Outliner

• In the main menu bar: Window > Outliner
• In scene view: Panels > Panel > Outliner

The Outliner is one of two main scene management editors in Maya (the other is the Hypergraph).

The Outliner shows a hierarchical list of all objects in the scene in outline form: You can expand and collapse the display of branches in the hierarchy, and lower levels of the hierarchy are indented under higher levels.

The Outliner includes objects that are normally hidden in the view panels, such as the default cameras. You can control what objects appear in the Outliner using the menus and the text filter box. For example, type *top* in the box and press to only show objects with the letters top in their names.

You use the Outliner most often for two functions:

• Selecting objects.

  With complex scenes it is often easier to select an object by clicking its name in the Outliner than trying to hit it in a view panel.

• Changing the hierarchy of nodes.

  You can move nodes around the hierarchy and parent nodes to other nodes by -dragging them.

Note: To pan in the Outliner click Alt + (for Mac Opt + ). To fast pan click Ctrl + Alt + (for Mac Ctrl + Opt + ).

Related topics

• Two views of the scene hierarchy and dependency
• View and edit the hierarchy of nodes