as a maya 3d artist,closing, opening, moving, resizing all different windows again again and again everyday.....
I dont like it.
maybe it is impossible to finish a project without opening, moving, placement any windows.
but its better finding a way to avoid those daily basic operating as much as possible
wrote a script, I call it [m_Cycle], it is a very simple tool, can improve your maya working efficiency
there are two parts of [m_Cycle], windows manager( [m_Cycle].UP ) and optimized maya UI ( [m_Cycle].CU ), compactUIthey are independent functionality, work individually
[m_Cycle].UP is an advanced maya windows manager
1 it define a "shadow area" for opened window*, check help pic,blue field is the window's "shadow area", (shape of "shadow area" looks like "7", it out of window at right side)
when cursor move to "shadow area", what you can do:
[Alt + mouse wheel roll up]-----------------------> compress window height only keep tiltebar showing (same action on titlebar restore window)
[Alt + mouse wheel roll down]--------------------> move windowwith those two functions you can keep more windows opening, and very easy, quick to find a window which your need currently*do not close a window when the window compressed
2 cursor at maya UI anywhere [Shift + mouse wheel roll up or down]-----------> hide(show) all child windows (only keep maya main window showing)
3 move cursor to a window titlebar[mouse wheel push down + wheel roll up]--------> resize window
4 move cursor to a window visible part when several windows overlapped[mouse wheel roll up or down]-------------------> set active window
5.minimize maya main window, move cursor to top left conner area of maya main window, [Alt + mouse wheel roll up], same action restore main window(the valid area size is 360x60 pixel from maya main window top left conner)
6.kill Maya output windowit is an old story, as i know many maya 3d artists "hate" maya output window, it always popup "random", search google, you can find a way that redirection standout file to hide output window, but problem is,very often we open 2 or 3 (even more) maya reference at same time......when you do any [alt + mouse wheel roll up or down] action, if Maya output window is exists, it will be killed quietly
(why not kill output window when maya startup?usually the infomation which print out from output window is "nonscencs"but output window would given you very useful info when maya starup if your ENV setting , path setting ...was wrong)
known bugs:
1 when you roll mouse wheel up (down) very very fast, some windows* hight become unpredictable,so suggest, do not roll mouse wheel too fast
2 it does not work for attribute editor(AE), because AE is a special "window" , it is not in list of lsUI -window
, try to fix it for next version
[off -> on -->off]
3 m_Cycle UI, sometimes you need do [on -> off --> on] to turn on(off) m_Cycle_UP mouse wheel function.(when m_Cycle.up start working, "character set button" will become Deep Purple, "character set button" is a LED to showing m_Cycle_UP state)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Installation :1. unzip "m_Cycle_UP_v.16_rlease.zip" to your ! local drive !,2. open maya, 3. drag and drop "m_Cycle_installation.mel" to maya 3dmodelPanel for installation.if those 3 steps are well done, a button "Mc.Up" will be created on your current shelf tab.sigle click the button "Mc.Up" to show UI of [m_Cycle_UP],double click the button "Mc.Up" to show help of [m_Cycle_UP].
Uninstallation :manually delete file "m_Cycle_UP.pyc" from your maya script folder.(mel command to get the path internalVar -usd
)
manually delete file "m_Cycle_UP_hlp.png" from your maya bmp folder.(mel command to get the path internalVar -ubd
)
manually delete button "Mc.Up" from shelf tab.
download link
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/interface-display/c/m\_cycle-up-windows-manager
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B\_LrOsbnafZsT04xWjAtQW9DclE&usp=sharing
*currently [m_CycLe_UP] is only supported on NT platform (and maya version >= 2012)31-12-2013