Maya Unfriendly

[gmask]

Originally posted by mixtus
i have a friend who only has use of one arm. He cannot hold down the Alt key to be able to rotate/pan/zoom. Does anyone know of a way to get these functions as buttons???

3d max has buttons to allow you to do this.
There should be a way - please help if you know the answer.

thank you!

To be honest I don't think you can change this in Maya ..

I dunno if this helps but here some links for some interesting alternative input devices.

http://www.infogrip.com/product_view.asp?RecordNumber=34&sbcolor=FF9966&optiontxt=Search
http://www.touchtime.com/

[luminis]

There is no direct way to this within the Maya software (that I know of). Perhaps using a mouse that has more than three buttons may help. With the mouse driver, assign the extra button as a modifier key - the Alt key of course, and use the first three buttons additional to this. For example, the mouse that comes with Wacom tablets can do this, but getting one of those can be a bit expensive, so just finding a regular mouse that has several buttons and that comes with drivers that can assign any button to a keystroke.

Hope this helps. :)

[mixtus]

these are good ideas - I think the microsoft mouse with the five buttons would be a great way to do this - I could assign one to the alt key and the other to the shift key -

[scotta]

In the 'View' menu of each viewport there is a 'Camera Tools' submenu. The Tumble Tool, Track Tool, and the Dolly Tool are the equivalent of the common camera navigation modes. You could tear off this menu or make some shelf buttons or hotkeys to make these tools easy to get at. These tools expose options that I don't believe are available the more common way, plus you only need one mouse button to do all navigation!

[luminis]

Originally posted by scotta
In the 'View' menu of each viewport there is a 'Camera Tools' submenu.

Ohh - How could I not remember this! :surprised: Well, that's an easier answer... Especially if shelf buttons are created out of them. Good call scotta.

[gmask]

Originally posted by scotta
In the 'View' menu of each viewport there is a 'Camera Tools' submenu. The Tumble Tool, Track Tool, and the Dolly Tool are the equivalent of the common camera navigation modes. You could tear off this menu or make some shelf buttons or hotkeys to make these tools easy to get at. These tools expose options that I don't believe are available the more common way, plus you only need one mouse button to do all navigation!

Oh yeah.. why didn't I think of that? I hardly ever use that menu.

[mixtus]

great!

The tear off works good -
It will not allow me to add these items to the shelf.
I think it could be because it is link to a window.
if anyone can find a way to add them to the shelf - please let me know - thanks for all your help.

[mixtus]

i figured it out -
you MM from the selected tool box
and pull in up to the shelf.

hot stuff - my friend is going
to be very excited about this.
maya was very hard for him to use.

:thumbsup:

[JasonA]

Maybe this is unique to Maya 4.5, but these controls are already in the 'General" shelf tab. So you shouldn't have to only use the mouse+hotkeys or setup custom keys for it...

[jimiyo]

it would be hard to find, but i once saw a foot pedal like a sewing machine that you could plug into the computer to act as a 2 programable function keys. sweet eh?

[Ed Lee]

Hmmm...this is something new to me. Yeah, having only one useful arm/hand to operate within Maya could be tough. Great suggestions, anyhoo.

That's great that your friend's doing 3D.

Ed--

[Peter Reynolds]

Some good suggestions so far.

I use a wacom with with Maya (haven't used a mouse for a long time now). I mostly use the pen, but with the 4D mouse you can also effectively have access to 15 buttons. So you can build up a great workflow, and the wacom control panel makes it very easy to assign key combinations to buttons on the pen and mouse.

Probably want to test it out first to see if you like it - and make sure you have the latest drivers.

So if the $$$ are available....

BTW - I don't work for Wacom.

[mixtus]

hey peter:
i have a 6x9 wacom
i dont have the 4d mouse.
how is the 4d mouse different then the normal mouse?

if i work in 3d max i use my pen only.
I have not found a way to work with maya
with my wacom in a way that is comfortable.

I love the pen and i would love to use it in maya?

how do you handle the pan/zoom/rotate just with your wacom.

please expand on your workflow with the wacom -

[luminis]

From time to time I use a Wacom, so I can answer *my way* of doing it. Perhaps other people do it differently. Using both the pen and the 4D mouse at the same time, I can access almost all of the commonly used functions. The 4D mouse gives up to 15 buttons that can be programmed any way you like, so I use them for things such as Alt, Shift, and Ctrl. I use others for the space bar (to open the hotbox), two more for undo/redo, I even mapped a few to change display settings of the viewport - wireframe, shaded, lights, etc. And then the pen controls the cursor movement, plus Left, Middle and Right mouse button clicks (and drags). Heh, this almost sounds like an infomercial for Wacom :)

The 4D mouse is not very different from a mouse, the only thing that makes it unique is that you can use it at the same time with a pen, or it can be used by itself.

[Peter Reynolds]

hi mixtus,

In general, I try and keep my workflow the same as is standard with maya, so that if I have to work at a client site and they don't have a wacom, or for some reason I can't take mine with me to use.

But it is great when you have repeat tasks and need to fly through it, to be able to assign certain key combinations to the pen or mouse. You can even use both at the same time like the AW video. (though I haven't used that much yet.)

For day to day work, I usually use the pen in pen mode, as it gives my arm a bit more of a work out and saves my wrist and hand from cramping up with rsi, cts, etc. Though for tasks when I need some short quick movement its easy enough to press your tablet into mouse mode.

Also, if you use Wings 3D, you can choose "Maya" for the camera mode (along with a nice list of others including Mirai and 3ds). However currently you need to operate Wings in mouse mode, as pen mode gets too sensitive and flips out.

For apps I am always using, I go to the trouble of adding them to the wacom list in the control panel and set up keys and functions, etc.

So for Maya, as I said, usually I still use the Alt key in combination with the pen so I can still work fast on autopilot if I'm at a client site with no wacom. In the wacom control panel, I then have the point as left click - rotates view, and I slide my thumb over the first and second pen buttons of the DuoSwitch for middle click and right click respectively for pan and zoom.


- say you need to enter in a certain value into the channel box, over and over? You could assign a keystroke to your eraser, and then just press each channel with the eraser to enter the value (or use tablet buttons of course).

- you can create wacom popup lists for key combinations or hotkeys

- and because you can customise hotkeys, marking menus, etc in maya you can get a lot out of a wacom.

[Sanguis Mortuum]

Also, in the windows accessibility options, theres an option called StickyKeys. You can use this option to make it so that instead of holding down Alt, Ctrl, or Shift, you just have to tap it once, and it will stay on until you tap it again to turn it off.

[Boolieman]

What version of windows are you using

[Jozvex]

Hey Mixtus,

I'm in a similar situation to your friend (though not quite as severe) and I use a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer that has the five buttons.

I think it's great because I have Spacebar (for the hotbox) and Alt mapped to the two side buttons. So I can use Maya completely with one hand and the mouse!

[mixtus]

thanks for all the info // maya has been the one application that i never use my wacom pen. Now i think i will start using it more.
I love my wacon - make me feel more like an artist again. :)

[mixtus]

Hey Jozvex:

I am going to have my friend buy a Microsoft mouse. I think this will help him not only in maya / but in all his applications. I really am stoked on all the responses I have gotten on this thread. Everyone has been very helpful with giving me creative solutions to help out. It is important to be able to interact with the application in a manner that is fast an not cluncky.

thanks again

mixtus

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