Datasheet

Part I ✦ Learning the Max Interface

The basics of rendering are covered in Chapter 41, “Rendering Basics.” More advanced ren-

dering topics, including Atmospheric Effects and Raytracing, are covered in the subsequent

chapters found in Part X. The Material Editor is covered in Chapter 19, “Exploring the Material

Editor,” and the Video Post dialog box is covered in Chapter 47, “Using the Video Post

Interface.”

The Customize menu

The Customize menu provides commands for customizing and setting up the Max interface.

The Customize User Interface command opens the Customize User Interface dialog box. This

dialog box includes panels for customizing the keyboard shortcuts, the toolbars, quadmenus,

menus, and colors. The Load Custom UI and Save Custom UI As commands let you load and

save different custom interfaces. If your customization creates more problems than it solves,

you can switch back and forth between your custom UI and the defaults with the Custom UI

and Defaults Switcher command.

The Show UI menu contains a submenu of interface elements that you can toggle on or off.

Elements that you can toggle include the Command Panel, Floating Toolbars, the main tool-

bar (Alt+6), and the Track Bar.

A random click and drag can really mess up your interface. To prevent this from happening,

you can lock the interface. The Lock UI Layout prevents an interface from being changed.

This feature is helpful if you accidentally keep dragging toolbars out of place. The Configure

Paths command opens the Configure Paths dialog box where you can define all the default

paths. These paths let Max know where it can find things like plug-ins, scenes, materials,

and so on.

The Units Setup command opens the Units Setup dialog box for establishing system units.

The Grid and Snap Settings command opens the Grid and Snap Settings dialog box for con-

trolling grid objects and determining which points to snap to.

The Viewport Configuration command lets you configure the viewport using the Viewport

Configuration dialog box. The Plug-in Manager command opens the Plug-in Manager dialog

box, which contains a detailed list of all the loaded plug-ins. This dialog box includes the

plug-in name, description, status, size, and its full path. The Preferences command opens the

Preference Settings dialog box for controlling many aspects of Max.

You can learn about most of the commands found in the Customize menu in Chapter 4,

“Customizing the Max Interface and Setting Preferences,” except for Viewport Configuration,

which is covered in Chapter 2, “Seeing It All — Working with the Viewports.”

The MAXScript menu

From the MAXScript menu, you can create, open, and run scripts. You can also open the

MAXScript Listener (F11) and enable the Macro Recorder. The MAXScript menu also includes

a command for loading the Visual MAXScript Editor, which simplifies the process of building

scripts.

Chapter 48, “Automating with MAXScript,” covers the basics of MAXScript.

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