The third approach might work if:
·By default the selection is not synchronized.
·There is a quick way to select and deselect all ("a" and "Alt+a")
·There is a quick way to invert the selection ("Ctrl+a" or "Click on empty screen space")
·There is a quick mode for Select Linked (double click on the element with selection tool)
·There is a quick mode for Unselect Linked (Ctrl+double click on the element with selection tool)

Just a couple of ideas.
If the preselection were gradual as the cursor approaches the Face Maps, this could be done by progressively illuminating the contour of the Face Maps until the cursor is over the face group and the faces are already illuminated, in this way I think that The Christmas tree effect would be avoided.
Second, Vertex Maps could also be used to animate details. In the same way, when approaching the cursor to the vertex sets they could gain opacity.

If you really want to work with brush assets and have a global palette, I think it is convenient that most of them derive from the same parent and their individual attributes are the ones that define their function. The clothes brush already works like this.

Thanks Philipp for keeping an eye on it and answering me.

As a reminder to devtalk, I leave here the link of a spherical model with the Blender logo in case you are interested in showing the material presets with it.
In addition to differentiating materials from other programs, I think having a corner, cavity, overlap, and narrow wall can help you understand the properties of some materials.
If you are interested, feel free to use it.

In T84685#1170659, @Evan Wilson (EAW) wrote:

This report fell through the cracks, I am sorry about that @Albert (wevon).

By using the limit surface with the crease setting at max, you are creating a discontinuity in the surface.

From Pixar's OSD documentation:

It should be noted that infinitely sharp creases are really tangent discontinuities in the surface, implying that the geometric normals are also discontinuous there. Therefore, displacing along the normal will likely tear apart the surface along the crease. If you really want to displace a surface at a crease, it may be better to make the crease semi-sharp.

The vetex having 3 edges connected to it, and 2 are infinitely sharp while the other is smooth, leads to the result you are seeing.

This isn't a bug, it is just how Catmull-Clark subdivision evaluated at the limit surface of an infinitely sharp crease works.

What kind of information is missing?

A few days ago I made a couple of proposals on rightclickselect.

In T84685#1093046, @Evan Wilson (EAW) wrote:

Hi @Albert (wevon), thank you for the report.

Can you please upload a simple .blend file containing that mesh? I tried reproducing the issue when I first saw you post it here, but I couldn't. (I forgot to respond to you in that thread saying that you should report it.)

This mockup starts from the basis that there are only 4 active tools in
Sculpt mode:
· Brushes
· Filters
· Gestures
· Operations.

@Ryan Inch (Imaginer)
The renderings, work files and various tests that I have carried out to preview the sculpture brushes are shared on the drive.
These can be found in the SCULPT BALL ICONS VERTEXCOL folder.

I upload some icons for preset, which I made for Billrey some time ago but it came to nothing.
My idea was to be able to create them fast, using a simple editor, which starting from few primitive objects and the vertex color, would allow to show and store the functions of the brushes. I don't think automatic dynamic previews for sculpt brushes is going to work well, and the process to create the flat icons is too elaborate to generate presets.
As we are talking about grouping the active tools and working from presets, I leave it here for reference.

With Pablo's idea of having four active tools (brushes, filters, gestures and editing operations), I thought of a quick and simple access presets using the keyboard.

I have made an approximate representation of how the above described would be distributed on the screen.

Since the organization of the brushes is being rethought, I make a drastic proposal.

Although it all started with the design of the icons for version 2.91, I would like to make a few notes about the organization of the sculpture tools.

I hope you like it

The mesh, clothing, and color filters of the sculpture module have the diagonal cursor arrow.
I believe that being the positive effect of the filter, when clicking and moving to the right and the negative to the left, a double horizontal arrow would be the correct cursor icon to use. The side could even be accentuated when the filter is running, in other words, illuminate the right arrow when clicking and moving to the right, and vice versa for the left.

When the radius is small they are more compact and the visual effort is less, but they are misaligned. I have made a simulation with Constraints so that you can check a new alignment.

Perhaps minimizing the panels automatically when moving and reopening them once they have been rearranged would make it more compact and avoid scrolling.

Just a suggestion. With Ctrl + mouse wheel on the L panel it is possible to jump from tab to tab, but the pen does not have a wheel and the option is lost. It would be nice to find an alternative for pen tablets.

In reference to what I was previously commented (relationship between the 3D viewer and Node Editor) I see 5 possibilities when entering procedural mode.
1- Completely freeze the manual edition.
2- Completely freeze the manual edition, but allow to select elements to create clusters.
3- Maintain the edition of the base mesh, and apply the functions of the nodes after, as it is currently happening with the modifiers.
4- Freeze the initial mesh, connect nodes, and by selecting the nodes, allow some editing on the 3D viewer.
5- Pass to a historical mode, where each action generates a node, and it's conneted automatically.

I would like to refer to another point that is how you can interact with the nodes from the 3D viewer.
Although most nodes do not require 3D interaction, deformers, constraints, and mesh modifiers do.
I think 3D Gizmos should appear when selecting nodes and a node editing tool is actived.
By using the Gizmos they could be modified, autofill the attributes of the node, and autoconnect other nodes.

You can think of it as if you temporary add subsurf modifier with subdivision level one and then "merge" it into the multires modifier.

I was going to post a bug but it is already solved. In version 2.82 a vertex with 2 egdes generated a hole when deforming with Subsurf, but not with Multires.
When trying to report this error I have noticed that in version 2.83 the same model is not smoothed in the same way with Subsurf as in Multires. I thought the algorithm was the same.
I upload the file in case you want to investigate.

Playing a little more I have seen that the problem has nothing to do with the import, but with the emitter of the fire. The simple fact of eliminating the Fluid Flow (Fire + Smoke), makes the fire disappear and only the smoke remains in de Domain, even if the Cache is already stored.
In the same scene you can copy and instance the Domain as much as you want, but the moment you delete the Flow, the fire of all the copied Domains disappears.

The problem persists but I have found a peculiarity.

One solution of course is to make the keymap editor also work more like this.

I vote it
The only drawback I see is when comparing options.
If not all of the preference editors were synchronized, it would be resolved, they are currently a clone.

Today I tested it and it works correctly.
At some point I remember the program was closed instantly, the last time I could not draw the path. Surely, when you inverted the left button by right, you could not find it, if so, forgive the inconvenience.

I reported this bug before
https://developer.blender.org/T72022

Automatically generate Face Maps from Loose Parts, materials, surface curvature, UV islands ... I think it would be useful.

It still does not work today.

I have noticed that Snake Hook correctly fixes the direction when Original Normal is activated, and also press the control key. Together it works, but not separately.

I considered what Gizmo should look like, when the selection was small, and I have also tried to overload less.

Starting from the base of the first image, I made a small update.
Understanding that the pivot is always in the opposite corner of the active grip, I have colored them depending on the number of axes of influence. The black box has nothing assigned since I don't know if it's worth it based on the central pivot or with respect to the view.

Perhaps it is a bit overloaded, but the box transformer could be used to SCALE and SHEAR, and pressing the Alt key, to MOVE and ROTATE.
Here I leave a capture of the two modes, the yellow shapes allow to scale and rotate from the opposite base, and the RGB move and Shear, depending on the mode.

I wanted to share a trick that I use to perform retopology. Subdivide the mesh but with the simple option. In this way, the contours do not round up so much, and the edition vertices remain in the same place as the originals. With the extra faces and the Shrinkwrap the new mesh is always seen above the reference mesh.

Yes, it works correctly. Fantastic

Sorry for duplicating the task.
I was done.

I have the same problem.

I think so, Duarte Farrajota.

Rethinking my proposal based on not mixing the properties of active tools with anything, I think the top bar could be below the header. In this way the editor and the mode would always be on the top right.
In the previous screenshot, I had duplicated the properties of the active tool to show the vertical and horizontal option, in this new model I added an intercanver to avoid this duplicity.
Although in Sculpt mode there are no coordinates, snaps ... in the center of the header I have added them to see how the distribution could be in other modes.

If the toolbar can be hidden, I see an error that the Editor Type and Mode are in the toolbar.

Because all the options of the collections are transferred to the objects inside, I suggest contrasting them with respect to the rest of the objects, and indicating their effect on their contents.
I guess the video is sufficiently explanatory. Although it is only a visual effect, I understand that it helps to understand the hierarchy of effects.

In T61542#620557, @Sebastian Parborg (zeddb) wrote:

This is how it is intended to work. The child will copy the transforms of the parent.

In this case the empty will have its coordinate space origin moved to the location of the vertex.

I see it a bit confusing to link a collection of the blender file to the scene. I think it would be useful to call them from Layer View directly. Even a pop-up menu that shows all the collections and allows you to link and unlink directly, would be very useful, so you do not have to switch between Outlinier modes.

Yes, today I tried on several computers and does not work, there is no indication.

Looking for an object to visualize the transparent and translucent materials, I think you could find something with grace, that as Suzanne could be imported by default. Suzanne not being flat does not rest well on the surface and always has to adjust its position a bit and does not always fit.
It is only a sketch, if interested you can work better and optimize.

Without wanting to stretch longer since it is out of topic.
I have improved the design, I have made a video and I have uploaded it to RightClickSelect to explain myself better, I hope it is useful Charlie, thanks for your attention.

In T58777#595898, @Charlie Jolly (charlie) wrote:

@Albert (wevon) it is on my todo list to look into implementing this

Increasing the quality of subdivisions to 6 solves it.
If the performance does not get much worse I think that the quality parameter should always be at the maximum, or even be eliminated.