Maya Hot Keys
Hi,
I'm abit illiterate when it comes to maya. I've not used Maya in 3 years and I'd like to change up some hotkeys.
This is basically what i need.
ALT nav to "S"
Window resizing to "Tab"
My problem is finding designations of these in the Hotkey editor.
Please help.
Thanks.
I'm abit illiterate when it comes to maya. I've not used Maya in 3 years and I'd like to change up some hotkeys.
This is basically what i need.
ALT nav to "S"
Window resizing to "Tab"
My problem is finding designations of these in the Hotkey editor.
Please help.
Thanks.
Replies
Alt Nav is on the Left Image (track,tumble,dolly tools : just rebind s+middle mouse/left mouse/etc,etc)
Window resizing is controlled by the same key bound to the hotbox. So if you rebind the TAB key to the hotbox control and tap that in the window it will scale to that viewport, whereas holding that key would bring the hotbox menu up. (i think that's what you meant?). SEE IMAGE ON THE RIGHT
For Nav function, i was able to input S but it never seemed to stay bound. I would bind S to the next function and the previous would erase its binding. Therefor only allowing me to use S on one of the 4 instead of all 4. Any way around this by any chance?
For the Hotbox, i opened the key field rollout menu but "tab" did not seem to be in the list.
up, down, right, left, f1-f12 etc, seemed to be the only available options. Any way around this?
Thanks for the help before and in advance. I'm on the right track. I just need to keep pushing untill i resolve this.
Thank you for the help and taking the time regardless. Maya is certainly a program with many limits.
Hopfully it's just my lack of understanding rather than program flaws.
Thanks again.
You'll probably just have to get used to using a different key for toggling window maximise/minimise, but that shouldn't take long. What's wrong with space, are you using that for something else?
I ended up re-binding Space in Max because the default bind as selection lock is next to useless, and it's much easier than hitting the default of CTRL-W or whatever it was.
Out of the 2 functions i prefer using S over Alt because i like the positioning of the keyboard to my hand. I'm sitll trying to figure that one out. Problem i run into is i cannot map mouse keys with S. I type in S into the "Assign New Hotkey" Field but it does not stay bound once i move on to the other 3. I think the problem is related to binding S with mouse functions, but how do you assign mouse click functions?
MoP, Progg,
Is there a way to bind the marking menu "Vertex, Face, Edge" to letters on the keyboard?
That's because ALT isnt bound by itself to begin with. It is bound Alt +MMB / LMB/ and RMB for dolly zoom and pan. There is a way to Assign S + the mouse buttons but not through that Editor. I'll let you know when I get a response from my friend.
What exactly do you mean? Binding a key to enter edge mode or face mode on a mesh?
More specifically under HotKey Editor it is "Status Line" on the left and the commands are SelectEdgeMask, SelectEdgeFace, SelectEdgeVertex etc etc.
I'm assuming Vertex , Edge , Face is equally spread out as well.
I used to be just as comfortable with its set up as well. Don't ever learn XSI. You'll NEVER want to go back.
To be honest you should create a mel-script file with your personal modifications...
For example in your MyDocument/maya/XXXX/scripts directory, you will find userSetup.mel file.
Just open it, and add the following line :
Close the file and create a new ASCI file you will rename as "Crazyeyes_PersonnalHotKeys.mel"
Open it and here you can create melscript command for creating a hotkey...
I always think this is better to resolve his own problem with mel script because this is only on file you can move and save very easy...
About the hotkey files for the preferences of Maya you will need to save 3 files for the hotkeys :
- prefs/userHotkeys.mel
- prefs/userNamedCommands.mel
- prefs/userRunTimeCommands.mel
I personnaly think this is better to have his own modification in one file...
This is very easy to create and will allow to do more thing later....
Here is a simple example you can copy&past in your "Crazyeyes_PersonnalHotKeys.mel" file and it will help you to understand how it works :
Important note :
Every time you will read SAMA, it means this is a function of mine. then it helps to remember I created it and this is not a Maya thing. This is very important because sometime name you will give to your hotkey are similar with function name
And answering to your question about the LMB/MMB/RMB, it doesn't work like that in Maya.
You can assing a pop up menu to a press and release action...
But I personnaly never successed to understand how works the snap commands in Maya with the LMB.
I found the files in the ...\Autodesk\Maya2009\scripts\startup
- defaultRunTimeCommands.mel
- hotkeySetup.mel
- namedCommandSetup.mel
But really this is an hard part ... do not play Indiana Johns O=o...
What exactly do you want to assign to your LMB/MMD/RMB?
Basically if you have a mesh selected, right-click on it and you will get a radial menu. Notice that the left direction is "Vertex" mode. That means if you right-click and drag left really quickly, you will go into vertex mode. You won't even see the menu, since it has a delay so it will only pop up if you don't move your mouse.
This means that each direction (gesture) you move will call a different command.
And you can use CTRL+right-click for a "conversion" menu (eg. convert selected polys to vertex selection by CTRL+right-click then dragging left, same direction as just to go to vertex mode).
SHIFT+right-click gives you modelling commands, so if you SHIFT+right-click on a mesh with edges selected, the default action for moving right is "Bevel". Again when you get used to doing this quickly it can be super-fast and you don't need to use any hotkeys which saves your left hand some stress.
Obviously not absolutely every command is in the right-click context menus but most of the regular ones are, and you can use the Marking Menu editor to set up a custom marking menu that pops up when you press a hotkey, so you could assign 8 or more commands to a hotkey and associated gesture movement.
I dunno how many people use this functionality but the people I see using it are usually very, very quick.
BTW the same applies with Space bar for toggling window size, if you just tap it then the hotbox never comes up, it has a delay on it too so you actually have to hold the key down for a bit if you want the hotbox.
I personally really use it a lotk with several sub menu and with a quick mouse draw you can access to the option without popping the menu!
But for quick tools like cute, extrude, etc... hotkey will be the more quick if you can access to your keyboard without giving a look!
I want to replace Alt with S and leave the LMB/MMD/RMB alone.
I think i might just start off with the easier mapping functions and go from there.
stuff like:
Move, Scale, Rotate = (CATAGORIE - Tools)
TranslateToolWithSnapMarkingMenu = W Change to V
RotateToolWithSnapMarkingMenu = E Change to C
ScaleToolWithSnapMarkingMenu = R Change to X
Face Vertex Edge = (CATAGORIE - Status Line)
SnapToPoint = V change to Alt V
SelectVertexMask = F9 Change to t
SelectEdgeMask = F10 change to e
SelectFacetMask = F11 Change to u
(Catagorie - Surfaces)
Change poly Extrude to Ctrl D release.
All poly edit functions like Slice, Cut, Bevel will get mapped to keys like
[ , ] , \
As far as i can tell, these are are possible to do. Only experimentation/ trial and error will tell. I'm a big keyboard fan.
It's a nifty tool that when turned on, will allow you to select any point, edge, or face without changing modes. snap, weld and move at any given moment without a mode change. I found this tool exceptionally powerful.
It allows you to select faces, edges or vertices without manually switching modes.
I hate that i have to try and change Maya so much. XSI set a really high bar and in a way really f'd me a little when trying to go back. But i'm glad you guys are so helpfull.
BTW, thank you.
Thanks MoP.
I've been modeling in Maya for 6-7 years and I use to use Max. I guess I've gotten so use to the workflow it doesn't bother me. I don't use any custom scripts for Maya except a random numerical value script every now and then to get some non uniform translations.
I still have quite a delay, and even gestures won't always pop for me, so I'm still digging.
Thanks!
The ones I use the most are the select modes and convert modes (left for vertex, down for edge, up for face, right for UV if i remember right) and holding CTRL will convert the selection to those modes.
SHIFT + down on a mesh is Extrude, SHIFT + right on a mesh is Bevel.
Another one I use a lot is soft/hard edges, SHIFT + down+right -> up+right for soft edge, SHIFT + down+right all the way for hard edges.
SHIFT+ up then right is Merge Vertices which I use a fair bit.
There's more but it's muscle memory and i can't remember the commands, i just do the gestures
If you just look at the direction you're moving in when accessing the "slow" menu with the buttons, you'll easily see what the gesture is. Just try them all out on a cube primitive right now or something.
Thats why Max was so smart back in the days with the flash boot screen with hotkeys reminders. After a while you simply learn them because you see them instantly and feel like, 'oh ill try that one! looks handy'
For me its another example of the elegant maya core, very badly presented. They could have a gesture learning tutorial showing the most useful ones. If Max had such a feature you can be sure there would be a few help pages describing them!
Thanks for the post!
I think it flashes up one you highlighted after you complete a valid gesture.
It does seem that i can get most of the basic modeling functions tagged to the keyboard instead of the right click marking menu. Things like Bevel, Cut, Edge loop split, edge loop select, Vertex, Face, Edge, etc. I'm going to have to give up Alt being S and Space bar being Tab.
Here's a real challenge. Go model in Houdini 9 (I had to do that for Visual Effects for 2 years). Talk about a backward ass setup.... it use to not even be able to UV Edit.
Chances are, where ever i go, i'll just take the free Mod Tool from Softimage XSI site with me and model in that then transfer the 3d to what ever package other companies are using.
Question:
I changed the vertex, face, edge mode to U -I -T and when i enter any of these modes, i seem to get a Symmetry and Soft Selection effect. How do i turn off soft selection and Symmetry in maya?
- soft selection on : softSelect -e -softSelectEnabled 1;
- soft selection off : softSelect -e -softSelectEnabled 0;
I think this modification is the most stupid one....
In Maya everything is connected ....
The W,E,R keys are not only for changing mode....
If you combine this keys with LMB, you will access to more parameter of this manipulators.
If you need to work on Maya learn the program as the program is.
And then with time you will understand why Maya has been created like that.
Starting to change all your keyboard will close to you lot of possibilities with Maya like the example I give on the top.
If you want some extra script it doesn't exist in Maya, you can add a button or hotkey Maya doesn't use, but do not change everything...
But Anyway, your Maya is not my Maya and I already know Maya
This is like you ask to me to start with Maxscript and I will change the Maxscript for getting back my Melscript on 3dsmax.. completly no sense hahah...
Also in case you didn't know and you use Soft Selection a lot, if you hold down B and LMB+drag, it gives you a nice dynamic real-world falloff radius for the soft selection. This is something I really wish Max had (I wrote a maxscript a while back to do something similar but it didn't have a real-time, correct-scale preview like Maya's does).
:P
Yup B tap for toggle, B hold for drag resize.
i agree with sama.van to some extent. remapping everything might not be the best answer, especially if you start diving into any tuts. if they start reviewing any shortcuts, you could just end up even more confused... "shit, i remapped that one which is also tied to that one if you hold down that button with it"
maybe just me, but i tried remapping keys when i was switching from maya to max, and i ended up just restoring the default keys and learned the app as is first.
Maya has ALOT of default junk built by monkeys. The keyboard set up is the biggest offender and I"m trying to cater my key strokes in maya like XSI or close because XSI has a better keyboard setup. But if it's that interconnected then i'll probably have to lower my standards until i get used to it as you said. I had no idea it was so interconnected. Thanks for clarifying that. It definatly makes sence why after i change something, something else freaks out.
I come from a Maya background. And coming from maya initially, and now knowing the differences in quality of all three programs, this explains why i want Maya to mirror xsi keystrokes as i felt (for me) it was the best modeling program.
I don't wanna slow down when i go to a new place. I want to maintain my current speed as my modeling speed alone is significantly faster in XSI than the rest.
i hear ya man. it can be set up the way you want for the most part, but you would really need to invest a good amount of time in switching keystrokes around with common used functions... it can be a big headache to deal with if you are trying to get back into the app... the payoff would be well worth it though after your re-rinse your feet
so are you doing this for a new gig or just preparation for just in case?