Share

Marking Menu and Hotkey Editor improvements (2024)

We've made several improvements to the Marking Menu Editor and Hotkey Editor. In Alias 2024, it's now easier to work with multiple Marking Menus with a new Menu list. Hotkey assignments are now quicker with a more new dynamic editor.

Marking Menu

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration 1:51
Loaded: 0%
0:00
Progress: 0%
 
1x

Video contents

  • In Alias 2024, it's now easier to work with multiple marking menu sets with the new menu list.
  • For example, when I switch to the Subdivision workspace here on the marking menu list, it shows me which menu I'm using, and I can change that by selecting the marking menu I want to use.
  • Note that you can choose to use marking menus from previous versions of Alias by selecting Classic Marking Menus.
  • The Marking Menu Editor has been redesigned to display all three buttons at once.
  • This makes it easier to quickly rearrange tools or you can collapse one or two sections to focus on just one.
  • You can now middle-mouse-button drag and drop onto the edit icon at the top.
  • Like in previous versions of Alias, you could also use Ctrl + double-click.
  • And in this ShelfItem editor here, you can easily change the labels, add the hotkey setting by hitting the key combination you want, or load a new icon that you've created.
  • Or, you can delete a tool by dragging it onto the trash icon.
  • And the new Duplicate function lets you create modified versions more quickly and rename them.
  • The icon mode has been refreshed and there is a new option to not display the tool window icon.
  • On the menu here, you can import and export marking menu sets created in Alias 2024.
  • You can also import and convert your marking menus from previous versions of Alias.
  • To do this, you will need to export a preference set from the previous version, and then use the Import and Merge options from the User Preference menu.

For more information, see the following:

Hotkey Editor

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration 2:42
Loaded: 0%
0:00
Progress: 0%
 
1x

Video contents

  • The Hotkey Editor has been redesigned to make it easier to add the shortcut by just pressing the actual keys you want to use on the keyboard.
  • Also, the previous Toggle Single Hotkeys option has now been replaced by this mode on the prompt line.
  • And the default automatic mode is the same as before,so when the prompt asks for dimension input, as soon as a key is pressed, the prompt line is automatically activated, shown with this blue line.
  • But this default mode has also been enhanced to allow single character hotkeys to be used.
  • And this is because only the characters needed for dimension input automatically activate the prompt line.
  • And so you're free to assign any of the others to hotkeys.
  • But, if you do want to use all of the letters and numbers for hotkeys,then switch to the manual mode where you activate the prompt line by clicking or using the Tab key.
  • So for text entry, that does mean that if I want to pick my name, for example, I will need to manually activate the prompt line with a click or a Tab.
  • Back here in the Hotkey Editor, it's now easier to see which commands have been assigned a hotkey by using this filter icon.
  • And then I can also use the search area to locate a specific tool.
  • To assign the hotkey, click the plus and press the key you want, and then you need to press enter because that's when the check will be made about any previous assignments that might be overwritten.
  • You can use this trash can to un-assign the hotkey.
  • And this icon is used to choose which tools are used in the short menus.
  • The Hotkey Editor has been organized with the menu and palette on top as before.
  • But now the shelf and marking menu sections are dynamic and list all of the shelf sets.
  • And so if I then go and create a new shelf, it's not going to appear in this list until I add some tools to it that can be hot-keyed.
  • But also, with the shelves and the marking menus, I can use this middle-mouse drag onto the edit icon and that lets me add the hotkey locally.
  • So finally, if you have a hotkey set up in a previous Alias version, then export a preference set and then you can use import and merge in User Preferences, either when you import all of your previous settings or by isolating only the hotkeys.

For more information, see the following:

Was this information helpful?