== Preview Range ==

Preview Range is a useful tool for animating (espcially on longer timelines). It allows you to only run through a limited set of frames to quickly preview the timing of a section of movement without going through the whole timeline. It means you don't have to set/reset start/end frame for rendering everytime you wish to only preview a region of frames.

Hi Ton,

Attached is a patch (I know you've already got lots of them in the tracker ;-) ) for a feature that I've sometimes wanted. It seems that this sort of thing is supported in other packages, but I can't be sure.

Note: I may have left in a few bits and pieces I didn't mean to in the patch (this is off a source tree which had quite a few revisions in it, all of which was experimental)



== Preview Range ==
Preview range is useful for animating (espcially on longer timelines). It allows you to only run through a limited set of frames to quickly preview the timing of a section of movement without going through the whole timeline. It means you don't have to set/reset start/end frame for rendering everytime you wish to only preview a region of frames.

* 'Ctrl P' in Action/NLA/Timeline sets preview range. Click+drag to form selection-box defining region of frames to preview
* 'Alt P' in Action/NLA/Timeline to clear preview range
* 'Pre' button beside Start/End fields in timeline toggles whether start/end fields refer to scene or preview
* 'Ctrl Rightarrow' and 'Ctrl Leftarrow' jump to start/end of preview region when it is set
* 'S' and 'E' set the start/end frames of preview region when it is set (just like normally) in Timeline only
* In Action/NLA editors, frames out of preview region are now drawn darkened when preview-region is set


See the following page for more info later:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Aligorith/Preview_Range

1 files changed, 74 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/source/blender/src/edittime.c b/source/blender/src/edittime.c
index 5bbcd1098bb..29bcbac79df 100644
--- a/source/blender/src/edittime.c
+++ b/source/blender/src/edittime.c
@@ -577,6 +577,61 @@ static void select_timeline_marker_frame(int frame, unsigned char shift)
 
 /* *********** end Markers - TimeLine *************** */
 
+/* set the animation preview range of scene */
+void anim_previewrange_set()
+{
+	extern float get_action_frame(Object *ob, float cframe);
+	rcti rect;
+	rctf rectf;
+	short val, mval[2];
+	
+	/* set range by drawing border-select rectangle */
+	if ( (val = get_border(&rect, 5)) ) {	
+		/* get frame numbers */
+		mval[0]= rect.xmin;
+		mval[1]= rect.ymin+2;
+		areamouseco_to_ipoco(G.v2d, mval, &rectf.xmin, &rectf.ymin);
+		mval[0]= rect.xmax;
+		mval[1]= rect.ymax-2;
+		areamouseco_to_ipoco(G.v2d, mval, &rectf.xmax, &rectf.ymax);
+		
+		/* check if this is called from the action editor (with scaling) */
+		if (curarea->spacetype == SPACE_ACTION) {
+			/* if action is mapped in NLA, it returns a correction */
+			if(G.saction->pin==0 && OBACT) {
+				rectf.xmin= get_action_frame(OBACT, rectf.xmin);
+				rectf.xmax= get_action_frame(OBACT, rectf.xmax);
+			}
+		}
+			
+		/* set preview-range */
+		G.scene->r.psfra= rectf.xmin;
+		G.scene->r.pefra= rectf.xmax;
+		
+		BIF_undo_push("Set anim-preview range");
+		allqueue(REDRAWTIME, 0);
+		allqueue(REDRAWACTION, 0);
+		allqueue(REDRAWNLA, 0);
+		allqueue(REDRAWBUTSALL, 0);
+	}
+}
+
+/* clear the animation preview range for scene */
+void anim_previewrange_clear()
+{
+	G.scene->r.psfra = 0;
+	G.scene->r.pefra = 0;
+	
+	BIF_undo_push("Clear anim-preview range");
+	allqueue(REDRAWTIME, 0);
+	allqueue(REDRAWACTION, 0);
+	allqueue(REDRAWNLA, 0);
+	allqueue(REDRAWBUTSALL, 0);
+}
+
+/* ************ end Animation Preview Range ********** */
+
+
 static int float_to_frame(float frame) 
 {
 	int to= (int) floor(0.5 + frame/G.scene->r.framelen );
@@ -875,7 +930,13 @@ void winqreadtimespace(ScrArea *sa, void *spacedata, BWinEvent *evt)
 			transform_markers('g', 0);
 			break;
 		case EKEY: /* set end frame */
-			G.scene->r.efra = CFRA;
+			if (G.scene->r.psfra) {
+				if (CFRA > G.scene->r.psfra)
+					G.scene->r.psfra= CFRA;
+				G.scene->r.pefra= CFRA;
+			}				
+			else
+				G.scene->r.efra = CFRA;
 			allqueue(REDRAWBUTSALL, 0);
 			allqueue(REDRAWTIME, 1);
 			break;
@@ -890,8 +951,19 @@ void winqreadtimespace(ScrArea *sa, void *spacedata, BWinEvent *evt)
 			allqueue(REDRAWNLA, 0);
 			allqueue(REDRAWSOUND, 0);
 			break;
+		case PKEY:	/* preview-range stuff */
+			if (G.qual & LR_CTRLKEY) /* set preview range */
+				anim_previewrange_set();
+			else if (G.qual & LR_ALTKEY) /* clear preview range */
+				anim_previewrange_clear();
+			break;
 		case SKEY: /* set start frame */
-			G.scene->r.sfra = CFRA;
+			if (G.scene->r.psfra) {
+				G.scene->r.psfra= CFRA;
+				G.scene->r.pefra= (EFRA > CFRA)? (EFRA):(CFRA);
+			}				
+			else
+				G.scene->r.sfra = CFRA;
 			allqueue(REDRAWBUTSALL, 0);
 			allqueue(REDRAWTIME, 1);
 			break;