Text field input for blender 3d modelling

* @Jason van Gumster * This is not just a text entry field. This is also a visual aid.

Having a tool tip that follows the cursor when trying to transform something would make more sense in my own opinion compared to looking on the data info displayed on the upper left. I think everyone would agree that it is more preferable to have your focus mostly fixed on the center viewport when performing tranform funtions and not looking back and forth from the object and onto the upper left just to see if you reach 1.55 m or other measurement targets.

Typing is not always the way to model things sometimes manually dragging the transform tools is a vood way to examine some things while modelling and not be totally tied to the prepared measurements on your paper.

I agree all these things I have said are already doable in blender but I hope doable would not be the only reaso to why we could not improve some things if needed. Maybe to some this is already fine. They may not be too focused on measurements but entirely shapes and appearance which is also a good different style and doesn't use much mesurement monitoring that is why rhey tend to be fine with the tooltip placed on the upper left instead of an option to have it follow the transform cursor. This is not the case with some other creators which in most cases need to look and monitor the measurements when modelling.

This might look a small addition to the UI but I strongly believe this would be a big leap for precision modelling. Let us forget the dimension tools for now and I could say this would be my recommended priority request when it comes to the precision modelling community.

* @johnpdelacruz26 * Personally, I disagree. Especially when modeling, I want as little visual obstruction as possible.

Even still, we need to be careful with adding precision modeling tools. It may give the impression that Blender is good for precision modeling when in fact it doesn't have the data structures (double-precision floating point numbers) to support this.

I get what you are saying. We should also recognize that blender is not just mainly composed of creators that are focusing more on organic modelling but also people and industries that are also considering basic form of precision modelling like product design and architecture. I would totally understand if blender is still not mainstream but it already is and this small addition would ultimately be a big leap and at the same time be a compromise for blender when it comes to these kind of fields.

I would like to emphasize that this is not mainly about those complex cad precision modelling functionalities. Many people already know that they can work on those things with fusion 360 at least or other programs that are open source. This proposal is mainly about basic and simple precision modelling although I believe that is is not far fetched vision that blender would soon have some developers that would focus on these things.

This tool would make doing these supposedly basic things much easier to accomplish and less tedious to work with. No need to look up to the farthest corner of your viewport just to see and monitor the actual changes being made when transforming manually.

It is not all the time that the text input is the best way to do things. Sometimes you have to do some adjustments and monitoring manually. Where a user can still drag and move some dimensions and weigh in what is the best option or more preferable adjustments being made. It is not always about inputting numbers and assigning some numbers that are already prepared beforehand, there are also time when the user has to manually observe the changes.

In a scenario where a user is assigned to a decently large amount of project that would require some basic precision modelling, I could only imagine how he/she would deal with the task with having only the tooltip at the top left corner of the screen. They would have to look back and forth from the object and up to the corner just to perform and track some of the adjustments being done. I could see them finishing the task not nearly as fast as if it would have been just optionally available in front of them.

I hope we should also consider these things not only for those organic modelling creators but also to those future/potentially 3d modellers that are also focused on basic precision modelling. Let us forget those complex dimensions, tools, and constraints for a while and let us focus on small things that we can easily achieve as a good start. Basic precision modelling, practically only needs basic floating values to adjust and create simple base models.

* @johnpdelacruz26 * I get where you're coming from. However, if you have a lot of precision modeling tools, people are going to expect precision modeling performance and accuracy... which Blender is not going to have any time soon, if ever.

To use a poor metaphor, it's kind of like putting on a racing helmet and strapping into a 5-point seat harness... but the vehicle you're driving is the family van. You may have the interface of a race car, but you're going to be really disappointed when the van doesn't perform as expected.

* @Jason van Gumster * Again I am not intending for blender to be a legitimate precision/ cad modelling tool. What I am trying to point out is that basically if blender won't be that kind of software now and in the future, at least we should think about those creators that needs some kind of tool that would aid them to have some kind of control with regards to transforming with different kinds of measurements. This would be a good compromise and a way to welcome some artists that are not necessarily cad focused but aims to have some kind of control and uniformity among objects and dimensions. I already opted out for invisioning blender to have some basic cad functionalities and I hope they would consider this as a consolation prize/ a souvenir for people like me who had high hopes of the past hype that blender would have some kind of branch that would work on this in which I fully understand if these things happens.

Lastly, I want to also point out that this tool that I am proposing would not only be useful for some kind of precision modelling in blender but there is a high probability that a number of poeple would prefer monitoring transform changes with tooltip that would essentially be following a cursor that wont go out of the viewport display compared to the one where you always have to look at it back and forth up to the far upper left corner of the screen. Everybody would know that blender is not trying to be a cad tool and this one is just an optional tool for creators that might need some very minor type of measurement assistance and I hope blender would consider it in the future.