Menu Sets in Maya: The top left of the window (below the menu bar) houses a dop down list which we call as menu set in Maya. It controls what items will be present in the main menu bar. As the name implies, it is a collection of menus. If you select one item in the menu set, say for example 'Animation', the menu bar at the top will reflect that selection's specific menu items. Please note that the menu items in the menu bar, starting from 'File' to 'Window' remains constant. Based on your choice from the menu set, the items in the menu bar after 'Window' changes. The menu set is a powerful way in which Maya presents its powerful range of functionalities in a compact form.
Status Line in Maya: You can see the status line beside the menu sets. It houses the basic file related buttons along with a large number of buttons that controls the status/behaviour of different maya functionalities. For example you can use the status line to tell Maya how the snapping of objects need to be performed.
Shelves in Maya: The shelves lies below the menu set and contains quickly accessible commands, that would otherwise need selection from the menu. It is a handy way of doing things in Maya. The shelves have a tabbed structure, so that items are categorized properly.
Tool Box in Maya: One of the items you can't live without in Maya. The toolbox has all the essential tasks you need to perform (like Move, Rotate etc). We'll get to know it better once we start working with Maya closely.
Panels in Maya: Panel is term in the Maya terminology for a view / viewport. You can see the panels at the center region of the screen. In the figure above, we have four panels, which shows the scene in four different angles.
Panel Sets in Maya: It lies just below the Tool Box in Maya. It has preset layout for panels (viewport) from which you can choose the one you want, quickly.
Attribute Editor/ Tool Settings / Channel box: This screen area displays three critical components in Maya in a tabbed manner. The attribute editor lets you edit the various properties of an item that you create in Maya. It is just like a property editor. Tool Settings helps you change the behaviour of a tool; say for example sculpting tool. The Channel box is the place where you can change the co-ordinates (position, rotation etc) of an object, as well as see it's creation history, and tune it in Maya. That was a very brief introduction of three powerful tools in Maya and so please don't be surprised if you didn't get much out of what I described. We will look into those in detail.. later.
Show Attribute Editor/ Tool Settings / Channel box: These small tab buttons lets you switch through these three property editors. |
