Hi Danny,

> <...> then the style and object type control is handled by filters,
> but unlike MoI there are more mouse clicks involved, it seems you
> have all this system nicely packaged in one area instead of having
> different popups to control object organisation, <...>

Yeah, when I got to a design that handled the type stuff in the same location and with the same UI as other kinds of batch operations, that's when things seemed to be coming together in a good direction.

That's pretty common in other applications for this kind of functionality to be split out into many different mechanisms like "layers", "named selection sets", "groups", and "commands to select by certain types", each with slightly different interfaces, access points, and capabilities.

It's been a pretty big goal for me to try and make a more streamlined UI that provides those kinds of tools but with a more unified and common access point and interface. I still have some pieces left to finish up for "Groups", but it seems like it is zeroing in pretty well to hit that overall goal now.

One thing that is pretty nice about this approach is that I can add quite a bit of additional power to the mechanism which does not end up being too hard to learn how to use since it is consistent between all the pieces.

Like for instance you can right-click on an eye to do an "isolate" - a right-click on solids will hide everything else except solids, right-click on the eye for "the Red style" will hide everything else except the red things, etc... That consistency helps with not needing to learn too many different kinds of things or navigate to too many different places to do batch operations, and it helps to provide some convenient capabilities like "isolate all curves" can now be a very natural single-click action rather than having to use a combination like "1: Select all curves, 2 : Invert selection , 3: Hide", which is what you would normally have to do if you had a types mechanism that only focused on selection and not other actions.

I had previously been thinking of dealing with types batching by having a select menu with stuff on it like "Select solids", "Select curves", etc... , but now the browser handles that job plus more direct actions like show/hide, isolation, deselection, - these would have added up to a lot of different menu items spread out through a few places.

It is kind of a new system not quite 100% following existing patterns, so there may be some kinks to work out. But I think it is based on some good principles so hopefully it should work out well...

> then I won't be able to handle it any more, then I'll
> quit work and stay home and just use MoI, but then
> no money will be coming in! then the wife will leave
> me and take everything and I'll end up on the streets
> like a bum! OMG!! what have you done Michael!!
> :)

:) If you're lucky it will just end up leading to general malaise and wistful thoughts of "if only I was using MoI", kind of only making your life more unpleasant and unhappy instead of putting you out on the streets. You are welcome. ;)

(just kidding of course, but if it does work out well there is an element to truth in there that you may very well get more grumbly about dealing with other UI as a side effect!)

- Michael