16 (relatively) easy things would make EI more productive

[bwcc]

I tried this a while back and received some positive feedback... While we all appreciate the hard work in the 9 and 9.1 releases, I thought I would try it again. These are meant to be minor UI adjustments that would improve productivity. One item from the previous list was adopted (reveal in Finder). I also added few. - if any of these have been implemented and I am unaware - please let me know.

 

 

1. allow user to make the deformation list box bigger (like texture map box)

 

 

2. ability to reorder deformation region up to the top position

 

3. single button that turns off and on all deformations for an object

 

4. highlight entire animation line (key frames) when object is selected (see after effects)

 

5. ability to select animation channel of an object to highlight the channel key frames

 

6. raytrace shadow radius should be a ratio of the distance to the reference. If I animate the position of the light, the softness of shadow would remain consistent.

 

7. fog should be related to camera position (as it is now) but have the distance relate to camera reference position. as the camera is animated the fog distance automatically animates based on the camera reference.

 

8. global light adjust. In the render menu, a factor to adjust all light intensities in the scene. maybe it's better to put in the "World" menu so it could be animated.

 

9. ability to adjust the opacity of background image in camera window. we can adjust the opacity in the map window which is seen when rendered but not in the preview.

 

10. auto save

 

11. redo

 

12. automatically search for missing files, have EIAS copy and paste the name of the missing file into the search field of the import dialog.

 

13. a single window to hold snapshots that can positioned and always rendered into (see modo) - apparently this is more difficult than it seems, I kept it on the list because it would be so awesome.

 

14. preview a texture map from any channel (specular, transparency, etc) in the camera and projection windows.

 

15. preview of blend modes, texture map blur, layers in texture map window

 

16. ability to select which channels are applied when using master materials. ability to place a texture on a specific model while using a master material.

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Brian,

 

I will take note..!

 

Thanks

 

Tom

[Brian]

Please, NO AUTO SAVE! haha I HATE Auto Save in Mac OS 10.8. Call me old fashioned but I like "Saving As" WHEN I WANT TO  :)

 

Rhino implemented the auto save thing and it just seems messy to me. I open so many files in a day to grab things out and export and so on. I hate always worrying about the fact that it is saving every little thing I do.

[bwcc]

I wouldn't want it to auto save automatically... it would have to a preference setting.

 

In Modo it works well. You can set it to save incremental files as often as you want, or it can be turned off completely. EIAS is stable but if you work a lot with plug-ins it crashes on a regular basis.