topic Re: How to enable display of shortcuts in the tool hint? in Maya Forum

How to enable display of shortcuts in the tool hint?

hzhou3 — Tue, 29 May 2018 03:41:41 GMT

I remember that in previous versions of Maya, the shortcuts are always displayed in the tool hint, that is, a pop-up window containing some explanatory information on what the toolbutton or icon is for when the mouse is hovering on it. It is the case for a few toolbuttons in Maya 2018, say Move Tool:

But for most other toolbuttons or icons. the shortcuts are not displayed in the tool hint:

I'm not sure if it is because Maya 2018 disabled display of these shortcuts, or I missed some settings of UI element somewhere. If the latter is the case, how to enable it again? I am using Maya 2018.3. Thank you.

Re: How to enable display of shortcuts in the tool hint?

sean.heasley — Tue, 29 May 2018 15:12:52 GMT

Hi @hzhou3

The hotkeys still appear on keys that do have hotkeys assigned to them. In your screenshot you showed how Snap To Grids is not showing a hotkey.

This is because there isn't a hotkey assigned to enable Snap To Grids by default.

That said, if you go into the Hotkey Editor and assign a key to the tool, then it will appear in the preview.

Please let me know if this helps or if you need any more assistance!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

Re: How to enable display of shortcuts in the tool hint?

sean.heasley — Wed, 30 May 2018 19:03:11 GMT

Hi @hzhou3

I'm just checking in again to see if you need more help with this. Did the suggestion I provided yesterday work for you?

If so, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Re: How to enable display of shortcuts in the tool hint?

pavelR. — Thu, 31 May 2018 11:05:36 GMT

Isn't "x" the default hotkey for Snap to grids (...) ? ... among with 'c' and 'v', which are the defaults for "snap to curves' and 'Snap to points'

Back to the original topic: I can't remember seeing those hotkey labels on all tooltips (neither I really payed attention to that), but it could be also that some hotkeys are toggling a command (on/off, aka the event is triggered from the key-release) whereas others you have to keep holding to be active (press and hold, key-down event enables it, key-up event disables it).

Re: How to enable display of shortcuts in the tool hint?

sean.heasley — Thu, 31 May 2018 14:39:45 GMT

Hi @pavelR.

You're half right, X is the key to toggle snap but not actually keep it enabled which is why it doesn't appear on the tool tip as a hotkey.

As for your second part you are correct. If a hotkey is only to toggle a function then it won't appear on the tool tip but if it does something "permanently" like pressing W to use the Move Tool, then it will appear on the tool tip.

To see this in action, simply open the Hotkey editor and set Snap to Grids to X. You'll notice the X key will now turn Snap on and leave it on as opposed to being a toggle and it will appear in the tool tip as well!

Re: How to enable display of shortcuts in the tool hint?

hzhou3 — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 06:09:31 GMT

Thanks for the reply. I know now why (X) is not shown in the tooltip. But Maya can use <X> to represent temporary (toggling) shortcut.

I'm not going to work in Hotkey Editor because 1) add X as a permanent shortcut changes the default behavior which is not what I want. 2) I can't find "Snap to Grids" in Hotkey Editor. How did you locate this tool button?

Re: How to enable display of shortcuts in the tool hint?

sean.heasley — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 14:09:48 GMT

Hi @hzhou3

Right I wouldn't change X either since I like its function as a toggle.

As for finding the Snap to Grid in the hotkey editor, you can simply type snap to grid in the search bar and it should appear.

Re: How to enable display of shortcuts in the tool hint?

sean.heasley — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 19:07:01 GMT

Hi @hzhou3