Hello, long time lurker first time Poster here.
I am a technical directory who works for a small VFX/Animation company in the UK. I want my company to adopt Directory Opus as one of its core packages, I have so far managed to get one or two of our colleagues to adopt it (they really like it), but I really want it to be company wide.
This tool would get everyone on the same page on fast rotating projects and make my colleagues much more productive, which is what my job is.
The Opus features I need to achieve much of what I have in mind is already in place with Opus 12, such as Commands, external Cli calls, Jscript APIs etc (The Evaluator looks promising). There are just one or two things missing.
The core of my project consists of using Opus Listers (and the various buttons embedded in it) as a general purpose framework, so that Opus can be used as a general purpose "palettes" or "panels" for various packages such as Adobe applications, AutoDesk applictions, Houdini , Harmony Toonboom etc etc, using the packages owns APIs such as Adobe Photoshop API.
For example, In Adobe After Effects, replace the severely limited "Projects" panel (for browsing and managing files in the current project) with a Lister:
And in Adobe Photoshop replace the "Palettes" like Patterns, File Libraries with Opus Listers:
Here is a demonstration of a lister that is created to act like a "Panel" or "Palette" for a software:
The above software, is Pureref, sadly it is abandonware but with this Opus "Palette" idea its possible to achieve features that are absent such as annotation/highlighting (before using any scripting/programming interfaces).
In short, I want to achieve is what Opus itself achieves; a half-way/full replacement for File Explorer. In my case, a generic means of browsing/importing/exporting project files, regardless of the "current" application. Of course with the added advantage of all the rich Opus features.
Now that I have explained my goal, I will get to my feature requests. A Listers various UI elements needs to be able to be toggled on/off so as to define various Layouts/Styles that will closely mimic the look of an application. I am not asking for a massive UI overhaul (Win32 is perfect already), in fact much of this is already present in Opus 12:
- Status bar visibility/toggling
- Viewer visibility/toggling
- Dual displays visibility/toggling
- Toolbars/buttons visibility/toggling
- Folder tree visibility/toggling
But there are a few UI elements Opus 12 will simply not let you hide/toggle with a command, and these are what my feature requests consist of, with regard to forum etiquette, I will start a separate thread for each request, feel free to click on the links below to be taken to its thread:
- The tab bar - Its not possible to hide/toggle with a command (can only be set to auto hide when 1 tab is open, in preferences)
- The file display border - Its not possible to hide/toggle with a command (can only be hidden in single display listers, in preferences)
- The Listers column headers - Its not possible to hide/toggle with a command (can only be hidden for Thumbnails/Tiles in preferences)
With Opus 13 promising to deliver long awaited features such as Dark Mode and Themes etc, it will not be hard to make a Lister visually mimic another applications colours.
If any of these features, even just one, gets implemented in Opus 13 that would be great. I have taken the time to explain myself, in the hopes of getting the developers here to appreciate my needs, I would only ask that you please consider these requests in earnest, cheers.
- W.D Adams