Enable attachment => select it?

SoulGame

Hi there, just stumbled on a small issue:
While adjusting the properties (translate, rotation, scale) of the 30 weapons attachments I have in my slot "Weapon" (to make each handles fit in the hand), I realized that when I click to Show/Enable an attachment it doesn't actually Select it in the attachments list. Thus, several times, I found myself adjusting a previously Selected attachment while I thought I was editing the one I just Enabled. Which would make sens since it's the one I'm seeing right now... That was very confusing!
I'm probably missing something but if I'm not, it would be nice to auto-select for editing the attachment that has just been enabled.

Pharan

Just a counter argument for that as the default behavior:
Automatically selecting a layer when you change its visibility is not how Adobe Photoshop or After Effects or Flash works.
And because many artists come from these programs, it would be unexpected behavior.

SoulGame

That would make sens, except that in those software you can change visibility for multiple layers, and enable many at once, so it wouldn't make sens there to auto-select the last one. In Spine on the other hand, it's not quite the same paradigm, I feel more like I'm selecting a unique item from a large list. Not much enabling/disabling layers.
Edit: Still, minor "issue" :p

Nate

I could go either way. Anyone else want to give their opinion? Is there every a case where you want to change visibility but not select it?

Pharan

I'm not disagreeing, but what do you mean by "selecting a unique item from a large list" vs "enable many at once"?

Are you swapping slot attachments? And when you say "adjusting a previously Selected attachment", do you end up manipulating an invisible attachment? @Nate That sounds like a bug.

SoulGame

Pharan wrote
what do you mean by "selecting a unique item from a large list" vs "enable many at once"?

I mean in Spine you can activate only one attachment at a time. So it's an unique selection. Not like In Photoshop, where you can have activate multiple layers. It's like comparing a checkbox list, to a point list where no more than one can be selected. (I'm trying to be clear, but my English is not always helping on such technical matters)

Pharan wrote
Are you swapping slot attachments? And when you say "adjusting a previously Selected attachment", do you end up manipulating an invisible attachment? That sounds like a bug.

Yes I'm swapping slot attachments. But I was not exactly right when I said "adjusting a previously Selected attachment", I'm not actually manipulation an invisible elements, but several 🙂 I took more time to figure out what was exactly happening, there is quite a weird behavior. Let's take an example to be clearer: I have a Slot Weapon and 3 attachments in it: sword, axe, dagger.

Case an Attachment is selected in the Hierarchy

1) sword is the active attachment and is selected (=highlighted) in the Hierarchy
2) When I activate axe, images do swap but sword remains selected in the Hierarchy.
3) I modify some properties of the axe (eg rotation)
4) ALL 3 attachments sword, axe, dagger are affected by those property changes

Case the Slot is selected in the Hierarchy

1) sword is the active attachment but Slot Weapon is selected in the Hierarchy
2) When I activate axe, images do swap and Slot Weapon remains selected
3) I modify some properties of the axe (eg rotation)
4) ONLY the axe properties are changed, sword, dagger aren't affected.

So the second case (Slot selected) is actually what I wanted but I didn't know I could do it => I can quickly activate an attachment, adjust its rotation/translation, activate another, and so on and so forth. And I don't actually need to select the attachment in the hierarchy to manipulate its property.

That being settled, the first case does seem somehow glitchy and was at least quite confusing for me.

NB: In first case, if you manually selected axe in the Hierarchy before 3), changes won't affect other attachments.That's where the problem lies for me, and that's the reason for my original post.

Nate

Case an Attachment is selected in the Hierarchy
1) sword is the active attachment and is selected (=highlighted) in the Hierarchy
2) When I activate axe, images do swap but sword remains selected in the Hierarchy.
3) I modify some properties of the axe (eg rotation)
4) ALL 3 attachments sword, axe, dagger are affected by those property changes

When I try this, in step 2 when I make axe visible, sword stays selected in the tree, but is no longer selected in the viewport. Instead, since sword is no longer a valid selection in the viewport, the selection changes to the weapon slot's bone (assuming you have bones visible in the tree). I cannot do step 3 because now a bone is selected, not an attachment.

Given that the selection changes from the selected attachment to the bone, I think it makes more sense to select the newly visible attachment. However, maybe we should only do this when the previously visible attachment was selected.

SoulGame

Nate wrote
Instead, since sword is no longer a valid selection in the viewport, the selection changes to the weapon slot's bone (assuming you have bones visible in the tree). I cannot do step 3 because now a bone is selected, not an attachment.

Oh okay, I didn't notice that it was the bone being selected after switching #revelation. You could still perform step 3) of course but it's just that I was wrong thinking I was modifying "properties of the axe", when I was modifying the whole bone. That the source of all the confusion, because the previous attachment was still apparently selected in the tree...

So, since you auto-select the bone in the viewport, I think it would make more sens to select the bone in the Hierarchy/tree as well, that would be instantly clear of what is selected. Or select the new attachment like you said.

Nate

SoulGame wrote
So, since you auto-select the bone in the viewport, I think it would make more sens to select the bone in the Hierarchy/tree as well, that would be instantly clear of what is selected.

The tree selection doesn't have to match the editor selection. Eg, if you select something in the tree like a placeholder or slot that has no representation in the viewport, it selects the next closest thing it can (an attachment or if none, the bone). Selecting the newly visible attachment is the right move I think.

SoulGame

Oh that's right, I didn't think about that. Selecting the newly visible attachment definitely sounds good! Thanks for the support.