Max 2011 questions
polycounter lvl 11
Just started to try out 3d max 2011, I'm very happy that all my favourite scripts/plugins work fine so far... but have ran into a few annoyances;
1) Is it possible to disable the menu bar by default? There is an option to disable the menu bar along with the track bar and stuff, but it seems every single time I restart max, it reappears again. The bar I am talking about is the one with Edit, customize, etc.
I tried to make a script to do it on startup, but the 3d max listener doesn't detect me enabling/disabling that bar and I can't find the right code on google.
For anyone else interested, I have this in my startup which gets rid of the status panel, trackbar and timeslider bar;
(
statusPanel.visible = false
trackbar.visible = false
timeslider.setvisible false
)
I just need to add in one more line for the main menu
(and I tried all combinations involving mainmenubar/menubar/visible/setvisible)
2) A maximized 3D Max window is not draggable to a 2nd monitor... really?! How did they manage to do that!? It is only draggable if you un-maximize it. The alternative is to do win+shift+left/right. But that hotkey combination is quite awkward and I'm used to flicking maximized windows across monitors very quickly.
3) How to disable or hide the help/search bar thingy on the top right? At one point it popped up with some message giving some kind of useless tip, which is enough to make me want to disable it.
4) The quickstart menu seems to be un-editable for me. I can remove all those icons and replace them with my own stuff, and then save them over the maxstartUI.cui and the maxstartUI.mnu and my own .cui/.mnu files but it still manages to revert back to the default.
This one ain't a big deal though, everything I need is either hotkeyed, in my quad menu or on my closer-to-reach floating main toolbar box, all of which are quicker to access than the quickstart menu. I just like to get rid of useless things in the UI even if they are not in the way.
Aside from these annoyances, max 2011 seems to be equally as good as max 2009. I haven't found many benefits with using max 2011 yet though... I guess the floating combo boxes for the tool settings is going to be pretty nifty once I get used to it. One less reason to use the messy command panel.
The improved viewport display with AO is pretty cool, but doesnt help with my workflow.
1) Is it possible to disable the menu bar by default? There is an option to disable the menu bar along with the track bar and stuff, but it seems every single time I restart max, it reappears again. The bar I am talking about is the one with Edit, customize, etc.
I tried to make a script to do it on startup, but the 3d max listener doesn't detect me enabling/disabling that bar and I can't find the right code on google.
For anyone else interested, I have this in my startup which gets rid of the status panel, trackbar and timeslider bar;
(
statusPanel.visible = false
trackbar.visible = false
timeslider.setvisible false
)
I just need to add in one more line for the main menu
(and I tried all combinations involving mainmenubar/menubar/visible/setvisible)2) A maximized 3D Max window is not draggable to a 2nd monitor... really?! How did they manage to do that!? It is only draggable if you un-maximize it. The alternative is to do win+shift+left/right. But that hotkey combination is quite awkward and I'm used to flicking maximized windows across monitors very quickly.
3) How to disable or hide the help/search bar thingy on the top right? At one point it popped up with some message giving some kind of useless tip, which is enough to make me want to disable it.
4) The quickstart menu seems to be un-editable for me. I can remove all those icons and replace them with my own stuff, and then save them over the maxstartUI.cui and the maxstartUI.mnu and my own .cui/.mnu files but it still manages to revert back to the default.
This one ain't a big deal though, everything I need is either hotkeyed, in my quad menu or on my closer-to-reach floating main toolbar box, all of which are quicker to access than the quickstart menu. I just like to get rid of useless things in the UI even if they are not in the way.
Aside from these annoyances, max 2011 seems to be equally as good as max 2009. I haven't found many benefits with using max 2011 yet though... I guess the floating combo boxes for the tool settings is going to be pretty nifty once I get used to it. One less reason to use the messy command panel.
The improved viewport display with AO is pretty cool, but doesnt help with my workflow.
Replies
for the startup script have you tried entering expert mode and re enabling the ui parts you want.
I guess I could delete a lot of scripts now... why aren't some of the ribbon tools hotkeyable by default (geopoly for example!) Have to resort to macros.run "PolyTools" "GeoPoly"
I tried entering expert mode, the whole double-row top bar remains there
I can toggle them on and off with no effect, but then later in the middle of other editing they suddenly appear.
I was afraid after hearing some horror stories about the graphite tools, but they seem to be better and more stable than the Polyboost versions I've been using with 2009. Once you get used to them, the graphite ribbon is a joy to use IMO.
That, I would love to know too. The only workaround i found was to force it by activating vertex tick in the properties of EVERY object.
Kinda tedious i gave up.
One thing i did straight away was re enable the old file menu. Its still listed under menus in the customize UI - > menus tab.
to turn of the infocenter popups go to the arrow next to the binoculars
select 'search settings'
select 'baloon notifications'
ucheck them on the right
whats that going to achieve. 2011 fixed a huge amount of what sucked about 2010