Operators to save curve or point selection as an attribute #99297

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Hans Goudey · 2022-06-30T14:46:26+02:00

Hans Goudey commented

2022-06-30 14:46:26 +02:00

It would be useful to save selections as attributes and to load them later.
Two operators should be added and exposed in the "Select" menu in curves sculpt mode:

Selection to Attribute
- Saves the current selection into a float attribute, with a domain depending on the current selection domain
- A popup allows you to choose the name or potentially convert into an existing attribute
Attribute to Selection
- Allows choosing any attribute and copying it to the selection.
- The current selection domain could be set to the domain of the chosen attribute.

The operators should be disabled when selection is disabled.

In edit mode in the future this would work the same, except a boolean attribute would be created.

It would be useful to save selections as attributes and to load them later. Two operators should be added and exposed in the "Select" menu in curves sculpt mode: - Selection to Attribute - Saves the current selection into a float attribute, with a domain depending on the current selection domain - A popup allows you to choose the name or potentially convert *into* an existing attribute - Attribute to Selection - Allows choosing any attribute and copying it to the selection. - The current selection domain could be set to the domain of the chosen attribute. The operators should be disabled when selection is disabled. In edit mode in the future this would work the same, except a boolean attribute would be created.

Hans Goudey commented

2022-06-30 14:46:26 +02:00

Changed status from 'Needs Triage' to: 'Confirmed'

Hans Goudey commented

2022-06-30 14:46:26 +02:00

Added subscriber: @HooglyBoogly

Dalai Felinto commented

2022-06-30 15:13:58 +02:00

Added subscriber: @dfelinto

Dalai Felinto commented

2022-06-30 15:13:58 +02:00

Hi Hans,

My initial reaction to this was:

Does "Face Sets" fix that same problem (re-usable selections)?
Is this a problem unique to hair (probably not)?
How relevant is this problem to modelling/sculpting/greasepencil?
Is there a solution that contemplate all those modes/object types?
Do we want a generic attribute to selection operator? How will that work for non-boolean attributes?
How are people expected to edit attributes usually? Would be nice to have at least a design for this.

So basically my gut feeling is that this seems a bit rushed, and it risk isolating the hair workflow from the rest of Blender.

That's not to say that this solution is not good. I think it is rather reasonable actually. But I think it needs to be presented within the context of the rest of Blender (and ideally attribute editing and visualization as well).

Hi Hans, My initial reaction to this was: * Does "Face Sets" fix that same problem (re-usable selections)? * Is this a problem unique to hair (probably not)? * How relevant is this problem to modelling/sculpting/greasepencil? * Is there a solution that contemplate all those modes/object types? * Do we want a generic attribute to selection operator? How will that work for non-boolean attributes? * How are people expected to edit attributes usually? Would be nice to have at least a design for this. So basically my gut feeling is that this seems a bit rushed, and it risk isolating the hair workflow from the rest of Blender. That's not to say that this solution is not good. I think it is rather reasonable actually. But I think it needs to be presented within the context of the rest of Blender (and ideally attribute editing and visualization as well).

Hans Goudey commented

2022-06-30 15:58:50 +02:00

Good point about seeing this in a larger context. However, I actually don't think a larger context changes the design at all. I would use the same design for other object types.

In #99297#1382919, @dfelinto wrote:

Does "Face Sets" fix that same problem (re-usable selections)?

No, that is a different thing (integer value per curve), which doesn't solve the same problems as controlling the influence of an operation.
Also, we want storing a selection to be simple and non-destructive. We shouldn't be forced to convert it to a different concept to store it for later.

Is this a problem unique to hair (probably not)?

How relevant is this problem to modelling/sculpting/greasepencil?

Is there a solution that contemplate all those modes/object types?
So basically my gut feeling is that this seems a bit rushed, and it risk isolating the hair workflow from the rest of Blender.

I would apply the same design for any other object type that supports attributes, I think the utility is the same. Sometimes making a selection can take a while, so saving it makes sense.

Do we want a generic attribute to selection operator? How will that work for non-boolean attributes?

Well, we're dealing with float attributes here. But it would just use the existing implicit conversions. I don't think there's any reason not to allow the flexibility.

How are people expected to edit attributes usually? Would be nice to have at least a design for this.

Obviously we want better ways to edit/paint attributes. That would make it easy to paint whatever selection attribute you saved.
However, I don't see that as blocking this task. We already allow creating attributes, this is just another way to create them and use them.

Good point about seeing this in a larger context. However, I actually don't think a larger context changes the design at all. I would use the same design for other object types. > In #99297#1382919, @dfelinto wrote: > * Does "Face Sets" fix that same problem (re-usable selections)? No, that is a different thing (integer value per curve), which doesn't solve the same problems as controlling the influence of an operation. Also, we want storing a selection to be simple and non-destructive. We shouldn't be forced to convert it to a different concept to store it for later. > * Is this a problem unique to hair (probably not)? > * How relevant is this problem to modelling/sculpting/greasepencil? > * Is there a solution that contemplate all those modes/object types? > So basically my gut feeling is that this seems a bit rushed, and it risk isolating the hair workflow from the rest of Blender. I would apply the same design for any other object type that supports attributes, I think the utility is the same. Sometimes making a selection can take a while, so saving it makes sense. > * Do we want a generic attribute to selection operator? How will that work for non-boolean attributes? Well, we're dealing with float attributes here. But it would just use the existing implicit conversions. I don't think there's any reason not to allow the flexibility. > * How are people expected to edit attributes usually? Would be nice to have at least a design for this. Obviously we want better ways to edit/paint attributes. That would make it easy to paint whatever selection attribute you saved. However, I don't see that as blocking this task. We already allow creating attributes, this is just another way to create them and use them.

RedMser commented

2022-07-16 22:09:48 +02:00

Added subscriber: @RedMser

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Operators to save curve or point selection as an attribute #99297