When view is locked to object, view is centered to origin of choosen object.
Then, user is free to add an offset if it is less pertinent to see origin than a specific part of the model.
If created offset is not wanted, user can press Home Key to recenter view to origin of object.
Lock to Object is working because if object is moved, view follows it.

It is intended behaviour.

I did not find exact commit.
But I remember same reaction for locking to 3D Cursor. T45301

So this undocumented change should have happened at 2.75 or 2.74.

Please note, in my steps the object is never moved, on the view is translated. Thus not locked according to manual or previous version of blender.

Attached is a movie showing the behavior.

On a whim I connected a mouse up to my laptop. Using a mouse, the view locking works as expected. Using the trackpad the view locking does not work in 2.78a (but does work in 2.49b).

In the manual description noted, view to object is not locked in view translation, only object translation.
"..... the view can be rotated around or zoomed towards that central object, but not on translation,...."

"but not on translation,"

The translation is locked only when you use the manipulator.
Seems to work accordingly for me.

Am I understanding what you said correctly?

Did you see my video and my subsequent notes? It works if I use a MOUSE, but it does NOT work properly with the MacBook Pro's TRACKPAD.

Bastien,

It works as described in the manual when done with a mouse. It does not work when using a trackpad.

Are you saying that the expected behavior is for it to work as described when using a mouse but to NOT work when using a trackpad?

FWIW it works in2.49b. I have not tried latest build from buildbot. I am traveling until Tue so I will try it next week. Since there is a work around this is low priority but I am happy to help resolve it upon return, just let me know how I can assist. BTW I agree that it seems reasonable to expect either approach to work.

The Apple trackpad sends different events like MOUSEPAN, and it may be that the code handling those is not the same. However testing with 2.78a, I could not find any difference between behavior of the mouse and trackpad.

Which operations exactly are you comparing? Shift + hold middle mouse button and shift + two finger trackpad pan?

For both mouse and tracked I can pan / rotate / zoom the view, to look at some specific part of the object. Then if I move the object (from the same 3D view or another one), the view remains locked to that (part of the) object. That may be different than 2.49, but it's by design as far as I know.

I am traveling without my laptop until Tuesday but I can assure you the behavior is different with mouse than trackpad. The mouse functions as expected.

Brecht, thank you for your patience I'm back home now.

Yes, I am comparing Shift + hold middle mouse button and shift + two finger trackpad pan with 2.78a.

• When I use the mouse it works in 2.78a exactly the same as in 2.49b.
• When I use the trackpad it acts like the object is not locked in 2.78a and works the same as the mouse in 2.49b.

This is using the built-in trackpad on the laptop.

Let's forget about 2.49, it seems to be distracting to the conversation instead of helping.

With 2.78b when I connect a mouse to my computer (and use the mouse) I get the expected behavior and I see the warning at the top that the view offset is locked.

When I use the trackpad, the locking does not work, it behaves as if the locking were not enabled.

To make sure I had a clean environment:

• I created a new user account on my machine
• I downloaded the latest blender from blender.org (2.78b)
• I locked the view to the cube

The "View offset is locked" message is shown for two operations:

• View Pan with shift/control + scroll
• View Dolly with shift + control + middle mouse drag

Are those the operations you're doing?

The inconsistency between view panning with the scroll wheel and holding down the middle mouse button could be fixed.

I unified the view panning code now so it behaves the same with scrolling and dragging the middle mouse button (and the trackpad). If there's other inconsistencies we'll need to know the specific operation done.

So far I see no evidence that there is a bug with the trackpad handling, as explained above it is intentional that you can still navigate with object locking. A bug would be if e.g. moving the object would not keep the view locked to the same part of the object.

Great, thanks for improving the consistency! I remember Ton mentioning the importance of ui consistency in his 2015 conference keynote, it is appreciated.