3dsmax minimal UI?

warxsnake

Hey

Sorry if this was brought up before. I am forced to use max2012,2013, just wondering if there are any plugins or hacks to make the UI minimal. Not something insane that redoes the entire UI but something that could toggle the visibility of the bottom and top bars. (The script/view options at the bottom, and the thick header at the top with the useless help/search options).

Thanks!

poopipe

turn on expert mode and then open the command panel for a quick solution (helps to bind command panel to a keypress cos you'll be switching back and forth)

warxsnake

ooooo nice, thats clean. I knew about expert mode but didnt know you could bring (some) toolbars back in. Excellent thanks!

warxsnake

Hmm the only things thats missing in expert view for me is being able to pick an object's coordinate system (View, World, Local, Pick), there seems to be no entry for this in the max config to bind or place it in quads.


Nvrmind, in expert mode, the Ribbon was hiding my Main toolbar, so i just dragged it to the side.

monster

You can hold ALT and right click to bring up the animation quad menu. That has a coordinate reference selection in the top right.

McGreed

You might want to have a look at this thread about Max 9, in the last couple of pages, they are talking about optimizing UI and such.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=104082&page=6

StephenVyas

warxsnake wrote: »

Hmm the only things thats missing in expert view for me is being able to pick an object's coordinate system (View, World, Local, Pick), there seems to be no entry for this in the max config to bind or place it in quads.

A must have ..

Jim Jagger's JJtools collection pack has a nice solution for cycling through coordinate systems.
Inside, he has a couple functions called Clever Move, Clever Rotate, Clever Scale.

To cycle through the coordinate systems, all you do is you keep hitting your hotkey that is bound to that function.
http://www.jimjagger.com/Pages/Tools/JJTools.htm

thomasp

personally i would look at customizing/enhancing the quad menu and the menu bar.

i do it similarly - minimised interface, most commonly used few functions as hotkeys, functions that you use once in a while as quad menu/menu bar/tab bar entries (you don't switch coordinate systems every couple seconds?). soon you'll find that you only need to go back into the command panel for very few things. back in the days of single monitors i was hiding the command panel almost constantly, now with big dual screen setups i shove it onto the second monitor, together with other floating windows, visible all the time.

warxsnake

Yeah, I love quads, have been modifying mine based on use throughout the years.
I use only one quad menu and just put all my most used functions on there.
And now thanks to expert mode and some tweaks, max is looking grea....decent
Just need to find a way to lock max into expert view with the current toolbar placements, because on max start it's back to normal view.

Rick_D

do you actually use the quad menu to select sub-object modes?

warxsnake

Why, is that weird?

No I select sub object with 1-6 on the keyboard, those are there as backup or in case I'm already in the quad.

GeeDave

You don't need them there as "backup", your number keys do the job. (also, with Keyboard Shortcut Override Toggle set to off you can just use 1 - 5, hit the same number again to switch to the top level. ie, hit 1 = vertex mode. hit 1 again = top level)

Anywho:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1651559&postcount=37

McGreed linked that thread erarlier, but the above is a link to a comment in the thread that you might find handy.

miauu

Just need to find a way to lock max into expert view with the current toolbar placements, because on max start it's back to normal view.

To do this:
- open MAxscript Editor
- Put this two lines

actionMan.executeAction 0 "40264" -- Views: Expert Mode Toggle
actionMan.executeAction 0 "408" -- show command panel

- Save this as a script with desired name. For example ExpertModeWithCommandPanel.ms

- paste ExpertModeWithCommandPanel.ms to maxroot/scripts/startup folder
- Restart 3ds max.

warxsnake

miauu wrote: »

To do this:
- open MAxscript Editor
- Put this two lines

actionMan.executeAction 0 "40264" -- Views: Expert Mode Toggle
actionMan.executeAction 0 "408" -- show command panel

- Save this as a script with desired name. For example ExpertModeWithCommandPanel.ms

- paste ExpertModeWithCommandPanel.ms to maxroot/scripts/startup folder
- Restart 3ds max.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for