Does anyone know a way to replicate Blender's way of editing in Maya?

ned_poreyra

I'm talking about clicking G/R/S and things moving with the mouse right away, instead of selecting the tool > click and hold the handle > move the handle. I'm trying to learn at least basic modeling in Maya (because something something industry standard), but I hate it, especially gizmo-based workflow. For every click in Blender it takes 2 or 3 clicks in Maya. Does anyone know a way to make it work more like Blender, so at least I won't have to use the damn gizmo? Any nifty magical-macro-contextual-whatever software, anything?

PolyHertz

I don't know about using hotkeys to select the axis, but MMB drag lets you manipulate the position/rotation/scale from anywhere on the screen without needing to directly touch the gizmo.

musashidan

PolyHertz said:

I don't know about using hotkeys to select the axis, but MMB drag lets you manipulate the position/rotation/scale from anywhere on the screen without needing to directly touch the gizmo.

Isn't that just in screen space though?

Blender's hotkey and hotkey+MMB concept is unique.

Justo

Welcome to the past, time traveler!

PolyHertz

musashidan said:

Isn't that just in screen space though?

Blender's hotkey and hotkey+MMB concept is unique. 

Nope, it only works in screen space if you haven't clicked on any handles already (or clicked the box at the center of the three main handles). Once you click on a handle it'll be locked to that axis (or 2 axis if you clicked on one of the squares between the axis handles). Blenders system just hotkeys the axis selection step and adds the lines on the screen as an extra visual indicator.

The main benefit of Blenders approach is that you don't have to hold a mouse button down while transforming your selection, while the main benefit of Mayas method is that it can result needing fewer clicks (since Blender requires G/S/R to be pressed to start each individual transformation).

musashidan

PolyHertz said:

 without needing to directly touch the gizmo.

This is what I was referring to.  You still have to grab a handle to choose the axis.

So it will default to screen space if you mmb without choosing an axis?

ned_poreyra

musashidan said:

So it will default to screen space if you mmb without choosing an axis?

But if I even once choose an axis, it stays locked to that axis even after I switch selections or deselect, which makes this completely useless, because I have to "reset" each time by clicking the little square in the center.

musashidan

Yes, you will not get the same transform behaviour in Maya as you get in Blender. Blender's transform system is completely unique and cannot be replicated in Maya/Max. It's a non-destructive live process.

ned_poreyra

Well, I guess I'm screwed. Good night everybody.

throttlekitty

ned_poreyra said:

musashidan said:

So it will default to screen space if you mmb without choosing an axis?

But if I even once choose an axis, it stays locked to that axis even after I switch selections or deselect, which makes this completely useless, because I have to "reset" each time by clicking the little square in the center.

There is a setting in Preferences > Manipulators for tool switch behavior. Having this on Reset is what I do. So if I'm on Move X and want to reset, i just press 'w' again for the move tool; much easier than clicking that center each time.

Not sure if you know about Shift-drag-MMB, it locks to the axis of the direction you dragged to. It's crap in most perspective situations, but it's a thing.

ned_poreyra

throttlekitty said:

Not sure if you know about Shift-drag-MMB, it locks to the axis of the direction you dragged to. It's crap in most perspective situations, but it's a thing.

I know, it doesn't work as I expect it to work half the time, so it's less frustrating to just not use it.

Axi5

Not sure if I'm missing a point here, but I'm pretty sure you can hold ctrl + MMB in Maya to constrain to an axis. The mouse has to be travelling a little in the direction you want to constrain to, which is basically like Blender's MMB.

Alex_J

I just tested what @Axi5 is talking about, and it seems to work like this :

if you are looking mostly straight on an axis, ctrl+mmb drag to move along that plane. If you are kinda inbetween two planes, it is camera based.

One other thing to note, in the preferences you can set the range of pre-selection for your axis. This can make quick selecting an axis lighting fast, if that's the way you prefer to work.

throttlekitty

Axi5 said:

Not sure if I'm missing a point here, but I'm pretty sure you can hold ctrl + MMB in Maya to constrain to an axis. The mouse has to be travelling a little in the direction you want to constrain to, which is basically like Blender's MMB.

The difference was mentioned above, in Blender you press an axis key, then start moving the mouse, the click finishes the move.

ned_poreyra

Alex Javor said:

I just tested what @Axi5 is talking about, and it seems to work like this :

if you are looking mostly straight on an axis, ctrl+mmb drag to move along that plane. If you are kinda inbetween two planes, it is camera based.

For me it just doesn't work well. Sometimes I want to move left and it moves up etc. Also I can't restrict movement to planes like XZ, XY, ZY, so if I want to move something let's say -2 in Z and +1 X, I can't do it in one stroke, so I still have to use these little planes on the gizmo.

jRocket

Is it really that hard to use the gizmo? If it's too small, you can use the + key to make it bigger. The only thing I find lacking there is precision modeling using numbers. It's easier in Blender than using the Transform Type-in in Maya.

ned_poreyra

jRocket said:

Is it really that hard to use the gizmo?

The main difference is that in Blender when I want to move/scale/rotate something, I don't have to pay attention where my mouse is.

Axi5

Yeah, Maya isn't Blender

janoshx

I have never used Blender but here is my ten cents...

You can create hotkeys to each axis, planes and for all axis.

Create custom runtime command in hotkey editor with one of the following command for each hotkey. Write only the command name and number. Then you can switch the axis or plane with hotkey and move with MMB.

This locks transform along X axis:
dR_setActiveTransformAxis 0;

Y
dR_setActiveTransformAxis 1;

Z
dR_setActiveTransformAxis 2;

XYZ
dR_setActiveTransformAxis 3;

XY
dR_setActiveTransformAxis 4;

YZ
dR_setActiveTransformAxis 5;

XZ
dR_setActiveTransformAxis 6;

Hope this helps....