How to Use the Hidden MTK Custom Shelf in Maya

[@omma911]

Glad you're back. I have your "close maya FASTER" script on every shelf. I'm currently low energy and super fed up with my job, and your script significantly shortens my way from my office to my car. :)

[@malcolm341]

Oh yeah sweet, I love pressing that button at the end of the day and then peace out in 3 seconds.

[@artbybruno1734]

Thanks for all the tips and scripts Malcom! Great stuff!

[@malcolm341]

You're welcome, thanks for commenting.

[@BenitaWinckler]

so nice!! thank you!

[@malcolm341]

Thanks for commenting, glad you found it useful.

[@PartyOnGardy]

Hey, great video. Do you know if its possible to make the icons larger? Or make the whole modelling toolkit larger? The icons are too small for my old eyes. Thanks!

[@malcolm341]

@user-it2wd2do2y As far as I know the only way to make icons bigger in Maya is to change the display resolution. If you're on PC Windows> Settings/preferences> Preferences> Interface tab, and then at the bottom change the interface scaling. If you're on Mac I think the options might be limited.

[@AboghnimaCGI]

Thanks for useful video, can i save that shelf in an external USB to use it any time on other Pc ?

[@malcolm341]

Yes you can just copy this file C:\Users\userName\Documents\maya\2022\prefs\MTKShelf.mel

[@AboghnimaCGI]

@@malcolm341 thank you

[@PrtivViP]

Anyway to paste separators in the hidden Shelf?

[@malcolm341]

@deskabogatov456 The easiest way to do it would be to make an icon of a separator and drag that down to a button that does nothing so you can add and move the separators around as much as you want.

[@PrtivViP]

@@malcolm341 thank you!

[@raideng.5054]

Helps a lot, thank you!

[@malcolm341]

You're welcome, thanks for leaving a comment.

[@ConanTheMovieMaker]

Thnaks for the tip !

[@malcolm341]

You're welcome.

[@Glorfindel92]

Malcolm you're a great guy :))

[@malcolm341]

Thanks for commenting, that's a nice review.

[@ruudygh]

Cant you just click File>Save Preferences to save every settings in Maya?

[@malcolm341]

@ruudygh No in fact you can't, Autodesk's built in File>Save Preferences doesn't save every setting in Maya, one of those settings being the MTK custom shelf's contents and a lot of other things. I did create a script which saves a lot more stuff and you can see that video here at this time stamp if you're interested kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3Wyf4xqabVnoKM

[@Haruyuki_Art]

awesome thank you

[@malcolm341]

You're welcome, thanks for commenting.

[@Pussik]

Hi Malcolm, Useful video. Do you know how to add dropdown menus into a shelf?

[@malcolm341]

Right click any button on the shelf and choose edit pop up, from there click the plus icon next to the garbage icon, give the drop down a name and then paste your code into the right side window and save. You can add as many as you want. kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2K2paB5d6eGiKc

[@joed6850]

Very cool

[@malcolm341]

Thanks, I find it really useful.

[@jinchoung]

hey malcolm, was wondering if you could field a question about the modeling toolkit - is there a way to invoke it so that it's NOT docked on the right side? ideally, i just want it to be floating every time i call it. i know that if i undock it once, it will remain undocked for the session but i can't figure out how to call it as a floating window. i've been playing around with dockControl in mel but i can't figure it out. i guess a mel command that would call the modeling toolkit and then undock it would do it but my watching what's happening in the script editor hasn't got me anywhere. anyway, great stuff and thanks.

[@malcolm341]

I'm not sure if this is what you're after, but if you undock the MTK manually and close Maya the next time you open Maya it should be floating where you left it, from there you can use ToggleModelingToolkit; to show/hide it when you want it visible. I looked into dockControl briefly and it seems like that can be used to dock the window, but I didn't see any way to undock it. There's probably a way to do it, but I need to research it a lot longer, none of my windows dock so I'm not familiar with the whole docking code I found it quite cumbersome.

[@prasadparker6303]

Thanks for the tut Sir, Just a random question if i change my prefs scripts shelves with my custom icons to another PC with different usernames.. does icons still showup...? or should i rearrange all usernames to the Shelves icons individually , (not only for icons for scripts also does it work if i copy my all my Document maya prefs folder to another pc with diff username).

[@malcolm341]

If you copy the whole Maya prefs folder to a new pc everything should just work fine no matter what the user name is.

[@prasadparker6303]

@@malcolm341 Thanks i thought username name is hard coded in scripts we need to change it manually with copy and replace function using any text editor.....or am I wrong..?

[@malcolm341]

@@prasadparker6303 nope, no user name, there's nothing hard coded in the prefs folder, you can take any of those files to a new pc or just copy that whole folder to the new pc in the same location.

[@prasadparker6303]

@@malcolm341 Thanks Boss... :- )

[@rberchin]

This doesn't seem to work on a Mac. I think the corresponding keys on a Mac are Cmd+Shift and MM drag. But the result is no different than just Middle Mouse dragging from a shelf to the custom shelf. In any case, the result removes the icon from the original shelf and moves it to the MTK custom shelf. I can't find any combination of keys/actions that moves the icon to the custom shelf while leaving it in its original position.

[@malcolm341]

That's annoying, I don't have access to a Mac so I wouldn't know. Have you tried Alt + Shift + MMB? Also it should be the same combination of buttons as you would normally add a menu item to a shelf which on pc is Ctrl + Shift and then select a menu item. Does adding a menu item work on Mac?

[@rberchin]

Adding an item to the shelf on a mac is cmd+shift. I've tried every combination I can think of, including using the Alt/Option key, but nothing seems to work. To be clear, I can move a shelf item to the custom shelf, but it just moves from one place to the other.

[@malcolm341]

@@rberchin Super lame, perhaps they forgot to include that functionality on Mac. As a super annoying workaround you could use one of these three techniques: 1. Copy the code from the top shelf button to the script editor, then select all the code and middle drag it to the custom shelf. 2. Try to copy a button from one top shelf to another, maybe that works and then you could middle drag it down from the new shelf you don't care about. 3. Rename your current shelf to backup, then load that same shelf from the hard drive from C:\Users\malco\Documents\maya\2020\prefs\shelves then middle drag the icons from the back up shelf to the custom shelf

[@rberchin]

@@malcolm341 thanks for the suggestions. Number 3 is clever, but still seems like more trouble than its worth. The Mac doesn’t get much love from autodesk. Fortunately, your scripts, which I love, are in MEL. Python scripts written in v2 have to be updated to v3 to run in maya 2022 on a Mac. There’s a way to force v2022 on Windows to run python v2, but the Mac version 2022 ships with python v3 only. Go figure!

[@malcolm341]

@@rberchin yeah I read about the Python update, I haven't learned Python, but I've actually kept all my scripts in Mel because they're compatible with all versions of Maya including Mac and LT, and now with 2022 my stuff just works without any update so that's nice.

[@Art13eck]

Hi! How to do what after start maya MTK shelf save position without mouse drag and hide modeling toolkit instruments. Sry for my english

[@malcolm341]

I'm not sure I understand the question, did you mean the MTK shelf is partially closed when you restart Maya? If that's what you mean I haven't found a fix for that, it appears to be a bug in Maya.

[@Art13eck]

@@malcolm341 ok, thanks for the answer.

[@stephenhibberd4309]

Suggestion for Merge to center command. If I collapse an edge using this tool it takes you out of edge mode, I then have to go back into edge mode to use the tool again. Why cant the tool stay in edge mode? it jumps out every time, so most annoying.

[@malcolm341]

It leaves it in multi-mode for me and you can hover over another edge to select it without any extra work, is that not working for you? What version of Maya are you using?

[@stephenhibberd4309]

@@malcolm341 Hi Malcolm, I'm using Maya 2020.4 and the tool always reverts to vertex mode. There are no options for this tool , could there be an option in prefs for multi-mode?

[@malcolm341]

@@stephenhibberd4309 no it should just leave you in multi-component mode, try downloading the latest version I think an older version of the tool used to leave you in vertex mode. Delete your shelf in Maya and then just download the same file again from Gumroad and it will be the new version.