Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
The
Main Menu bar
,
Status line
, and
Shelf
all run across the top of the screen. The Tool
Box runs vertically on the left side of the screen. It contains icons for your transform tools
(such as Move and Rotate) as well as quick-view selections to allow you to customize your
panel layouts quickly. The Attribute Editor and Channel Box/Layer Editor (the Channel
Box is displayed in Figure 3.1, and not the Attribute Editor) run down the right side of the
screen. Finally, listed from the top down, the Time slider, the Range slider, the Character
Set menu, the Auto Keyframe button, and the Animation Preferences button, some of
which you've already used, run across the bottom of the screen.
r eminder: m aya's m ouse Controls
r eminder: m aya's m ouse Controls
In Maya, holding the Alt key on a PC or the Option key on a Mac along with the appropriate
button allows you to move in the view panel. The left mouse button (LMB) acts as the pri-
mary selection button (as it does in many other programs) and lets you orbit around objects
when used with the Alt key. The right mouse button (RMB) activates numerous shortcut
menus and lets you zoom with the Alt key. The middle mouse button (MMB) with the Alt key
lets you move within the Maya interface, and the mouse's wheel can be used to zoom in and
out as well.
In Maya, holding the Alt key on a PC or the Option key on a Mac along with the appropriate
button allows you to move in the view panel. The left mouse button (LMB) acts as the pri-
mary selection button (as it does in many other programs) and lets you orbit around objects
when used with the Alt key. The right mouse button (RMB) activates numerous shortcut
menus and lets you zoom with the Alt key. The middle mouse button (MMB) with the Alt key
lets you move within the Maya interface, and the mouse's wheel can be used to zoom in and
out as well.
The Main Menu Bar
In the Main Menu bar, shown in Figure 3.2, you'll find a few of the familiar menu choices
you've come to expect in many applications, such as File, Edit, and Help.
One difference in Maya, however, is that menu choices are context sensitive; they
depend on what you're doing. By switching menu sets, you change your menu choices and
hence your available toolset. The menu sets in Maya are Animation, Polygons, Surfaces,
Dynamics, Rendering, and nDynamics. No matter which menu set you're working in,
the first six items are constant: File, Edit, Modify, Create, Display, and Window. The last
menu, Help, is also constantly displayed no matter which menu set you choose.
Some plugins can also add menu items to the Menu Bar. For example, Maya Muscle is
a plugin that comes with Maya and is on by default; it adds the Muscle menu to the Menu
Bar. If the plugin is turned off, that menu item is removed. So, don't panic if you don't see
the same exact Menu Bar pictured throughout this topic.
Figure 3.2
The Main Menu bar
is where the magic
happens!
