already selected what we want to change - the selection we have already decided should just have it do it.
Apply to Selected, unless otherwise stated.
Right now.. ALT+Lclick does this, but it doesn't work everywhere.. as it should. EVERYWHERE.
* @Andres Stephens - Trinumedia *
Couldn't agree more. Why would I not want to change parameters on all the objects if I already selected them. If I only want to change the parameter on one object I only select this one object. The alt behaviour should be the default without having to press an extra key.
If it helps anyone who comes across this thread; I've recently discovered this is possible with the Batch Ops addon. Is should definitely be an option available in the outliner by default though
yes please! This should be very obvious
Here's a workaround: not a SOLUTION but a workaround: temporarily create a new collection and move the collections you want selected into that, then select using the new root collection. pull the collections back out when you're done.
Every time I need to select hierarchy in blender I lower my head. "Select Children" is similar, and great....but you can't do that and keep the parents selected at the same time? I also realized that if some of the objects are in a hidden collection it won't select them. I could see how you could use that to your advantage, but perhaps it would be best to show an options box and potentially a warning? In the options box, maybe include hidden objects, show hidden objects - with secondary option for showing parent collections.
And please don't give me that whole, "That's not how you should work," BS because you don't always get the choice of how you get a file. Sometimes I'm working with a client's file, or coworker, or downloaded file, and the most frequent, imported CAD. That's a LOT of data to get through, with a Ton of instances and parent/child relationships to organize. Things like making selections more effective can greatly speed up that manual process.
Also the hotkey for 'Select Objects (in a Collection hierarchy)' can not share a single hotkey with 'Select Hierarchy (linked objects)'.
bpy.ops.outliner.object_operation(type='SELECT_HIERARCHY' ) & bpy.ops.outliner.collection_objects_select()
These two tasks are quite similar and it might be worth unifying these to just one hotkey.
Try this devtalk.blender.org/t/outliner-gsoc-follow-up-feedback/15948/80
For collections it's not possible to make multi selection. For objects - it's possible. imgur.com/RVwOe5m if some one interested I can share it, until Outliner become this by default.