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Customizing colors

Within Max, the colors often indicate the mode in which you’re working. For example, red marks animation mode. Using the Colors panel of the Customize User Interface dialog box, you can set custom colors for all Max interface elements. This panel, shown in Figure 4-9, includes two panes. The upper pane displays the available items for the interface selected in the Elements drop-down list. Selecting an item in the list displays its color in the color swatch to the right.

Figure 4-9: You can use the Colors panel of the Customize

User Interface dialog box to set the colors used in the interface.

The lower pane displays a list of the custom colors that can be changed to affect the appearance of the interface. For example, Highlight Text isn’t an element; it’s an interface appearance. The Scheme drop-down list can alter the color scheme between custom colors and the Windows Default Colors.

You can save custom color settings as files with the .clr extension. You can use the Apply Colors Now button to immediately update the interface colors.

Customizing Modify and Utility Panel Buttons

The Modify and the Utilities panels in the Command Panel both include a button called Configure Button Sets that allows you to configure how the modifiers are grouped and

which utility buttons appear in the Utilities panel.

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In the Modify panel, the Configure Modifier Sets button is the right-most button directly under the Modifier Stack. This button opens a pop-up menu that lists all the modifier categories. The top pop-up menu command is Configure Modifier Sets, which opens a dialog box, shown in Figure 4-10, when selected. Using this dialog box, you can control which modifiers are grouped with which sets.

Figure 4-10: The Configure Modifier Sets dialog box lets you group the modifiers as you want.

To add a modifier to a set, select the set from the Sets drop-down list and drag the modifier from the list of Modifiers on the left to the button set on the right. To create a new set, simply type a new name into the Sets field. After a set has changed, you need to save it with the Save button.

You can find the same Configure Button Sets button on the Utilities panel. Clicking this button opens a similar dialog box where you can drag from a list of Utilities onto a list of buttons on the right. These buttons are then displayed in the Utilities panel.

Working with Custom Interfaces

If you’ve changed your interface, you’ll be happy to know that the Customize menu includes a way for you to save and then reload your custom setup. This feature is especially helpful for users who share a copy of Max.

Tip Any custom .ui file can be loaded as the default interface from the command line by adding a –c and the .ui filename after the 3dsmax.exe file (for example, 3dsmax.exe –c my_interface.ui).

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Saving and loading a custom interface

Custom interface schemes are saved with the .ui extension using the Customize Save Custom UI Scheme menu command. When you save a custom scheme, Max opens a Custom Scheme dialog box, shown in Figure 4-11. This dialog box lets you choose which customizations to include in the custom scheme. It also lets you select the icon type to use. The options are Classic and 2D Black and White.

Figure 4-11: The Custom Scheme dialog box appears when you’re saving a custom interface and lets you select which items to include.

You can load saved user interface schemes with Customize Load Custom UI. The default Max install includes several predefined interface setups that are located in the UI directory. The standard available interfaces include

DefaultUI: Default interface that opens when Max is first installed.

Discreet-dark: Displays the standard interface with black windows, backgrounds, and viewports. All the icons and menus are light gray and many of the icons are different.

Discreet-light: Same as the Discreet-dark layout, except the icons and menus are black and the backgrounds are all light gray. Many icons are different here, too.

ModularToolbarsUI: An interface that breaks the main toolbar into many different smaller toolbars that are easier to move and arrange.

Figure 4-12 shows the Discreet-dark custom interface. If you’re one who likes to wear sunglasses, this interface might feel just right to you.

You can use both the load and save menu commands to save and load any of the custom user interface files types including these:

Interface Scheme files (.ui)

UI files (.cui)

Menu files (.mnu)

Color files (.clr)

Keyboard Shortcut files (.kbd)

Quadmenu Options files (.qop)

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Figure 4-12: The Discreet-dark interface is one of the preset custom interfaces that you can load.

Tutorial: Saving a custom interface

You can save personalized interfaces for later recall in the 3dsmax\UI directory where Max is installed. To do so, choose Customize Save Custom UI.

To have Max start with your custom interface, follow these steps:

1.Customize your interface by making any desired changes.

2.Choose Customize Save Custom UI Scheme. The Save Custom UI Scheme dialog box opens.

3.Open the UI subdirectory (if you are not already there), select the MaxStart.ui file, and click OK.

4.Click OK to replace the existing file.

Note You can set Max to automatically save your interface changes when exiting. Select the Save UI Configuration on Exit option in the General tab of the Preference Settings dialog box.

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Locking the interface

After you’re comfortable with your interface changes, locking the interface to prevent accidental changes is a good idea. To lock the current interface, choose Customize Lock UI Layout (or press the Alt+0 keyboard shortcut).

Reverting to the startup interface

When you’re first playing around with Max’s customization features, really messing things up can be easy. If you get in a bind, you can reload the default startup interface (MaxStart.ui) with the Customize Revert to Startup UI Layout command. Using the File Reset menu command does not reset changes to the layout.

Note	If your MaxStart.ui file gets messed up, you can reinstate the original default interface setup
	by deleting the MaxStart.ui file before starting Max.

Switching between default and custom interfaces

The Customize Custom UI and Defaults Switcher menu command opens an interactive window that presents several options for selecting initial settings and interface schemes, as shown in Figure 4-13. At the top of the window, you can select an option and details about the selected option is displayed.

New	The Settings and Scheme chooser window is new to 3ds max 6.
Feature

Figure 4-13: This window explains the benefits of the different initial settings and scheme choices.