A solution to macros

[KapcodeTech]

Lets all brainstorm together on this one.

 

Macros are important for productivity, in things such as software development, CAD, video editing.. I could go on forever.

 

Every single solution out there,... Including my solution have huge drawbacks!

 

 

• desk space
• reaching / taking hand off keyboard or mouse
• remembering what each key/combo does
• macro recording abuilities
• auto hotkey is no mach for Java, or c++ for complex things
• Labels out of paper
• expensive (stream decks)
• setup time
• on the fly adjustments

 

I have yet to see one solution out there that kills every one of those drawbacks.

 

Drop down menus are horrible, especially nested ones... UGGHHH 

 

 

I think there is some way we all can make a solution to this problem!

I'm willing to do the leg work, Ill make it open source... whatever will make this problem go away.

 

 

 

all I can think of is a GUI popup kind of start menu ish thing... 

with ability to use GUI or code to make macros, and add to menu

 

Have a key/keys bound to show and hiding it, and way of showing and hiding with mouse buttons.

that would leave you with new problems:

• how do you navigate menu?
• what macros to show and when
• a popup menu on your screen if you are recording, or streaming.(above solutions probably better for streaming/screen recording)
• will it turn into something as horrible as windows start? I'd hate myself for that lol

I have a ton of time invested in an app for macros, but it has all the same problems as a stream deck or extra keyboard. so ... its trash... well for my use case.

Whats your thoughts? GUI thing? Does reaching matter much? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KapcodeTech]

I am really good in java, and like the cross platform nature of it. I am making a proof of concept, and I have a great idea for navigating the menu.

 

Press trigger key/keys

 

a frame pops up, with buttons labeled with a name, and a small letter. 

the buttons would be arranged in order of qwerty keyboard.

 

so show the menu, press the key that corresponds to your macro.

 

thats the basic idea.

 

some pictures to show my idea:

 

 

 

 

[KapcodeTech]

MackUI demo.mp4

[Guest]

Have you used Autodesk Maya? 

The dropdown menus can be “torn off” and placed anywhere as like a sub menu. 

Additionally there are 2 pop up menus and 1 is fully customizable and the other is context based. 

 

When you hold space, you can click any command that pops up & you can change the ones there. You can also set custom shelves in the top menu area. 

If you right click and hold, context menus show up. If you are in object mode and haven’t anything selected, you can create a cube or cylinder. If you have an object selected, you can change to face vertex or edge mode. If you’re in edge mode, you can select 2 edges and “bridge” them together. 

 

There are a lot of hidden menus like double clicking the translate tool to access special settings. 

 

Provided youll do a lot of clicking but you can view the keyboard shortcuts by looking at the key next to the title of the command if it has a key. Additionally the G key can execute the last command. If you were to bridge a lot of edges, you can select 2 edges, right click and select bridge and choose optional settings after. Then you just have to select new edges and press G. You can still change settings but right clicking and clicking bridge is not necessary if it was your last command. 

 

I think blender has optional plugins people made like pie menu or something to achieve similar results to pop up menus. 

[Required]

Imacros?

[KapcodeTech]

On 7/17/2018 at 10:41 AM, fpo said:

Have you used Autodesk Maya? 

The dropdown menus can be “torn off” and placed anywhere as like a sub menu. 

Additionally there are 2 pop up menus and 1 is fully customizable and the other is context based. 

 

When you hold space, you can click any command that pops up & you can change the ones there. You can also set custom shelves in the top menu area. 

If you right click and hold, context menus show up. If you are in object mode and haven’t anything selected, you can create a cube or cylinder. If you have an object selected, you can change to face vertex or edge mode. If you’re in edge mode, you can select 2 edges and “bridge” them together. 

 

There are a lot of hidden menus like double clicking the translate tool to access special settings. 

 

Provided youll do a lot of clicking but you can view the keyboard shortcuts by looking at the key next to the title of the command if it has a key. Additionally the G key can execute the last command. If you were to bridge a lot of edges, you can select 2 edges, right click and select bridge and choose optional settings after. Then you just have to select new edges and press G. You can still change settings but right clicking and clicking bridge is not necessary if it was your last command. 

 

I think blender has optional plugins people made like pie menu or something to achieve similar results to pop up menus. 

I have not, i'm not sure if its available for Linux or not, but I'm looking for cross platform solution. I'll look into it tho, both my pc's use Linux for os.

 

My main issue is having to take my hands off of the keyboard, As a programmer, I do not like to use the mouse if I can help it, pretty much everything I can do with Macros shoul be able to be done easily without any clicking, or mouse movements... or ridiculous memorization of key combos.  I even have scrolling bound to macro keys on the left part of my keyboard, its less of a reach.

 

If there is a solution already that works great, thats awesome,but for now I'm going to make my own, I have a very basic prototype, but no where near done. Should work for win,Linux,osx

 

I'll post alpha when I've made it that far

[Guest]

I’m presuming you have used vi or vim then? 

It had keyboard shortcuts for jumping all around large text documents. It was created in the 50s or 60s at bell labs for Unix. It’s in most Linux distros i believe. 

 

Thats all i got. Unless you build a custom keyboard or get some extra perriferals thatre supplemental to your keyboard then I think you need to memorize some key combos.