Show b-box in preview - if disabled cannot select the object or shape anymore

[KlausK]

Hi,
this has been bothering me from time to time so finally I thought I ask about it:

when I have many objects in a scene (the same goes for the SSS) I often disable "show b-box in preview" to reduce the viewport clutter.
That means I cannot select any object anymore until I enable the setting again. Then I have either all affected assets being shown in the viewport again (clutter)
or I have to go in and deselect each and every asset I do not need to work on atm. This is really a lot of clicking...

Is my workflow wrong? Can I avoid this somehow?
Or is this something which would correspond to the wish to have groups or layers or any other form of orginizational entity to handle large numbers of assets
in a more modern way? I would like to understand why the right-click lists have to be connected to this setting / preference at all?

How is everyone working around that? I assume each and everyone of you who is working with larger scenes has "suffered" from that.

CHeers, Klaus

[N-drju]

As far as I can tell, this is a normal behaviour as you can't select something that doesn't have a "grab point". I guess the b-box could indeed have been converted to a b-point or something...? I don't think this has anything to do with your workflow.

I, sort of, came to terms with this and try to just select my objects and shaders either in top view or in the node network.

[sboerner]

With cluttered scenes I generally select objects with right-click > Select Object or Shader. If you select Snap to Object or Shader the camera will frame the object.

I also group scene assets by type: populations, foliage, rocks, imported objects, water surfaces, clouds, etc. Then all instances of each type can be quickly hidden by selecting the group and pressing "d". I disable everything that I don't need to see at the moment. This eliminates a lot of waiting and frustration. Also try to work in Terrain mode so the shader, water, and atmosphere networks don't slow things down.

I close the 3D view whenever possible, too. It gives me a lot more screen space while working on node networks and avoids those awkward pauses when the preview starts to redraw. (But that won't help you here.)

Curious to hear from @DocCharly65. Some of his scenes must contain hundreds (thousands?) of objects, and he works very quickly.

[KlausK]

@sboerner

--> "With cluttered scenes I generally select objects with right-click > Select Object or Shader. If you select Snap to Object or Shader the camera will frame the object."
That`s what bothers me: it is not possible when "show b-box in preview" is disabled because those assets disappear from the list of the right-click menu as well.
If it were I`d be happy.
I simply do not understand the need for the bounding box of everything in the scene when I can see the object or shape itself in textured mode?

--> "Then all instances of each type can be quickly hidden by selecting the group and pressing "d"."
I completely forgot about the "d" key. That is a good workaround. Thanks for that.

--> "I close the 3D view whenever possible, too."
I have the network view open in a separate window on the second monitor. I do not work without the 3D preview window.

Customizing the interface is another of those things I am waiting for to get worked on. Right now it would be a great plus to have preferences for a few settings
which would be saved with the scene file. E.G. disabling the "Dynamic Layout" is always turned back on, even when I have it disabled when I save the project.
But I wrote about (almost 2 years ago) how I dislike those pre-chosen settings - because most of the time I have to go and change them...

@N-drju
That`s what is left: accept and deal with these "limitations".

I wonder if it would be possible to program some of that stuff with the SDK?
I am no programmer so as I understand it there is no way for me to get it and just start digging around and learn.
And documentation for the SDK is nowhere to be found, right?

Well, moving on...

CHeers, Klaus

[sboerner]

That`s what bothers me: it is not possible when "show b-box in preview" is disabled because those assets disappear from the list of the right-click menu as well.

I'd never noticed this, but you're right. 


I rarely touch that setting. I've always used the object display mode drop-down instead - "Hide all object/shader preview bounding boxes". It does it for everything in the scene, and assets still appear in the right-click menu.