Vim like 'leader' key functionality for blender.

In my workflow I use a lot of shortcuts, so much in fact that now I can't really find empty slots for new bindings. So I looked to other software that I love and use a lot of hotkeys in: Vim. In Vim shortcuts can be specified as sequence of keys. For example:

nnoremap <leader>cf :call_function()<CR>

Means that after pressing leader key followed by c and f keys call call_function(). Reading sequence of characters as shortcut means that we get a lot of new possible shortcuts without having to stretch our hands all-over the keyboard.

Thats the functionality I tried to replicate in this add-on.

Installation

Download repository as zip file. In User Preferences window go to the Add-ons tab, in lower left corner select "Install from File" button and point it to the add-on zip.

Configuration

Leading Key (add-on key-binding)

I personally am not a fan of add-ons that register keyboard shortcuts by themselves. I leave that for the user. Function call for starting add-on is ui.leaderkey.

To add shortcut in blender:

• Go to the Input tab in User Preferences select context in which that shortcut is to be bound by. In case of this add-on it's best to select something pretty high like Screen so you can call it whether you are in 3D View or Node Editor.

• Go through context options till you get to the "Add New" button. Click it. It will create new shortcut. Type ui.leaderkey in the Identifier of operator to call on input event field, specify shortcut and you're done.

Preferences

All the preferences for add-on are available in Add-ons tab of User Preferences window.

• Bindings number - Number of bindings you want to use.

• Timeout - Amount of time to wait if no function call was found for typed sequence. (In seconds)

• Wait For Next - Amount of time you have to type next key if there's already function call for current sequence. (In seconds)

• Key String - Sequence of key events separated by space. Can be almost any of the types in event.type.

• Function - Python function to be executed after sequenced is matched. Can be anything python script could call so you can type either something blender specific like: bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_torus_add() or generic python: print("Hello World").

• Context area type - Context area in which to use this binding. Select 'All' to not bind it to any of the specific types of the window.

• Context mode - Same as above just for mode of the window.

Usage

Call the ui.leaderkey function and start typing your sequence, after you're done function you specified will be called.

Tips

Calling some of the blender functions isn't that obvious so here are some tips for common functions you would want to call.

• To call pie menu use bpy.ops.wm.call_menu_pie(name="pie_menu_name") where pie_menu_name is bl_idname of that pie menu so for example ui.screen_pie_menu

• To call most other functions start with bpy.ops. so for example calling bpy.types.Operator function with bl_idname of mesh.some_operation you would call bpy.ops.mesh.some_operation()