Blenderstorm

Sandbox
Popular
In development
Implemented
Idea #110: Keyboard-less (or minimal) control for tablet or pocket users

bug This idea is awaiting moderator approval before going to the popular ideas area.
  • Description
  • Report duplicate
  • Help promote this idea!
Written by joshwedlake the 24 Aug 10 at 20:10. Category: User Interface. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: Awaiting moderation
Rationale
The one-hand-on-the-keyboard-one-hand-on-the-mouse mantra falls down for tablet and portable (touch/stylus) device users. An alternative gesture or pointing device only input system would be extremely helpful.

Blender is hard to use on devices which have minimal physical keyboards. When using a tablet, functions such as scrolling (to increase the size of a fall-off area for example) require using the mouse's scroll button - or at least taking a hand off the pen or keyboard to use the on-tablet scrolling.

Blender currently offers multiple ways to work: with fixed menus, under-mouse menus, buttons and keyboard combinations, blender can be operated almost entirely using a tablet (or stylus), except for a few core functions (especially those requiring modifier keys, eg viewport navigation).
Tags: (none)
1/10
Approvals

0
votes
closed
0
votes
closed
0
votes
closed

Propose your solution


Duplicates
[Report a duplicate and merge its votes to this idea]


Comments
joshwedlake wrote on the 25 Aug 10 at 07:46
heya, thanks for adding more solutions - both would be useful! Although i agree that a sidebar for tools is better than a floating panel, sambler is right in that it needs to be movable from side to side or top or bottom depending on your handedness or whether you have a widescreen or a portrait screen (phones etc).

The float keyboard looks cool for numeric input. I guess it is equally as fast as stylus alphabets for numbers, but for text fields would something like this be quicker?
http://www.yorku.ca/mack/hci3.html (from palms or psions i think?) or are stylus alphabets too prone to error so that typing on an on-screen-keyboard is actually quicker?

My main issue is still with the viewport navigation (for example if I'm modelling or sculpting or painting for long periods of time I rarely need to type - i can just snap instead) but I don't like having to rely on a keyboard for navigation. Although I'm not sure how gestures could replace all the shift/ctrl/alt modifiers without becoming really compl


Post your comment