Want to change tool tip time when hovering.

[RobH2]

I'm trying to find a setting to allow tooltips to stay up longer. I'm not talking about the 'Flyout time' in the 'UI Display' settings. 

Developers are getting better and better about having long and meaningful tooltips that flyout when hovering. However, they disappear too fast and I sometimes have to rollover 4 or 5 time to read it all. I'd like to change that "stay open" time but can't find a setting or switch. It may not be possible but if anyone knows of one I'd love to know. 

[spacefrog_]

Yeah, i have the same issue and heard it from many other people that the tooltip timeout is far too short ( looks to be arround 3secs ). As far i can see it can't be changed, it's something hardcoded i think and i could'nt find any windows tweak to work arround that hardcoded limit ...

[jens.diemer]

Post a new idea to change this at http://3dsmaxfeedback.autodesk.com/ !

[RobH2]

Yea, I'll do that. 

Edit: Done...

I found a similar one but voting had been disabled for it. It was the second one I saw from the same user who had become irritated with a response to one of his other posts/suggestions and somehow was able to retract his comment and cause votitng to be disabled. So, I started a new one. Maybe an administrator can move the votes over since they are the same idea. Sorry, but I can't find it again. I was going to point it out. 

[darawork]

Hi, I'm wondering if this file has anything to do with it:

<Hashtable xmlns="clr-namespace:System.Collections;assembly=mscorlib" xmlns:s="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib" xmlns:assembly="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
  <s:Int32
    assembly:Key="ShowDuration">2147483646</s:Int32>
  <s:Boolean
    assembly:Key="IsProgressiveDisplayEnabled">True</s:Boolean>
  <s:Boolean
    assembly:Key="IsEnabled">True</s:Boolean>
  <s:Boolean
    assembly:Key="IsVideoToolClipAutoPlayEnabled">True</s:Boolean>
  <s:Int32
    assembly:Key="ProgressiveDisplayDelay">1000</s:Int32>
  <s:Boolean
    assembly:Key="ShowOnDisabled">True</s:Boolean>
  <s:Boolean
    assembly:Key="IsHelpEnabled">True</s:Boolean>
  <s:Int32
    assembly:Key="InitialShowDelay">500</s:Int32>
  <s:Boolean
    assembly:Key="ShowShortcut">True</s:Boolean>
  <s:Boolean
    assembly:Key="ShowVideoToolClips">True</s:Boolean>
</Hashtable

MaxTooltips.config.xml @ \AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2016 - 64bit\ENU\en-US\UI

[RobH2]

I saw that .xml too when I was looking for a way to widen the 'Command Panel' but didn't take the time to start tweaking. 

The line: 

 assembly:Key="ShowDuration">2147483646</s:Int32>

..looks interesting. 

[darawork]

Yeah, although 2147483646ms is roughly 3.5 weeks... and my tooltips dissapear a lot sooner than that.

You could always try changing the first number 2 to a 4 and see if it doubles the time.

That might not be milliseconds, although the others (1000 and 500) look legit.

[RobH2]

Ha, yea, funny. I'm not a coder, I "Frankenstein" code together and sometimes have no idea what the parameters are. Makes sense that it could be milliseconds. If I get some time later I'll tweak that and see what happens. I think you can comment out lines in .xml. I'll find that and play with it. I could just save the file and rename the orignial to preserver it but commenting out is faster. 

[tony.su]

Sorry, I'm not sure what kind of tooltip you talk about.

As this one? It didn't disappear until my mouse away from this tools icon.

[spacefrog_]

Those massive tooltips in the ribbon which are controlled by the xaml config files have nothing to do with Max's native, system wide tooltips. The ribbon and other parts are a different UI tech ( partly dotNET, partly WPF).

The native tooltips for standard Max toolbar and other buttons are hardcoded. Windows has a default setting for tooltip timeouts usually arround 5secs and Microsoft recommends not setting the timeout by yourself, so that the global value gets used. Looks like Max dev's did'nt obey to that rule, maybe they had specific reasons for this ( UI refresh maybe ? ).

More info here:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb760404%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Anyways: the current native Max UI sends a "WM_MOUSEMOVE" message on it's buttons when a tooltip is open, each 3 secs or so. This message causes the tooltip to disappear. It would be interesting to hear WHY Max sends this message after a tooltip stayed open about 3 secs. Maybe this is the standard way to close a tooltip after the timeout has passed.

[spacefrog_ · Accepted solution]

Okay - after reading the information in the link i posted above in more detail, it turns out that the default tooltip show time depends on the doubleclick delay . This is a setting a user can control via the Double-Click speed in the Mouse control panel.

I have mine set to a very short double click delay, hence my tooltip showtime is rather short ( the shortest doubleclick delay settable via the UI is 200 ms, hence the tooltip would stay 10 times as long ( = 2secs ) on screen. After i changed the double click delay slider to the middle position, the tooltip stays longer on screen. This position corresponds to a doubleclick delay of 550ms ( = 5.5 secs tooltip show time ).

Note:

Setting the registry value manually via reg editor would require a logoff/logon cycle, setting it via the control panel works immediately, even when Max is currently open. 

So essentially , 3ds Max devs strictly obeyed to the rules as recommended by Microsoft and Max keeps the tooltip showtime at the default value, as set by the windows control panel...

[RobH2]

Really nice sleuthing.

While not as configurable as would be preferred, that certainly helps. I moved my 'doubleclick' speed to about 1/3 above the slowest and I get about 10 sec to read hover over text. That is enough for most of them and helpful. I'll have to see if the new doubleclick time affects other functionality. After billions of double clicks that speed gets hardwired into our muscle memory. I hope that trying to rename files and directories doesn't turn into doubleclicks.

But for now, this is a useful workaround. Thaks for digging that out. 

[mitch26491 · Accepted solution]

Finally figured it out, for anyone else interested. This is indeed the correct file and line to edit:

 assembly:Key="ShowDuration">2147483646</s:Int32>

The problem is that 2147483646 is far too big. The max duration allowed is only something like 30000*, and anything higher causes the duration to default to 5000. Set it to 30000 and the tooltip will stay open for 30s.

This line also controls the delay before the second display shows:

assembly:Key="ProgressiveDisplayDelay">1000</s:Int32>

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/896574/forcing-a-wpf-tooltip-to-stay-on-the-screen

*The source seems to indicate that the limit might now be 60000, but I haven't tried testing that myself as 30000 is more than long enough for me. 

[RobH2]

Nice, thanks Mitch. It only took 8 years for someone to figure it out...lol.... Nice work regardless! Trying it now. 

60000 seems to work. Tried it with 30000 and the flyout stayed open 34 seconds. Changed it to 60000 and it stayed open 67 seconds.