Dev:2.5/Source/Data system/Outliner

Todo's for the Outliner

Bugs

no known bugs

Feature requests

Collapse display of "next layer"

If an Outliner node has subnodes, then each child of the next level is also displayed as an icon in a list:

This works great as long as the next layer only has a few number of elements.But when the number of children in the next layer increases further then eventually there is no more place in the display row of the parent object and thus not all children of the next layer are guaranteed to be displayed.

Can you tell from this screenshot where in the hierarchy the selected object is located ? :

Actually there is no hint in the Outliner where the currently selected Objects are in the hierarchy.

Alternative display of "Next Layer"

I propose basically 2 changes:

1. Mark the hierarchies visually
2. Collapse the list of similar children to a single icon with an indicator of how many children are actually contained:

The dots mark that there are children in the subtree. optional idea:

• orange dots: All children are selected
• white dots: some children are selected
• black dots: all children are unselected

Navigate to selected

• In the Outliner: provide an option which will enable the layer visibility of all layers where the object is located. And focus on the selection in 3D View.
• In the 3D View: provide an option that will open the Noe hierarchy and focus on the first selected node in the hierarchy.

Select Parent recursive

Like select child recursive, but selects object and all its parents up to the root.

Select objects based on rules

Like "All objects having the same material"

Add a search field

For searching objects by name

Drag and drop parenting of multiple objects

basically allow dragging/dropping of multiple objects

Locate active object in collapsed tree

When the Outlimner tree is (partially) collapsed, then locating the active object (by pressing ".") should open the tree so that the active object gets exposed.

Lock outliner to active

When the active object changes in the 3D View, and the outliner is not collapsed, then the outliner should scroll to the new active object

simplified Outliner View

There is so much "noise" in there. The fact that every object has meshes, lights, cameras etc. as subentries, turns everything into quite a mess. If those infos would be either removed or displayed as icons *beside* the object's entries, things would be far easier to handle. Currently it feels a bit as if Windows Explorer would present you subentries for every folder with infos like contained filetypes etc.

Create Object Hierarchies

For example by creating empties in the 3D viewport as object parents(folders). They could be placed at the selected objects median points.