Blender Git Commit Log

[Two Sections here; First is the log that *should* have been included
to my previous commit (whoops). The second part covers the changes I
have made to the code since then (all related to merge tools code).]

# Part One: Complete Log for Commit from 2/13/06

-> Upgraded merge tools.

The new merge tools add several options to blenders Merge submenu,
accessed via the WKEY whilst in Editmode for meshes. The new options
depend on current mode:

- Vertex mode: "At First" and "At Last"

When choosing "At First" or "At last" it will merge all selected
vertices at the first or last selected vertex.

(Note: Blender now keeps track of the last and first verts selected in
editMode (G.editMesh->lastvert and G.editMesh->firstvert
pointers. This meant additions were made to the undomesh code in
editmesh.c as well).

- Edge mode: "Collapse Edges"

When choosing this option, Blender examines the current set of
selected edges and groups them according whether or not they are
topologically connected. It then goes through each group and merges
them one by one to a single point.

- Face Mode: "Collapse Faces"

Works the same as "Collapse Edges", only works on groups of
topologically connected faces.

-> Inclusive selection mode conversion.

This feature extends the ability of blenders selection mode
conversions. Currently when you change selection modes from a "lower
order" mode to a "higher order" one (vertex->edge, vertex->face or
edge->face) blender only selects elements in the new mode whose
elements were completely selected in the previous mode.

This patch does not change blenders default behavior but offers
implicit selection mode conversion as an alternative. To access it,
hold either the left or right CTRL keys and click on a selection mode
in the view 3d selection mode header buttons. This can be accessed via
the CTRL-TAB selection mode switching as well, simply hold CTRL while
clicking the mode you want or entering its number on the keypad.

In some programs, such as Wings and Mirai, it has been demonstrated
that it can also be very useful to exploit selection mode switching to
implicitly select previously unselected elements as well. For instance
switching selection mode from vertex to edges will select all edges
currently associated with the currently selected vertices. The same
behavior is applied to switching between vertex->face and
edge->face. By exploiting this sort of selection conversion complex
selection sets can be built quicker.

Furthermore I modified blenders UndoMesh code to make selection mode
switching "undo coherent". Aside from its relevance to inclusive
selection mode conversion, this really counts as a "bug" in my
mind. Previously selection mode switch could cause the selection state
of the mesh to be invalid when certain modeling operations were
undone. An example of this would be "edge subdivide-> switch to face
mode-> undo"; you end up with edges selected while still in face mode!


# Part Two: Log for this Commit

-> Code Cleanup

As per Ton's request I reformatted all my code, changed variable names
and eliminated my use of "LinkNode" structs and replaced them with
"ListBase" instead. There should be no warnings while compiling now
either.

-> Remove doubles bug

Fixed small problem in removedoublesflag() in editmesh_tools.c that
caused editface structs to get their UV's scrambled. Vertex colors
might not be safe though? Need to investigate later.

-> Small bug in in the the code for merge last/first

It could cause a crash when exiting editmode, switching meshes, then
entering editmode again. "lastvert" and "firstvert" pointers are now
set to NULL whenever exiting editmode now (see load_editmesh() in
editmesh.c). I will find a better solution to this *soon*...

-> All merge tools now UV aware (optional)

The default behavior is to leave UVs alone, but if you hold CTRL while
clicking on the menu entry, UV's are merged. This works fine in most
situations, although some investigation into how to best handle
merging of UVs at the border of UV islands needs to be done.

This last item brings up a point about the current state of the
interface: several functions accessed through the WKEY menu now use
the CTRL modifier to change how they behave (This convention has been
in place for a while, see subdivide for example). Unfortunately there
is no way to communicate the way modifier keys change the behavior of
certain functions to the user. This makes such options invisible for
all intents and purposes...