How to get with maya modeling workflow with speed? I usually set up hotkeys, but i am forgetting them, then i thought about marking menu since i can put many hotkeys in one menu. What do you prefer?
Marking Menus for life yo. Hardly use the shelf at all. If you can get used to the custom Marking Menus then it can really speed things up. I fit everything I need into the menus so that I can hide the rest of the Maya UI that I don't need. So you can hide the shelf, toolbox, etc and have more screen space.
I swear by marking menus. I have a Logitech G510s keyboard with the macro buttons on the side, and had a G15 for years prior to that. I have 8 custom marking menus divided into categories, each one activated by one of those macro buttons. My most used menus are assigned to the buttons in the middle, since it's just as easy to hit those as it is to hit the shift or tab keys. I do have Alt+E assigned to extrude though, but that's really my only custom hotkey.
I hated marking menus at first (I was a hotkey guy) but I got used to it, and became quite useful. Since there are too many functions to assign to just hotkeys.
marking menus are amazing, i'm happy with the default marking menus. I really only use the shelf for a few things, some custom MEL scripts, Delete History, Center Pivot, Freeze Transformations, Reset Pivot
maya is very Right hand (mouse hand) intensive with navigating and flicking the mouse in every direction for the marking menus - just something to be aware of and if it is uncomfortable long term being so active with the Right hand then maybe it would be good to set up hotkeys as well.
marking menu, with a few custom keys, for things i use the most, than for things i only use once and a while the shelf.
Though i have made a script that lets me change to and from the ortho viewports, with one key based on the viewing angle, which is ultra helpful.
All the important modeling stuff i got on the marking menu, than in my shelf, i got thigns i use less often, like deleteHistory, freezeTransforms, UV projections and editor, lofting, spherize, and my export scripts.
marking menu for me, only been using maya a month though, but the marking menu I think is very clever, doesn't take me away from my model a lot in search of tools.
The way I see things, marking menus, shortcuts, the shelf and maya's own regular menus all have their merits.
I use them in the order of how often I use them.
For the most used commands I try to stick to Marking Menus. I use Maya's default contextual marking menus with a few changes that I made. For example I added a delete button on the NW position of each polygon component shift+R click marking menu.
I still use some shortcuts, mostly Maya's default.
The most used commands should be the easiest to access and since marking menus don't require to move your mouse to a certain location to activate them, they're great. Shortcuts are even better, they don't require mouse movements but there's only so many keys you can map while with marking menus you can have a lot of commands on one shortcut.
I still use the shelf for things that I use maybe once every 10 minutes to once a few hours. I also use the shelf to test scripts before I integrate them into the marking menus. I put colorful icons on them to find them easily.
For everything else I use Maya's main menus which I customized by means of a Menu Set, as I mostly need the menus related to modeling, deformers and texturing.
I customized all my own hotkeys for things and only use marking menus or shelf for things I don't normally do like rendering and dynamics. There are a few tools that I can't find to bind hotkeys to though so I have to use the menus for those
I use combination of everything. Custom shortcuts fot most used functions, marking menus for frequently used actions and custom shelves for stuff that I don't use often but are crucial to speed up work.
Using all 3 I have everything I need right there 90% of time.
Even though I very much like marking menues I try not to rely in them for one reason only and that is when scene gets little bit heavier marking menu start to lag...meaning..right click and wait like 2-3 sec for reaction so...
a little bit of everything, mostly hotkeys(that i dont have to look at my keyboard to hit) shelf buttons, that have some kind of image and/or text, hate having the maya default image. and i love the maya hotbox 'recent commands' all while using a stylus.
I have a script that makes 2 visible shelf row buttons, no scrolling between the two
oh and using hot keys for component types - right clicking take to long
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DIdnt like the shelf until recently I haaate pushing G or Delete and I dislike setting hotkeys soo the shelf with Custom marking menus are great
maya is very Right hand (mouse hand) intensive with navigating and flicking the mouse in every direction for the marking menus - just something to be aware of and if it is uncomfortable long term being so active with the Right hand then maybe it would be good to set up hotkeys as well.
Though i have made a script that lets me change to and from the ortho viewports, with one key based on the viewing angle, which is ultra helpful.
All the important modeling stuff i got on the marking menu, than in my shelf, i got thigns i use less often, like deleteHistory, freezeTransforms, UV projections and editor, lofting, spherize, and my export scripts.
I use them in the order of how often I use them.
For the most used commands I try to stick to Marking Menus. I use Maya's default contextual marking menus with a few changes that I made. For example I added a delete button on the NW position of each polygon component shift+R click marking menu.
I still use some shortcuts, mostly Maya's default.
The most used commands should be the easiest to access and since marking menus don't require to move your mouse to a certain location to activate them, they're great. Shortcuts are even better, they don't require mouse movements but there's only so many keys you can map while with marking menus you can have a lot of commands on one shortcut.
I still use the shelf for things that I use maybe once every 10 minutes to once a few hours. I also use the shelf to test scripts before I integrate them into the marking menus. I put colorful icons on them to find them easily.
For everything else I use Maya's main menus which I customized by means of a Menu Set, as I mostly need the menus related to modeling, deformers and texturing.
Using all 3 I have everything I need right there 90% of time.
Even though I very much like marking menues I try not to rely in them for one reason only and that is when scene gets little bit heavier marking menu start to lag...meaning..right click and wait like 2-3 sec for reaction so...
i dont use dynamics much but do this when i am.
I have a script that makes 2 visible shelf row buttons, no scrolling between the two
oh and using hot keys for component types - right clicking take to long