Maya 4.5 Fundamentals

To customize your interface, you'll first learn how to load a MELscript file containing hotkeys you'll use throughout this book. Chapter 16, "Your Next Steps: Efficiency and Artistry," explains how to create your own hotkeys, but to save time, they've been added to the DVD-ROM for you to load in a few steps. To set new hotkeys, choose Window | Settings/Preferences | Hotkeys. Remember that when you see the DVD movie icon, you can load a movie from this book's DVD that corresponds to the skill being explained.

Note that the directions are for Maya users on Windows-based operating systems. If you're using Maya on Linux, Mac OS X, or IRIX, you'll find analogous folders and files on your hard drive. Consult your reference manual if in doubt.

1. Make sure you have closed Maya 5. When you start it again, it will load the file you're about to change.

   On the DVD Chapter_05\userhotkeys.mel

2. With this book's DVD in the drive, open the Hotkeys folder, which contains a MELscript file named userhotkeys.mel. Click to select the file, and then right-click on the file and choose Copy.

3. Now, you need to locate your Preferences folder in Maya. In Windows 2000, it should be in My Documents\Maya\5.0\prefs. If you're on a networked multiuser system, this folder appears under your login name rather than the administrator's (a nice feature that lets each logged-in Maya user have unique settings). In any case, the folder is usually in the C drive. An easy way to find the folder is to have your operating system search for windowprefs.mel. Browse to that folder and paste the file there.

4. Files pasted from a DVD are automatically set to Read Only, which must be toggled off. For Windows, right-click the selected file, choose Properties, and clear the Read-Only check box.

When you open Maya again, you'll find no visible change, but you should be able to access the following list of added or reassigned hotkeys.