Simple Graph Editor Question (on Mac)

[fshrking]

I've already read the manuals-....

I'm on a Mac with Maya 8.5. Is moving keys accomplished with only the middle click? Some reason the move nearest key tool will only work with the Middle mouse button. Is this correct behaviour??

It would seem the LMB button would be the primary behaviour button.n.

Also, the I can't make the tangents longer. . I'm assuming this is the Free Tangent Weight tool? If I wasn't on my lap top right now I could test it but I can't create a Middle mouse clik on my Powerbook.

Thanks!!!

[bradon]

ok couple days old now but in the case your still trying to figure this out its relatively easy, which is why no one has answered this probably. Plus if that really is your question i doubt you really read cover to cover the manual. lmb is to select your keys, mmb is to move your keys, and to stretch the tangents you need to make you tangent "weighted tangents" then "free tangent". for some reason mac users think they can get away with only one mouse button.... good luck!

[fshrking]

Thanks Bradon-
I still can't find what you said in the manual- point me to the URL if you find it. But thanks for the explanation. I just couldn't believe the something as paramount as moving keys in the curve editor would be assigned to the least used mouse button. Doesn't make any sense to me but nevermemind.

Thanks for your help!

[mckarp]

QUOTE(fshrking @ 08/22/07, 12:39 PM) [snapback]272102[/snapback]
Thanks Bradon-
I still can't find what you said in the manual- point me to the URL if you find it. But thanks for the explanation. I just couldn't believe the something as paramount as moving keys in the curve editor would be assigned to the least used mouse button. Doesn't make any sense to me but nevermemind.

Thanks for your help!

Many important functions in Maya use the middle Mouse button. Basically, the left selects and the middle moves things. For example, when you want to change the parenting in the Outliner, you select with the LMB and drag the node to the new parent with the MMB. If you want to drag Shelf buttons, you also use the MMB

Get use to it. This is how Maya works.

Also, if you want to select a component (like a vertex on a polygon), use the RMB for the menu. If you have something selected with the LMB, you can still change the focus from one viewport to another with the RMB (the selected viewport has a blue border)

[joojaa]

QUOTE(mckarp @ 08/28/07, 11:47 PM) [snapback]272410[/snapback]
Get use to it. This is how Maya works.

Also a side dote mmb moves even when your not on the object, so you could have object in move mode selected and move it even if you cant see the handle. Very Very handy! In fact without using this behavior you cant say you know maya snapping, because if you don't know this curve snapping seems impossibly hard while its veruy simple indeed.

In graph editor its very important because the graph might be very very busy with hundreds of curves in top of each other.

Secondly middle mouse affect almost all selection so if you select a channel in channel box and middle move in view ports it slides the channels values.

Its just way to free your hands, to do other things (makes maya about 25% faster to use). And i always wondered how mac users can work with one button mouse mine has 5 and its sometimes too little. But yes the 3 mouse thing is a UNIX way of thinking and to be honest its a good thing. I mean on average i need 3-4 fingers of left nad plus the whole of my right to do stuff, i don't think of the fingers they jist do this. (d+v+mmb drag is one of the best combos ever)

[kalebw-wyman]

Just get a 3 button mouse for your PowerBook... a 3 button mouse has always been required by Maya, and for good reasons.

All mac users should have a 3 button mouse anyways... single button mice are ridiculous. It's so much more efficient to have a middle mouse and right mouse button, even on a mac laptop, rather than control clicking contextual menus.

Plus, you can assign some nice key commands to Expose when you have a multi-button mouse, such as control+RMB to view the desktop, and/or option+RMB to expose all application windows.

It's so much more efficient than using the mac's trackpad and single mouse button alone... I personally use a $20 Wheel Mouse Optical on my mac.

[joojaa]

QUOTE(Kaleb Wyman @ 10/22/07, 10:28 AM) [snapback]275201[/snapback]
Plus, you can assign some nice key commands to Expose when you have a multi-button mouse, such as control+RMB to view the desktop, and/or option+RMB to expose all application windows.

How would taht work out with the quick shortcut to poly operations wich is mayas 3 most suefull feature baceuse it too os ctrl+rmb

[dryo]

The reason the middle mouse button is used so much, in defiance of all established GUI conventions, is because Maya is a direct descendant of Alias and Wavefront. Those two companies had their own idiosyncratic ways of doing things, because they were creating new tools and methods that had never existed previously. And... drum roll please... they both pre-dated the Macintosh by a year or so. Bottom line: the Maya interface is archaic simply because SGI/Alias|Wavefront did not want to change the conventions that had already been adopted by the installed user base.

[joojaa]

yes thats true,but the limits of accepted gui conventions were reached years ago (besides to be honest compare mac and pc theaters no reason why close has to be in the opposite corner in a mac its there just for the spite of things). And it actually makes sense, because it makes moving things easier. Becacuse you can use the pointer to aim stuff. Its jsut something you can use to your advantage.

Classic example. make a complex polygon and you want to extrude it about as far as some visible feature. Then what you do is you move your mouse pointer above your firt reference point, you don't need to care about where your tool icon is because it does not come to play then just middle drag the ditance on your nicely zoomed view port and you can do functional measurement whit the mouse. Now the question comes in mind why is it so damn hard in other programs, and why would i like to loose thsi ability.

try this on a 2 button system. select a tangentmove your mouse to reference point, now click and drag the reference to a second point. Well in normal paradigm you loose the ability. Or what if you wanted to move a point and a tangent simultaneously. Its usefull.

PS: middle mouse is used much on unix systems, and nowdays in windows too. Just because its unusual doe not man it does not have merits. (for exaple i never use a scroll wheel to scroll i can accomplish the same with middle mouse but into 2 directions, wich eaves scroll free fro something esle)

Theres lot in normal computer paradigms that suck frankly. fisrtoff why windows, they tend to use space of your screen optimally, what if the system could somehow intelligently dock up all windows depending on the task or atleast share window boders better. Why do we only have 3 or 4 modifer keys and why is there only one menu, and do we need it. Should gestures become norm in the future.

The biggest problem with current paradigm is that its lazy, its for the lowest denominator. Nothing wrong with that IF your actually targeting to be the worst user ever.

But also the simple fact that the normal paradigm isnt meant for 3d, or the kind of complexity we do daily

the bottom line is you can flame it all you want or use it to your advantage ist all up to you really.