Show only the product being oriented

The orient buttons rotated whichever product was active but left the
whole batch on screen, so you were turning something that sat in the
middle of everything else. Only Previous and Next hid anything, and only
once you had pressed one.

Rotating now isolates the active product as well, and does it before the
rotation rather than after, since the maths reads matrices off the
product and wants it in the view layer first.

Isolate Active Product controls this and defaults to on. It applies from
its update callback the moment it is ticked, so it does not sit there
looking enabled until the next button press. Show All now clears the
toggle as well as the state -- unhiding alone meant the next rotation
hid everything again, which reads as the button not working.

This is viewport state only. Render All already saves the exclude flags,
isolates each product in turn and restores them, so leaving isolation on
does not change what a batch renders.

Author: Danyals-code

README.md

@@ -181,10 +181,19 @@ vector and an ortho/perspective toggle, and it gets built alongside the rest.
 modelled the same way. In practice a few arrive facing the wrong way, and this is where you
 turn them by hand.
 
-**Previous** and **Next** step through the batch one product at a time, showing the current
-one and excluding the rest. That is the same isolation **Render All** uses, so what you see
-is what that product's render will contain. The list wraps, so you can keep pressing
-**Next** all the way round. **Show All** brings everything back when you are done.
+**Isolate Active Product** (on by default) means you only ever see the one you are working
+on. Rotating or stepping hides the others, so a product is never obscured by the rest of the
+batch while you are trying to orient it. The checkbox applies the moment you tick it, and
+unticking it brings everything back.
+
+That is the same isolation **Render All** uses, so what you see is what that product's
+render will contain. It is viewport state only — a batch render saves it, isolates each
+product in turn, and puts it back afterwards, so leaving it switched on never changes what
+gets rendered.
+
+**Previous** and **Next** step through the batch one product at a time. The list wraps, so
+you can keep pressing **Next** all the way round. **Show All** reveals every product and
+switches the checkbox off, so the next rotation does not immediately hide them again.
 
 **Left**, **Right**, **Up** and **Down** turn the product that is currently showing:
 
@@ -284,8 +293,9 @@ Standardize panel with **Rescale** enabled.
 the cameras. If only some products are wrong, Front Axis will not help — it moves the whole
 batch. Use *Orient Products* to turn the offenders individually, then rebuild.
 
-**Only one product is visible in the viewport**: you left a *Previous* / *Next* review pass
-part way through, which excludes the others. Click **Show All** in Cameras / Views.
+**Only one product is visible in the viewport**: **Isolate Active Product** is on, which is
+the default while orienting. Click **Show All** in Cameras / Views, or untick the box.
+Renders are unaffected either way.
 
 **Renders are cropped after rotating products**: rotating changes the bounding box the
 framing was measured from. Click *Build Cameras* again.

multiview_product_renderer/__init__.py

@@ -148,6 +148,18 @@ class MV_CustomView(PropertyGroup):
     is_ortho: BoolProperty(name="Ortho", default=False)
 
 
+def _update_isolate(self, context):
+    """Apply the isolate toggle the moment it is ticked, rather than waiting
+    for the next rotate or step.
+
+    Defined up here because the property below references it while the class
+    body runs; the helpers it calls are resolved at call time, so they can live
+    further down the file with the rest of the product code.
+    """
+    coll, _ = active_product(context)
+    isolate_product(context, coll.name if (self.isolate_active and coll) else None)
+
+
 class MV_Settings(PropertyGroup):
     step_files: CollectionProperty(type=MV_StepFileItem)
     step_files_index: IntProperty(default=0)
@@ -276,6 +288,13 @@ class MV_Settings(PropertyGroup):
         description="Which product the orientation buttons act on",
         default=0, min=0,
     )
+    isolate_active: BoolProperty(
+        name="Isolate Active Product",
+        description="Show only the product being oriented and hide the rest. "
+                    "Batch renders are unaffected either way",
+        default=True,
+        update=_update_isolate,
+    )
     rotate_step: FloatProperty(
         name="Rotate Step",
         description="How far one press of Left/Right/Up/Down turns the product",
@@ -1430,7 +1449,14 @@ def execute(self, context):
         if coll is None:
             self.report({'ERROR'}, f"No product collections under '{PRODUCT_COLL}'.")
             return {'CANCELLED'}
-        step = context.scene.mv_settings.rotate_step
+        s = context.scene.mv_settings
+        # Isolate first, not after. Rotating reads matrices off the product, so
+        # it has to be in the view layer before the maths runs -- and it means
+        # you are looking at the thing you are turning while you turn it.
+        if s.isolate_active:
+            isolate_product(context, coll.name)
+            context.view_layer.update()
+        step = s.rotate_step
         if not rotate_product(context, coll, self.direction, step):
             self.report({'WARNING'}, f"'{coll.name}' has no geometry to rotate.")
             return {'CANCELLED'}
@@ -1458,13 +1484,14 @@ def execute(self, context):
         # Wraps, so a review pass round a batch never dead-ends on the last one.
         idx = (idx + self.delta) % len(products)
         s.active_product_index = idx
-        isolate_product(context, products[idx].name)
+        if s.isolate_active:
+            isolate_product(context, products[idx].name)
         self.report({'INFO'}, f"{products[idx].name}  ({idx + 1}/{len(products)})")
         return {'FINISHED'}
 
 
 class MV_OT_ShowAllProducts(Operator):
-    """Bring every product back into the view layer"""
+    """Turn isolation off and bring every product back into the view layer"""
     bl_idname = "mv.show_all_products"
     bl_label = "Show All"
     bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}
@@ -1474,6 +1501,9 @@ def execute(self, context):
         if not products:
             self.report({'ERROR'}, f"No product collections under '{PRODUCT_COLL}'.")
             return {'CANCELLED'}
+        # Clears the toggle as well as the state. Only unhiding would leave the
+        # next rotate to isolate again, which reads as the button not working.
+        context.scene.mv_settings.isolate_active = False
         isolate_product(context, None)
         self.report({'INFO'}, f"Showing all {len(products)} product(s).")
         return {'FINISHED'}
@@ -1777,6 +1807,7 @@ def draw(self, context):
         coll, idx = active_product(context)
         box.label(text=f"{coll.name}  ({idx + 1}/{len(products)})",
                   icon='OUTLINER_COLLECTION')
+        box.prop(s, "isolate_active")
         box.prop(s, "rotate_step")
 
         col = box.column(align=True)