On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 9:44 AM, Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES] <j.ponthi...@nasa.gov> wrote: > If you don't use the hotbox much or at all, it's going to be difficult to > avoid shelves if you want to improve your workflow in Maya. Maya, like most > 3D apps is multi-modular, meaning that in Maya the filebar and the menu > commands it presents changes context with each Module you are working in such > as Polygons, Surfaces, Animation, etc. Soft does the same thing except in > Soft the filebar does not change. Rather in Soft, the Main Toolbar changes > with modular context instead. Since Softimage's filebar never changes and > provides access to all commands all the time, it provides the same level of > access as the hotbox, plus additional functionality such as construction > modes, passes, and search abilities. > > Why might you find shelves important to your workflow in Maya? In general, > while in Maya, and in a particular module, say Polygons, the Maya filebar > will not present all menu commands available to you. This becomes critical to > understand when you are modeling polygons with deformers since deformers are > located in the Animation Module. Therefor you can't access deformers while > modeling in the Polygons module unless you > A. Use the Deformation Shelf in the Polygon Module, or > B. Use the Polygons Shelf in the Animation Module, or > C. Use the hotbox. > Your workflow then consists of mixing shelves and general filebar menu > commands and potentially hotbox commands if you are willing to put up with > the hotbox. Other examples of combination practices will include polygons and > materials, surfaces and materials, polygons and subdivisions, and animation > and dynamics.
It's rather new that you have access to all the module menus in XSI at the same time; I added this I think XSI 5.1 or 6.0. In Maya, don't forget tear off menu. You can easily tear off the deformer menu from Animation, and change to the modeling menu set, and therefore get both, The default shelf is indeed there to play around and explore the program, for new/casual users. It doesn't have everything in there.
