Schematic View Preferences Dialog

The Schematic View Preferences dialog controls what is shown and what is hidden based on categories. You can filter the objects appearing in the Schematic View window, so you see only what you need to.

You can add a grid or background image into your Schematic View window. Here you can also choose the arrangement method and determine the synchronization between viewport selection and Schematic view window selection. You can also set the style for the node connections. By selecting the appropriate filters in this dialog you can make working with Schematic View more controllable.

Interface

Include in Calculation group

Schematic View can traverse the entire scene, including materials, maps, controllers, and so on. The Include In Calculation settings control which scene components Schematic View will know about. The Display Floater then controls what is displayed. So, if you don’t Include Materials, you can’t display materials. If you don’t include controllers, you can't display controllers, constraints, or parameter-wiring relationships.

If you have a huge scene and are interested only in using Schematic View for selection, you can turn everything off except Base Objects. If you are interested only in materials, you can turn off controllers, modifiers, and so on.

Base Objects
Turns on and off the display of the base objects. Use this to remove clutter in the Schematic View window.
Modifier Stack
Turns on and off the display of modifier nodes.
Materials/Maps
Turns on and off the display of material nodes in the Schematic View window. Hide the materials when you are animating and don’t need to see them, display them when you want to select materials or make changes to the material of various objects.
Note: Schematic View does not support the ability to manipulate maps. You can not paste a map from one material to another.
Controllers
When this is turned on, controller data is included in the display. When this is turned off Controllers, Constraints and Param Wires relationship and entity buttons are unavailable in the Display floater. When this is on, you can assign controllers or wire parameters using the tools quad of the Schematic View right-click menu.
Static Values
When this is turned on, unanimated scene parameters are included in the Schematic View display. Turn this off to prevent the window from filling up with everything seen in Track View.
Point Controller Containers
When this is on, sub-object animation controllers are included in the Schematic View display. This button prevents the window from filling up with too many controllers in cases in which sub–object animation is present.
Skin Details
When this is turned on four controllers for each bone in the Skin modifier are included in the Schematic View display (when Modifiers and Controllers are also included). This button prevents the window from stretching out around too many Skin controllers with normal use of the Skin modifier.

Include Only group

Selected Objects
Filters the display of selected objects. Check this box if you have a lot of objects and only want Schematic View to display the viewport selection.
Visible Objects
Limits the display in Schematic View to the visible objects. Hide objects you don’t need to display, then check this box to contain clutter in Schematic View.
Animated Objects
When this is turned on, then only objects that have keys and their parents will be included in the Schematic View display.

Hide By Category group

These toggles control the display of objects and their children, by category. The categories are:

  • Geometry Hides or displays geometric objects and their children.
  • Shapes Hides or displays shape objects and their children.
  • Lights Hides or displays lights and their children.
  • Cameras Hides or displays cameras and their children.
  • Helpers Hides or displays helper objects and their children.
  • Space Warps Hides or displays space warp objects and their children.
  • Bone Objects Hides or displays bone objects and their children.

Be aware that if you have a hierarchy linked to a helper such as a dummy, and you hide the dummy, you’ll also hide the children.

Link Style group

  • Bezier Lines Displays the reference lines with arrowheads as Bezier curves.
  • Straight Lines Displays the reference lines as straight lines instead of Bezier curves.
  • Circuit Lines Displays the reference lines as orthogonal lines instead of curves.
  • None When this is chosen, link relationships will not appear in the Schematic View display.

Grid group

This group controls the display and use of a grid in the Schematic View.

Show Grid
Displays a grid in the background of the Schematic View window.
Snap to Grid
When this is on, all moved entities and children of those entities will snap their upper left corners to the nearest grid point. Entities not snapped to a grid point when snap is enabled will not snap until they are subsequently moved.
Grid Spacing:
Sets the spacing units of the Schematic View grid. This uses the standard that entities are 20 grid units high and 100 grid units long.

Arrange Method group

Arranging always takes place within the confines of the positive X and negative Y space which is delineated by the darker grid lines.

  • Stacked When this is chosen, arranging via Always Arrange, Arrange Children or Arrange Selected will result in the hierarchies being stacked below a width that is determined by the extents of the highest entities in the view.
  • Horizontal When this is chosen, arranging using Always Arrange, Arrange Children or Arrange Selected will result in the hierarchies being distributed along and below the y=0 line. Arranging always takes place within the confines of the positive X and negative Y space.
  • Vertical When this is chosen, arranging using Always Arrange, Arrange Children or Arrange Selected will result in the hierarchies being distributed along and to the right of the x=0 line. Arranging always takes place within the confines of the positive X and negative Y space.

Sync Selection group

  • Viewports

    When this is chosen, node entities selected in Schematic View will have their corresponding nodes selected in the viewports. Likewise, nodes selected in the viewports will have their corresponding entities selected in Schematic View.

  • Everything

    When this is chosen, all entities selected in Schematic View will have their corresponding entities selected in the appropriate places in the interface, given that those places are open. For instance, selecting a material in Schematic View will select it in the material editor if it is open and the material is present, selecting a modifier in Schematic View will select it in the stack is the Modify panel is open. Likewise, entities selected in the scene will have their corresponding entities selected in Schematic View.

Background Image group

Show Image
When on, the background bitmap (if one is chosen) is displayed. When off, it is not displayed.

By default, the background image displays at screen resolution at the current zoom factor of Schematic View.

Lock Zoom/Pan
When this is turned on, zooming and panning resizes the background image accordingly. When turned off, the bitmap will remain or revert to actual pixels at screen resolution.
File button
Click to choose an image file for the background of Schematic View.

When no background image has been chosen, this button displays “None.” If an image has been chosen, it shows the name of the bitmap file.

Preferences group

Double Buffer
Allows for double buffer display to control viewport performance.
Zoom About Mouse
When this is turned on you can zoom into wherever you place your cursor. You can zoom by turning the mouse wheel.
Pan to Added Nodes
When this is turned on the Schematic View window will alter itself to accommodate new objects or nodes as they are added to the scene. When this is turned off the view is unchanged. Leave this off and turn off Auto arrange, and Schematic view will not disturb the layout of the nodes.
Use Wireframe Color
Uses the wireframe color to shade the node in the Schematic View window.
Display Layout Warning
When this is on, Schematic View will show a layout warning when Always Arrange is first turned on.
Only Update On Focus
When this is turned on, Schematic View only updates with additions or changes to the scene when it is given focus. This lets you avoid constant redraws when making changes in the viewport to the scene objects.
Move Children
When this is turned off you can move the parent without affecting the children. When this is turned on, moving a parent also moves the children.
Show Tooltips
Toggles the display of tooltips when the cursor is over the node in the Schematic View window.
Snap Floaters
Enables floating dialogs (Display and List) to snap to the edges of the Schematic View window.
Relative Floaters
Enables floating dialogs to move and resize as the Schematic View window is moved and resized.
Parent topic: Schematic View