Assume one has added 5 objects to the Scattered Objects list. Render and it looks OK. Lets see what the render looks like without Object #3 in the mix.
Currently, as far as I know, the only way to do that is to delete Object #3 from the list. But if you decide you want to add it back in, you have to re-add it to the list. No big deal, but it would be a little easier to have something like an Enable checkbox next to each object, or maybe and eye icon to turn the visibility of each object on/off.
When disabling an object, would you expect the same effect as removing it, or would you expect an empty space where this object would have been placed?
I’m assuming that currently, if one were to delete one object (with the minus sign) from a list of five, and then regenerate, the remaining four objects would, by default, be re-scattered, probably with a different random seed and with spacing (depending on the other settings). This might indeed be useful in some circumstances, for example, when deciding whether or not a field of grass really needed flowers scattered on it as well. I think that with the way Skatter works now, this might be the easiest to implement (?).
I was actually thinking of the case where “disabling” one object would leave the other four objects unchanged and where they were. I could see this being useful when deciding between, for example, different choices of species of plants for a hedgerow. You might add three different species to the list, and then quickly toggle between them by enabling/disabling in turn.
But thinking about it, I suspect this may not be easy to implement, because I think the entire scatter is finally made into a single component, making a regeneration necessary each time. And if the regeneration is heavy and takes a long time, then you loose that effect of being able to quickly toggle on and off “layers”. Currently, in my example case with five items in the list, I believe a single component results (containing a mix of all five scattered objects). But, using my case of five objects, if five components could be generated, , then it might be easier to simply toggle the visibility of those components. `(In this case, each of the five resulting components only contains one type of object.)
I think I better work with some more complicated Skatter scenes before I can intelligently comment further on my request. I think Skatter already has the capability to do just about anything, so this request can be low priority. I just raise the idea for now.