Behavior Editor Controls

The Behavior Editor proposes a diversity of controls and shortcuts to manage and combine Behaviors, Operators and Behavior Triggers. This page lists all the classic manipulations helpful in designing and debugging a Behavior Graph.

Workspace manipulations

Drag the workspace with ALT+middle-click
Zoom in/out with mouse wheel or ALT+right-click

Get back to the parent of the Current Behavior Container with CTRL+double-click.

Besides, Behavior Containers Hierarchy is shown on the top left of the main Workspace, just click on the desired Behavior Container name to get back to this one.



Behavior Containers Hierarchy Access

Frame the workspace to all Behaviors/Operators of the current opened Behavior Container
Frame Behaviors/Operators selection of the current opened Behavior Container
Resize the workspace to the real size

BEHAVIORS/OPERATORS MANIPULATIONS

Open a container into a new tab

  • Double-click on the Behavior Container icon  in the Operators view of the Behavior Library. A new Behavior Container will be created and opened into a new tab
  • Use "Open in new tab" in the context menu on an existing Behavior Container already visible in a workspace



Open in a New Tab a Behavior Container Context Menu

Expand/Collapse a container

Expand/Collapse a Behavior Container

  • Use the expand button  to expand selected Behavior Containers​ or if no selection collapsed Behavior Containers
  • Use the collapse button  to collapse selected Behavior Containers​ or if no selection expanded Behavior Containers.

Select Behaviors/Operators in the Behavior Graph

Add a Behavior/Operator into the Behavior Graph



Drag and Drop a Behavior into the workspace



Creating a Behavior/Operator with the hotbox

Remove a Behavior/Operator from the Behavior Graph

Remove a Behavior from the Behavior Graph

Duplicate Behaviors/Operators from the Behavior Graph



Duplicate Behaviors/Operators from the Behavior Graph

Duplicate Options

Use the Option box in the context menu to access the behaviors duplicate options



Access Duplicate Options



Duplicate Options Dialog

Duplicate Behaviors/Operators from the Behavior Outliner

Save/Share Behaviors, Operators and Behavior Containers

Behaviors, Operators and Behavior Containers can be saved in a file (Maya ascii file) as a Custom Behavior and then reused in another simulation or shared between users. 

Notice that in order to work fine inside a complete different scene than the one where the master Behavior was saved, all meshes and objects mapped to saved Behaviors and Behavior Triggers are also saved (for example a Behavior Trigger and its zone trigger mesh).

Save Behaviors/Operators and Behavior Containers

Save a Behavior

Save a Behavior with Save Options

The new Custom Behavior is saved in a Custom Directory. This directory can be changed in the Crowd Settings or by choosing "Set Custom Directory" in the contextual menu of the Custom Behaviors Library.



Relocate the Custom Directory

Note:

Notice that if no Custom directory is set in the Crowd Settings, a dialog will ask you to choose one.

Open a Custom Behavior

The Custom Behavior is automatically loaded and ready to be linked and simulated.

Share Custom Behaviors between users

A Custom Behavior can easily be shared with another user by simply providing him the file in which Custom Behavior has been saved (see Crowd Settings to locate the Custom Behavior directory). There are then several ways for this user to import Custom Behavior:

Enable/Disable Behaviors and Behavior Containers

Behaviors and Behavior Containers can be disabled inside the Behavior Graph to help designing and debugging complex actions without modifying the Behavior Graph. The disabled Behavior/Behavior Container is overlaid with a disabled icon .

Enabled Motion Behavior and disabled Behavior Container

A disabled Behavior/Behavior Container is not evaluated during simulation, the next Behavior/Behavior Container marked as enabled will be played.

Caution:

Notice that a Parallel Operator, with an exit mode set on "As soon as one behavior has ended", is not evaluated if one of its children is disabled.

Enable Behaviors and Behavior Containers

  • On disabled Behaviors and Behavior Containers, Click on the Behavior/Behavior Container icon to switch the enable/disable status
  • Use the enable button  to enable selected Behaviors and Behavior Containers
  • On disabled Behaviors and Behavior Containers, use "Enable" in the context menu

Enable Behavior Container Context Menu

Disable Behaviors and Behavior Containers

  • On enabled Behaviors and Behavior Containers, *Click *on the Behavior/Behavior Container icon to switch the enable/disable status
  • Use the disable button  to disable selected Behaviors and Behavior Containers
  • On enabled Behaviors and Behavior Containers, use "Disable" in the context menu

Disable Behavior Context Menu

Behavior Triggers Manipulations

Select Behavior Triggers in the Behavior Graph



Behavior Trigger selection

Note:

Notice that you can use multiple selection to select objects in Maya and in the Behavior Editor, for example select a mesh in Maya viewport and a Behavior Trigger in the Behavior Editor in order to map a Trigger Zone in the Behavior Trigger Attribute Editor.

Share Behavior Triggers between Behaviors

 

To learn more about Behavior Triggers sharing, see Behavior Triggers.

Add a Stop Trigger on a Behavior



Add a stop trigger

Remove a Behavior Stop Trigger from a Behavior



Remove a trigger

Behaviors/Operators Sequence Manipulations

  • Use the link button  to draw a link between Behaviors/Operators
  • Drag the mouse while holding the mouse middle-button in order to draw a link between Behaviors/Operators
  • Drag-and-drop a Behavior/Operator to insert it in the middle of an existing link



Link behavior on a specific stop trigger

  • Drag-and-drop with *ALT+mouse-left *desired Behaviors/Operators out of the link
  • Use ALT+mouse-left and drag to draw a razor . Release to cut links
  • Use "Unlink" in the Behavior/Operator context menu

Unlink a Behavior

Notice that only links after Alternative/Random Operators could be enabled/disabled.

 

Enable/Disable a Link

Behaviors/Operators hierarchy manipulations

Add a Behavior/Operator as Behavior Container Child

Group a Behavior/Operator Graph Selection in a new Behavior Contrainer

Add Behaviors into a Parallel/No Order Operator

Note:

Tips: A Parallel Behavior will be automatically created if you drag-and-drop a Behavior over another Behavior

Remove Behavior/Operator from a Behavior Container

Remove Behaviors from a Parallel/No Order Operator