Great, thanks for the heads up! This will be a huge help.
User Can Change order of Heirarchy -
My first suggestion was originally to put constraints directly underneath the bones in the Hierarchy, since they relate so strongly to bones... it makes less sense to put them at the end of the list, below draw order and images, etc.
We added annotations on the right edge of the tree in 3.4. Not all constraints make sense under something in the tree. Also, do they go under the constrained bones? Which one when there are many? Under the target bone? We ended up with them at the bottom.
Sorry, I think my comment was confusing. I would not want each constraint to appear below the bones associated with it - that is already achieved through the icons to the right of the bone. What I would want is for the Constraints group (the little dropdown w/ all constraints) to be below the Bones group, not at the bottom of the list below Draw order, Images, Skins, etc. Or allow the user to define the order on a universal level (see below):
Manual order in the tree might end up being a pain for users. Will give it some thought.
The 3 buttons left of the filter button are shortcuts. You can't hide the images, skins, animations, events, constraints nodes under the skeleton though.
I usually work on multiple skeletons in a single file, and I start with the bones and constraints only (with a guide image turned on), so having dropdown nodes visible for animations, draw order, etc. while I'm working only on bones and constraints clogs up the tree for me.
I would not suggest allowing users to re-order the dropdown nodes (bones, images, skins, animations, etc) on a per-skeleton basis, but rather be able to re-order them universally.
The filters help, don't get me wrong... but honestly I would prefer a button or something to jump directly down to a constraints section (or view it simultaneously), rather than selectively hiding/showing other elements to get to what I want. In my suggestions, I was trying to kill two birds with one stone by suggesting a way to simultaneously filter, re-order, and jump to any node within a selected skeleton, without any scrolling, and by using only one panel.
But I think that this issue would become moot if you implemented something like idea below:
Annotations in the tree should help jumping to constraints. We added the Animations
view some time ago as an easier way to access animations. We could do a similar thing with separate views for skeletons, skins, constraints, and maybe draw order. This may be simpler than your proposal and seems like it would address the problem about as well?
Yes, that would be a simpler solution. You basically read my mind as I was considering a response to this topic. In thinking about it further, the problem I would like to circumvent is the constant scrolling up and down in the Hierarchy to switch from editing bones to constraints, to other things. Even filters do not help this, because I'd like to view my constraints and my bones at the same time, rather than use filters to turn one off in order to view the other.
To explain my issue more... I just have so many bones, attachments, constraints, etc. that I spend a lot of time scrolling up and down, or collapsing / un-collapsing.
So yes, what I truly prefer is the ability to have at least one other panel to view some of these elements - possibly just a second tree panel. For instance, one panel that views the skeleton only (with its actual bones, attachments, etc), then a separate window (or column) that displays its constraints, and a separate window/column for its images, skins, and so on. In an ideal world the user could define what is shown in panel 1 versus panel 2 (possibly through filters?). This way if you wanted your bones and constraints in a single panel, it would be possible, but I could view only images and skins in the second panel.
This would require the filters to completely hide the dropdowns for images, skins, events, etc if you turned them off through filters... which I would prefer anyway.
Somewhat separate topic, but also related to the tree:
Locking Individual Bones:
I would like to be able to lock editing on individual bones, attachments, etc. I realize you can lock editing (or rather prevent the selection) of all bones or all attachments in the main viewing and editing window. But I have some bones that I set up as a "go between" to indirectly scale other bones, etc. that I do not want to edit at all. I'm always accidentally selecting these bones when I try to edit another bone. So being able to just click a little lock/unlock in the tree to prevent or allow editing would be great. Maybe CTRL-clicking or right-clicking the lock on a bone would also lock its children?