Hi,

Is there a quick way to see in which Handle mode alignment we are instead of constantly cycle over all this modes with “M” ?

Thanks

Hey Julca,

not as quick as you wish I guess…. but you can right-click on your handle and choose align handle. In there you can see the alignment.

Cheers
CYTE

Hello CYTE,

Yes it's near the same constraint but that's an other method, thank you for the tip.

And on your side don't you find that annoying ?
I may probably post an RFE for a visual feedback about alignment mode.

Cheers

Hey Julca,

To be honest I don‘t mind. I can see the orientation of the gizmo in the viewport. Thats all I need to decide if im in the right alignment mode for the action I want to do.

Cheers
CYTE

The biggest issue is not that you don't see the space you're in. If it suits your present need, you use it as you see it in VP and with a few exceptions, you don't need to know more.
The biggest issue is changing the space you're in. Having to navigate a menu and a sub-menu is slow and gets tiresome quickly if you have to change them as often as one does when modeling or animation. Cycling through is almost as bad.
It would be great if SESI had adopted the context aware menus philosophy, which would make a RMB on a transform gizmo appear only the relevant options for that transform. Also, buttons somewhere in the interface in order to change by single LMB click.
These would be a small “quality of life” item crossed on that huge list.

Hey McNistor,

your right, the workflow could be improved in many places. I think the best way to create a workflow that suits a lot of working styles is to make it easily customizable. SideFX has put the radial menus in Houdini 16. now its time for the next step: make it easy to customize your own radial menus. this alignment thing would fit perfectly in one. but atm only code experts could create one…

Cheers
CYTE

@CYTE, @McNistor, Well said, thank you for your feedback !

Not a big fan of radial menus - not as fast and easy on the brain as hotkeys and especially bad for something like Snapping (which needs a transient key for on the fly ON/OFF not meddling through menus).
But for changing the transf.space I think radial menus are adequate.
Cheers!

Hello,
100% agree on transient key for snapping with an ON / OFF on the fly.
In combination with locked transform axes in “secure selection” mode it would be a powerful combo.


I really like the radial menu for semi-recurrent tools as it's a perfect balance between direct hotkeys and tab menu.
I miss just about really few direct hotkeys for more recurrent tool like for example basic divide (edge/or poly) and extrude (direct). I know I can customize them but I think that really basic modeling op need to be here by default.
cf. below short example of what we can do with only 2 differents hotkeys.


OK I deviate a little from the initial subject but the link of all that is ergonomic !
Let's keep our fingers crossed for 17 and + !
Cheers

Switching from parent mode to any other mode is very important when animating, so you can see which exact direction you are altering with the Graph editor. There should be a quicker way to do it.

Grendizer
Switching from parent mode to any other mode is very important when animating, so you can see which exact direction you are altering with the Graph editor. There should be a quicker way to do it.

I absolutely agree. Nesting those important things is typical for the way Houdini does things. It is the software that needs the most clicks and actions for everything. It also is the only softare that uses key compinations to switch viewports and you can not change that.
If I had the time I would make a list of all those little things that can be improved without even touching any actual functions…
I don't have the time though, because Houdini is stealing it all…

Hey everybody,
I just discovered that there is a hotkey that you can assign to the reverse cycle handle alignment. So you can use this and the normal cycle alignment to switch between two states. Not ideal I know, but better than cycling threw all of them each time.

Cheers
CYTE

CYTE
but better than cycling threw all of them each time.

Well, that's debatable
I see no improvement. Unless the two modes are next to each other, cycling back'n'forth does little to improve interactivity, and the spaces one uses are rarely in the order they're cycled. Basically, one has to remember those spaces (because there's no visual aid for knowing in which space you are) and mentally map that cycle order to know how many times to press ‘M’ or w/e. The only reliable way to know what you're doing is to painfully navigate through two RMB menus.

It's a UI/UX clusterfuck which, a few versions later since I'm around here, SideFX still didn't address. I don't know whether they think this is not crucial for modeling, rigging and animation or, they recognize the issue, but not enough of their studio-variety TD clientele have complained to do something about it.

@Pickled, yes totally agree.
We need all to explain more and why with RFE.

I really would a little visible and permanent panel with all mode to select and see current transform mode.