What is that “KK2”?
Well, this subject (naming) has eaten a much bigger chunk out of this thread than it deserves so I'm proposing to move along.
I'm bringing forward another matter (about which Marty said that he's anxious/curious to see what I have to say) - the
View tool.
Let's consider a scenario most modelers and not only (mostly people that work more in viewport than in editors) will often find themselves in:
you're modeling in the persp. viewport and want to check the model in an orto-view (right, front, top) for some reason (check for dimensions, errors, etc.).
Now, if you're in XSI/Maya you hit a key and you're in four views. You see something you want to address in say top view, you point your mouse cursor over that view and hit again the key (defaults for XSI/Maya - F12/Space) and bam! you're in that viewport.
Let's recap:
- hit F12/Space and look around
- point mouse to wanted view and hit F12/Space
Time to do this (excluding looking around) is a fraction of second.
For the same problem, in Houdini one would have to:
- ctrl+2 to go in four views mode; look around
- crtl+1 to go back in one view mode
- space+2 (or 3 or 4 if you want the other views)
Needles to say (it is needles, isn't it?) this is a PITA.
Imagine having to do this countless times in a modeling session.
Now, if there's a easier way to do this I very much like to hear it - I didn't find it while studying the interface by myself nor did I see something else in the tutorials I've watched so far and truth be told, the only modeling involved in these are boxes and cylinders.
The solution I'm proposing is pretty simple.
I've already mentioned the crazy, unnecessary number of ways to access the
View tool in Houdini as of now so take that Esc key and assign it to the “not so revolutionary, to be introduced concept”
maximize/minimize viewport.
What I'm basically saying here is that there hasn't have to be two modes “single view” and “four views” as it currently is. Just get rid of the “single view” mode (and obviously its icon), leave “four views” add a small icon outside the “view modes” icon next to it or below, to the right of the blue question mark, “maximize viewport” for whoever wants to click instead of hitting Esc key.
Make it work like in XSI/Maya is what I'm saying
p.s. While in “four views” mode it would also be sometimes useful to be able to click&drag on the views separators in order to resize them.