Swift Pie Menu + Swift Pie Menu 2.0 (beta)

Swift Pie Menu 2.0 (Beta)

A Framework for Creating Custom Menus and UI Panels

Swift Pie Menu is not a pre-made set of tools, but a robust framework for building your own. The addon provides a comprehensive toolkit for constructing highly efficient, personalized menus and panels directly within Blender, minimizing reliance on default layouts and optimizing muscle memory for complex workflows.

The core philosophy is simple: reduce clicks, eliminate menu diving, and centralize access to any function, property, or custom script. This is achieved through a multi-layered system of customizable pie menus, popup UI panels, and traditional vertical menus, all managed from a single interface.

Key Features

1. Advanced Pie Menu Architecture

The foundation is a block-based grid system designed for maximum density and logical grouping of elements.

• High-Density Layout
  • Configure up to 18 individual blocks (8 left, 8 right, top, bottom), each capable of holding 1 to 10 action buttons.
• Granular Block Control
  • Each block is an independent module. Customize its visibility, number of buttons, label, icon, and color-coding for quick visual identification. An "Icons Only" mode is available for creating compact, minimalist layouts.

2. Action System: Unified Access to Blender's Core

A button in Swift Pie Menu is a universal entry point. It can be assigned to execute a wide range of commands, going far beyond simple operators.

• Operators
  • Execute any bpy.ops operator. The system intelligently captures operator properties from the UI context upon assignment, preserving tool settings (e.g., the segment count of a newly created sphere).
• Properties
  • Directly control any animatable property via its data path. This allows for toggling boolean values (checkboxes), changing numerical parameters, and selecting items from enumerations (enums).
• UI Panels
  • Display any standard Blender UI panel (e.g., the Modifiers or Constraints panel) in a separate popup window, providing focused access to complex property groups.
• Pie Sub-Menu Chaining
  • Decompose complex workflows into logical hierarchies. An action button can call another, fully independent pie menu, which in turn can call the next.
• Custom Regular Menus
  • For tasks not suited to a radial interface, a visual editor allows you to construct traditional vertical menus, including separators, labels, and nested sub-menus.
• External Script Execution
  • Integrate custom automation by linking buttons to external .py files. This provides a direct pathway for technical directors and advanced users to run proprietary tools from a centralized UI.

3. Visual UI Snippet Builder

The framework's most powerful feature: a full-fledged visual editor for creating custom user interfaces without writing code. These "UI Snippets" can serve as complex tool palettes or focused property editors.

• Codeless UI Creation
  • A specialized builder allows you to design interfaces by adding and organizing UI elements: operators, properties, labels, separators, spacers, collapsible blocks, and tabbed sections.
• Layout Engine
  • Elements can be grouped into rows with precise control over horizontal alignment (Expand, Left, Center, Right) and proportional width factors.
• Two Deployment Modes
  • Popup Window: Deploy the snippet as a modal window, callable from any action button. The window width is customizable.
  • Docked Panel (Sidebar Panel): Integrate the snippet natively into Blender's interface by docking it as a persistent panel in the 3D Viewport's sidebar (N-panel).
• Live Preview
  • An integrated preview panel in the addon preferences provides real-time feedback as you construct your interface.

4. Nested Pie Sub-Menu Editor

A system of nested pie menus is provided for organizing a large number of tools.

• Visual Slot Editor
  • Each sub-menu is configured in an intuitive editor that simulates the 8-slot structure of a pie menu.
• Flexible Content
  • Assign any available action to any sub-menu slot—an operator, a property, a panel, or even a call to another UI Snippet.
• Hierarchical Chaining
  • Although sub-menus are created as separate entities, they can be assigned to the slots of other sub-menus, creating deep and logical tool hierarchies.

5. Regular (Vertical) Menu Builder

Not all tasks are suited for a radial interface. For long lists of commands, use the classic vertical menu builder.

• Analogous to UI Snippets
  • The builder uses the same simple logic as the UI Snippet editor: add operators, properties, separators, and text labels.
• Create Nested Sections
  • Within a vertical menu, you can create collapsible sub-menus, allowing you to efficiently group dozens of commands without cluttering the interface.
• Assign to Any Button
  • A finished vertical menu can be assigned to any button in the main pie menu or any slot in a sub-menu.

Workflow and Usability Features

Setup efficiency is as important as usage efficiency. The framework includes several tools to speed up the configuration process.

• Direct Assignment (via RMB)
  • The primary method for populating menus. Right-click on any UI element (button, property) in Blender and select "SwiftPie: Assign to..." to bind it directly to a specific slot. This action also adds the element to the Asset Library simultaneously.
• Centralized Asset Library
  • All assigned operators, properties, and panels are stored in a central library. This allows you to define an asset once and reuse it across multiple menus, sub-menus, and UI snippets. When an asset is renamed in the library, all linked buttons automatically update their labels.
• System-Wide Search and Discovery
  • If an operator or panel ID is unknown, the built-in scanner can analyze your Blender installation to generate a complete, searchable list of all operators, menus, and panels, ready to be added to your Asset Library with a single click.
• Built-in Icon Browser
  • A searchable, categorized browser of all Blender's built-in icons to ensure a clear visual language in your custom interfaces.
• Built-in Documentation
  • A dedicated tab in the addon preferences contains detailed guides on all key features, from quick starts to advanced capabilities like UI Snippets and scripting.

System Management

• Configuration Management
  • The entire addon setup, including all menus, asset libraries, and UI snippets, can be exported to and imported from a single .json file. This facilitates backups, versioning, and sharing configurations within a team.
• Context-Aware Hotkey Manager
  • Assign unique hotkeys not only to the main pie menu but also to every UI Snippet, nested Sub-Menu, or regular menu you create. The key feature is that each hotkey is bound to a specific context (e.g., '3D View', 'Node Editor', 'Image Editor'). This allows you to use the same key combination to summon different toolsets in different editor windows, creating a highly responsive and intuitive workflow.
• Smart Hotkey Conflict Resolution
  • The addon automatically detects if an assigned hotkey conflicts with a default Blender keymap. It non-destructively disables the conflicting default binding, ensuring your hotkey always takes priority. The original keymaps are restored when the addon is deactivated.
• Safe Reset
  • A reset function is provided that clears the pie menu layout and button assignments to their default state without deleting your carefully curated Asset Library.

Target Audience

• Professional Artists and Studios: Aiming to create a standardized, highly efficient workflow and minimize time spent on UI navigation.
• Technical Directors and Pipeline TDs: In need of a robust framework to integrate custom scripts and tools into an artist-friendly UI without developing full-fledged addons.
• Advanced Blender Users: Who have a clear vision of their ideal workflow and need a powerful toolset to realize it.