BONUS CHAPTER 22

Customizing the Max Interface

When you get into a new car, one of the first things you do is to rearrange the seat and mirrors. You do this to make yourself comfortable. The same principle can apply to software packages: Arranging or customizing an interface makes it more comfortable to work with.

Early versions of Max allowed only minimal changes to the interface, but later versions enable significant customization. The Max interface can be customized to show only the icons and tools that you want to see.

Using the Customize User Interface Window

The Customize menu provides commands for customizing and setting up the Max interface. The first menu item is the Customize User Interface menu command. This command opens the Customize User Interface dialog box. This dialog box includes five panels: Keyboard, Toolbars, Quads, Menus, and Colors. You also can access this dialog box by right-clicking any toolbar away from the buttons and selecting Customize from the pop-up menu.

Customizing keyboard shortcuts

If used properly, keyboard shortcuts can increase your efficiency dramatically. Figure 1 shows the Keyboard panel of the Customize User Interface dialog box. In this panel, you can assign shortcuts to any command and define sets of shortcuts. You can assign keyboard shortcuts for any of the interfaces listed in the Group drop-down list. When an interface is selected from the Group drop-down list, all its commands are listed below, along with their current keyboard shortcuts. You can disable the keyboard shortcuts for any of these interfaces using the Active option located next to the drop-down list.

FIGURE 1 The Keyboard panel enables you to create keyboard shortcuts for any command.

Groups that have a large number of commands are split into categories. You can use the Category drop-down list to filter only select types of commands. This helps you to quickly locate a specific type of command such as controllers, modifiers, or Space Warps. Entering a keyboard shortcut into the Hotkey field shows in the Assigned to field whether that key is currently assigned to a command. You can Assign the hotkey to the selected command or Remove the hotkey from its current assignment.

If the Overrides Active option is enabled, then the Editable Poly commands that are marked in bold text can be activated by pressing and holding a keyboard shortcut. When you release the keyboard shortcut, the original mode is restored. For example, if you are working in Extrude mode, you can press and hold the Shift+Ctrl+B keyboard shortcut to access the Bevel command. When you release the keyboard shortcut, the Extrude mode is active again. The amount of time that passes before the press-and-hold keyboard shortcut becomes active is set by the Delay to Override value.

You can use the Write Keyboard Chart button to output all the keyboard commands to a text file. Using this feature, you can print and post a chart of keyboard shortcuts next to your computer monitor. You also can Load, Save, and Reset selected keyboard shortcut sets. Keyboard shortcut sets are saved as .kbd files in the UI directory where Max is installed.

Customizing toolbars

You can use the Customize User Interface dialog box's Toolbar panel to create custom toolbars. Figure 2 shows this panel.

FIGURE 2 The Toolbars panel in the Customize User Interface dialog box enables you to create new toolbars.

The Toolbars panel of the Customize User Interface dialog box includes the same Group and Category drop-down lists and command list as the Keyboard panel. Clicking the New button opens a simple dialog box where you can create and name the new toolbar. The Delete button lets you delete toolbars. You can delete only toolbars that you've created. The Rename button lets you rename the current toolbar. The Hide option makes the selected toolbar hidden.

Use the Load and Save buttons to load and save your newly created interface, including the new toolbar, to a custom interface file. Saved toolbars have the .cui extension.

After you create a new toolbar, you can drag the commands in the Action list to either a new blank toolbar created with the New button or to an existing toolbar. By holding down the Alt key, you can drag a button from another toolbar and move it to your new toolbar. Holding down the Ctrl key and dragging a button retains a copy of the button on the first toolbar.

If you drag a command that has an icon associated with it, the icon appears on the new toolbar. If the command doesn't have an icon, then the text for the command appears on the new toolbar.

On the right side of the Toolbars panel is a section where you can populate and arrange the Quick Access Toolbar that appears on the title bar.

Tutorial: Creating a custom toolbar

If you've been using Max for a while, you probably have several favorite commands that you use extensively. You can create a custom toolbar of all your favorite commands. To learn how to do this, you'll create a custom toolbar for the compound objects.

To create a custom toolbar for creating compound objects, follow these steps:

1. Open the Customize User Interface dialog box by choosing Customize Custom User Interface.
2. Open the Toolbars panel, and click the New button. In the New Toolbar dialog box that appears, name the toolbar Compound Objects. After you click OK, a new blank toolbar appears.
3. Select the Main UI group and the Objects Compounds category from the drop-down lists on the left. Then drag each command in the Action list to the new blank toolbar.
4. Click the Save button to save the changes to the customized interface file. You can load the resulting toolbar from the Bonus Chapter 22 directory on the CD. It is named Compound Objects toolbar.cui.

Figure 3 shows the new toolbar. With the new toolbar created, you can float, dock, or edit this toolbar just like the other toolbars. Notice that some of the tools have icons and others have text names.

FIGURE 3 A new toolbar of compound objects created using the Customize User Interface dialog box

You can right-click any of the buttons on any of the existing toolbars, except for the main toolbar, to access a pop-up menu. This pop-up menu enables you to change the button's appearance, delete the button, edit the button's macro script, or open the Customize User Interface dialog box.

Changing a button's appearance

Selecting the Edit Button Appearance command from the right-click pop-up menu opens the Edit Macro Button dialog box, shown in Figure 4. This dialog box enables you to quickly change the button's icon, tooltip, or text label. Each icon group shows both the standard icon and the grayed-out disabled version of the icon. Default buttons also can be changed. The Odd Only check box shows only the standard icons.

FIGURE 4 The Edit Macro Button dialog box provides a quick way to change an icon, tooltip, or text label.

Tutorial: Adding custom icons

The Max interface uses two different sizes of icons. Large icons are 24 × 24 pixels, and small icons are 16 × 15 pixels. Large icons can be 24-bit color, and small ones must be only 16-bit. Multiple icons can be placed side by side in a single file. The easiest way to create some custom toolbars is to copy an existing set of icons into an image-editing program, make the modifications, and save them under a different name. You can find all the icons saved as BMPs and used by Max in the 3dsmaxUIIcons directory.

To create a new group of icons, follow these steps:

1. Select a group of current icons to edit from the UI directory, and open them in Photoshop. I selected the Patches group, which includes all the files that start with the word Patches. This group includes only two icons. To edit icons used for both large and small icon settings and both active and inactive states, open the following four files: Patches_16a.bmp, Patches_16i.bmp, Patches_24a.bmp, and Patches_24i.bmp.
2. In each file, the icons are all included side by side in the same file, so the first two files are 32 × 15 and the second two are 48 × 24. Edit the files, being sure to keep each icon within its required dimensions.
3. When you finish editing or creating the icons, save each file with the name of the icon group in front of the underscore character. My files were saved as Kels_16a.bmp, Kels_16i.bmp, Kels_24a.bmp, and Kels_24i.bmp, so they show up in Kels group in the Edit Macro Button dialog box. Copy these four edited files from the Bonus Chapter 22 directory on the CD to the 3dsmaxUIIcons directory.
4. After the files are saved, you need to restart Max. The icon group is then available within the Customize User Interface dialog box when assigned to a command.

Figure 5 shows the Edit Macro Button dialog box with my custom icon group named Kels open.

FIGURE 5 The Edit Macro Button dialog box with a custom icon group selected

Customizing quadmenus

The third panel in the Customize User Interface dialog box allows you to customize the quadmenus. You can open quadmenus by right-clicking the active viewport or in certain interfaces. Figure 6 shows this panel.

To the left of the panel are the Group and Category drop-down lists and a list of actions that are the same as those that appear in the Keyboard and Toolbars panels, but the Quads panel also includes a Separator and a list of Menu commands. Quadmenus can include separators to divide the commands into different sections and menus that appear at the top of the standard interface.

The drop-down list at the top right of the Quads panel includes many different quadmenu sets. These quadmenus appear in different locations, such as within the ActiveShade window. Not only can you customize the default viewport quadmenus, but you also can create your own named custom quadmenus with the New button or you can rename an existing quadmenu. The Quad Shortcut field lets you assign a keyboard shortcut to a custom quadmenu.

FIGURE 6 The Quads panel of the Customize User Interface dialog box lets you modify pop-up quadmenus.

If the Show All Quads option is disabled, it causes only a single quadmenu to be shown at a time when unchecked. Although only one quadmenu is shown at a time, the corner of each menu is shown, and you can switch between the different menus by moving the mouse over the corner of the menu. This is useful if you want to limit the size of the quadmenu.

The four quadrants of the current quadmenu are shown as four boxes. The currently selected quadmenu is highlighted yellow, and its label and commands are shown in the adjacent fields. Click the gray boxes to select one of the different quadmenus.

To add a command to the selected quadmenu, drag an action, separator, or menu from the panes on the left to the quadmenu commands pane on the right. You can reorder the commands in the quadmenu commands pane by dragging the commands and dropping them in their new location. To delete a command, just select it and press the Delete key or select Delete Menu Item from the right-click pop-up menu.

If you right-click the commands in the right pane, a pop-up menu appears with options to delete or rename the command. Another command allows you to flatten a submenu, which displays all submenu commands on the top level with the other commands.

Custom quadmenus can be loaded and saved as menu files (with the .mnu extension).

The Quads panel also includes an Advanced Options button. Clicking this button opens the Advanced Quad Menu Options dialog box, shown in Figure 7. Using this dialog box, you can set options such as the colors used in the quadmenus.

FIGURE 7 The Advanced Quad Menu Options dialog box lets you change quadmenu fonts and colors.

Changes to the Advanced Quad Menu Options dialog box affect all quadmenus. You can load and save these settings to files (with the .qop extension). The Starting Quadrant determines which quadrant is first to appear when the quadmenu is accessed. You can select to change the colors for each quadmenu independent of the others. The column with the L locks the colors so they are consistent for all quadmenus if enabled.

The remainder of the Advanced Quad Menu Options dialog box includes settings for controlling how the quadmenus are displayed and positioned, as well as the fonts that are used.

The Animation section lets you define the animation style that is used when the quadmenus appear. The animation types include None, and Fade. The Fade style slowly makes the quadmenus appear.

Customizing menus

The Menus panel of the Customize User Interface dialog box allows you to customize the menus used at the top of the Max window. Figure 8 shows this panel.

This panel includes the same Group and Category drop-down lists and the Action, Separator, and Menus panes found in the Quads panel. You can drag and drop these commands to the menu pane on the right. Menus can be saved as files (with the .mnu extension). In the menu pane on the right, you can delete menu items with the Delete key or by right-clicking and selecting Delete Item from the pop-up menu.

FIGURE 8 You can use the Menus panel of the Customize User Interface dialog box to modify menus.

Tutorial: Adding a new menu

Adding a new menu is easy to do with the Customize User Interface dialog box. For this example, you tack another menu to the end of the Tools menu.

To add another menu item to the Tools menu, follow these steps:

1. Choose Customize Customize User Interface to open the Customize User Interface dialog box.
2. Click the Menus tab to open the Menus panel.
3. In the top-left drop-down list, select Main UI from the Group drop-down list and Tools from the Category drop-down list.

   Expand the Tools menu in the right pane by clicking the plus sign to its left.

4. Locate the Cross Hair Cursor Toggle menu item in the Action list, drag it to the right, and drop it right after the Channel Info Editor menu item.

   As you drag, a blue line indicates where the menu will be located.

5. Click the Save button to save the menu as a file. You can find the customized menu from this example in the Bonus Chapter 22 directory on the CD.

After you save the new menu file, you need to restart Max before you can see the changes. You can reset the default UI by choosing Customize Revert to Startup Layout.

Customizing colors

Within Max, the colors often indicate the mode in which you're working. For example, red marks animation mode. Using the Colors panel of the Customize User Interface dialog box, you can set custom colors for all Max interface elements. This panel, shown in Figure 9, includes two panes. The upper pane displays the available items for the interface selected in the Elements drop-down list. Selecting an item in the list displays its color in the color swatch to the right. You also can set the color Intensity, invert the color, or make the Application Frame Light or Dark.

FIGURE 9 You can use the Colors panel of the Customize User Interface dialog box to set the colors used in the interface.

The lower pane displays a list of the custom colors that can be changed to affect the appearance of the interface. For example, Highlight Text isn't an element; it's an interface appearance. The Scheme drop-down list can alter the color scheme between custom colors and the Windows Default Colors. For these colors, you can set the Saturation, Value, Transparency, Contrast, and Gradient Map. The Contrast and Gradient Map values apply only to Icons.

You can save custom color settings as files with the .clr extension. You can use the Apply Colors Now button to immediately update the interface colors.

Customizing the Ribbon

The Ribbon interface also includes a dialog box for customizing its panels. To access this dialog box, right-click the Ribbon title bar and select the Ribbon Configuration Customize Ribbon menu command. This opens the Customize Ribbon dialog box, shown in Figure 10.

FIGURE 10 The Customize Ribbon dialog box lets you repopulate the existing panels or even create your own panels.

The Customize Ribbon dialog box is fairly easy to use. The top-left panels hold all the available commands grouped by category, similar to the Customize User Interface dialog box. The lower-left panel holds a set of controls that are unique to the Ribbon interface including tabs, panels, and subpanels. The middle panel holds a hierarchical list of the current Ribbon interface, and the right panels show a preview of the current selection and all the properties for the selected item.

To add a command to the current Ribbon panel, simply locate the command in the Action Items panel of the Customize Ribbon dialog box, drag it to the Existing UI panel, and drop it in the location where you want the command to appear. If the command has an icon button associated with it, then the button will appear in the specified location. The Preview Window shows exactly how it will appear in the Ribbon panel.

If the command that you drag into the Existing UI doesn't have an icon button, then you can use the Standard Icon property to load in a custom icon. Other properties let you show or hide the icon or text, enter a new tool label, or specify the height and width of the tool. With the Description property you can enter text that appears in the tooltip.

Making dynamic tools and panels

Some properties, such as the Visible property for standard commands or the Available property for panels, let you choose values of True, False, and Conditional. The Conditional option opens a dialog box, shown in Figure 11, where you can specify the conditions required for the command to be visible or available. For example, you can have a button appear only when an Editable Poly object is selected or when Slice Mode is enabled. This gives you the power to make the custom Ribbon dynamic.

FIGURE 11 The Conditions dialog box lets you specify the required condition for having the tool or panel appear.

The Conditional dialog box also includes a field for entering MAXScript conditions, such as enabling an object only when multiple objects are selected. The Open Editor button opens a MAXScript Editor window so you can test your conditions.

Saving Ribbon changes

After you're happy with the Ribbon changes, you can press the Save button to immediately apply the changes to the current Ribbon. The Save As button opens a dialog box where you can save the custom Ribbon as a separate file with the .ribbon extension. Saved ribbon files can be reloaded into the Customize Ribbon dialog box using the Load button.

Tutorial: Building a Ribbon panel of primitives

Working with the Ribbon is great, and I typically like to hide the Command Panel when modeling, but occasionally I need to create a primitive object to work with. The Create menu is too cumbersome, so creating a Ribbon panel holding all the primitives is helpful.

To create a Ribbon panel of primitive objects, follow these steps:

1. Click the Graphite Modeling Tools button in the main toolbar to open the Ribbon interface.
2. Right-click the Ribbon title bar and select the Ribbon Configuration Customize Ribbon menu command.
3. Drag the Tab option in the Ribbon Controls panel and drop it beneath the Object Paint entry in the Existing UI panel. In the Properties panel, enter Primitives for the Name and Title fields.

   Note

   A new tab cannot be populated until you give it a unique name in the Name field.

4. Drag the Panel item from the Ribbon Controls panel and drop it in the Existing UI panel under the new Primitives tab. Change the Title property to Standard Primitives.
5. In the Action Items panel, set the Group to Main UI and the Category to Objects Primitives, and then locate and drag each of the standard primitives to the new Standard Primitives panel in the Existing UI panel.
6. Drag a Row Break item from the Ribbon Controls panel and drop it beneath the Teapot item in the Existing UI panel to break up the row of icons in the new Standard panel.
7. Click the Save button to apply the changes to the current Ribbon interface.

Figure 12 shows the customized Ribbon with the new panel of primitives.

FIGURE 12 A custom panel of primitives has been added to the Ribbon interface.

Customizing Modify and Utility Panel Buttons

The Modify panel and the Utilities panel in the Command Panel both include a button called Configure Button Sets that allows you to configure how the modifiers are grouped and which utility buttons appear in the Utilities panel.

In the Modify panel, the Configure Modifier Sets button is the right-most button directly under the Modifier Stack. This button opens a pop-up menu that lists all the modifier categories. The top pop-up menu command is Configure Modifier Sets, which opens a dialog box, shown in Figure 13, when selected. Using this dialog box, you can control which modifiers are grouped with which sets.

FIGURE 13 The Configure Modifier Sets dialog box lets you group the modifiers as you want.

To add a modifier to a set, select the set from the Sets drop-down list and drag the modifier from the list of Modifiers on the left to the button set on the right. To create a new set, simply type a new name into the Sets field. After a set has changed, you need to save it with the Save button.

You can find the same Configure Button Sets button on the Utilities panel. Clicking this button opens a similar dialog box where you can drag from a list of Utilities to a list of buttons on the right. These buttons are then displayed in the Utilities panel. Using this feature, you can add your favorite modifiers and utilities to appear when either panel is opened, saving you from having to locate them.

Working with Custom Interfaces

If you've changed your interface, you'll be happy to know that the Customize menu includes a way for you to save and then reload your custom setup. This feature is especially helpful for users who share a copy of Max.

Saving and loading a custom interface

Custom interface schemes are saved with the .ui extension using the Customize Save Custom UI Scheme menu command. When you save a custom scheme, Max opens a file dialog box where you can name the .ui file, and then the Custom Scheme dialog box, shown in Figure 14. This dialog box lets you choose which customizations to include in the custom scheme. It also lets you select the icon type to use. The options are Classic and 2D Black and White.

FIGURE 14 The Custom Scheme dialog box appears when you're saving a custom interface and lets you select which items to include.

You can load saved user interface schemes with Customize Load Custom UI. These custom UI files are saved in the Program Files/Autodesk/3ds Max 2012/UI folder. The default Max install includes several predefined interface setups located in the UI directory. These standard interfaces are available:

• DefaultUI: Default interface that opens when Max is first installed.
• Ame-dark: Displays the standard interface with black windows, backgrounds, and viewports. All the icons and menus are light gray, and many of the icons are different, as shown in Figure 15.
• Ame-light: Same as the Ame-dark layout, except the icons and menus are black and the backgrounds are all light gray. Many icons are different here, too.
• ModularToolbarsUI: An interface that breaks the main toolbar into many smaller toolbars that are easier to move and arrange.

FIGURE 15 If you prefer a lighter interface, then try loading the Ame-light scheme.

You also can use both the Load Custom UI and Save Custom UI menu commands to save and load any of the custom user interface files types, including these:

• Interface Scheme files (.ui)
• UI files (.cui)
• Menu files (.mnu)
• Color files (.clr)
• Keyboard Shortcut files (.kbd)
• Quadmenu Options files (.qop)

Locking the interface

After you're comfortable with your interface changes, locking the interface to prevent accidental changes is a good idea. To lock the current interface, choose Customize Lock UI Layout (or press the Alt+0 keyboard shortcut). Locking the interface prevents changes by dragging interface elements, but you can still make interface changes using the pop-up menus.

Reverting to the startup interface

When you're first playing around with Max's customization features, really messing things up can be easy. If you get in a bind, you can reload the default startup interface (MaxStart.ui) with the Customize Revert to Startup Layout command. Using the Application Button Reset menu command does not reset changes to the layout.

Switching between default and custom interfaces

The Customize Custom UI and Defaults Switcher menu command opens an interactive window that presents several options for selecting initial settings and interface schemes, as shown in Figure 16. At the top of the window, you can select an option, and then details about the selected option are displayed.

FIGURE 16 This window explains the benefits of the different initial settings and scheme choices.

The initial settings for the tool options list include Max, Max.mentalray, DesignVIZ, and DesignVIZ.mentalray. These different selections cause the default settings for the various controls to change. For example, the default renderer for Max is the Scanline renderer, but for the Max.mentalray option, mental ray is the default renderer.

The schemes list includes the same custom interfaces listed earlier, along with any custom interfaces that have been saved.

After selecting the initial settings and scheme to use, click the Set button to commit the selections to the interface. The button with arrows on it in the lower left displays the initial information page again.

Summary

You can customize the Max interface in many ways. Most of these customization options are included under the Customize menu. In this chapter, you learned how to use this menu and its commands to customize many aspects of the interface. Customizing makes the Max interface more efficient and comfortable for you.

Specifically, this chapter covered the following topics:

• Using the Customize User Interface dialog box to customize keyboard shortcuts, toolbars, quadmenus, menus, and colors
• Customizing the Ribbon interface
• Customizing buttons on the Modify and Utility panels
• Saving and loading custom interfaces

Well, you did it. You reached the end of the book. Congratulations! Before diving headfirst into Max, you may want to check out the appendixes. You'll also want to keep this book handy, because it is a useful reference or to smash any spiders that are creeping about.