FIX SHORTCUTS

[jfjacques]

Keyboard shortcuts are  currently set through what is possibly the worst UI ever created.  Who came up with the current quad UI, hell, why are we still using quads? This is perhaps the most fundamental and most important aspect of the UI, key to being an efficient max user and key to learning max and it is currently a fetid mess. 

1)

Setting shortcut commands should be simple. We should be able to set them on the command itself, not go to some other menu.

2)

All commands should be keyable. Most commands can't even become shortcuts as they don't appear as an option.  3)

3)

The amount of shortcut keys that can be set is also limited as I can't create a command with 2 letters or a command with more than two keys.  

[brentscannell]

Hi @jfjacques 

May I ask which version of 3ds Max you're using? We overhauled in the keyboard shortcut UI in 2020.1, and while it's still its own window (rather than assigning commands directly from a menu, or something else), we have added a search utility to help track down commands across contexts and using partial matches etc.

[jfjacques]

I am using 2019. Which brings me to a different issue. I have 20 plugins installed for 2019, upgrading would take a while.

[jfjacques]

Just saw the update. 

kudos on the filters, that’s a great “luxury”feature. So is the backward compatibility, seems like a lot of thought went into this update.

why the **** can’t I still use 2 letters in a hot key though? Max has hundreds of commands. Why am I arbitrarily limited in my hotkey selection? This would be the lightest feature to implement, yet the one with arguably the most value.

nothing in the vid mentioned adding all the missing hotkeys. Again, one of the reason 3ds hotkeys are awful is because they don’t ****ing exist in the first place. Corona, for instance has almost no hotkeys. Plugins should have hotkeys for all commands.

it took you guys 20 years to touch hotkeys. You added a search bar, congrats. Hotkeys still have 20% of the basic features they should have, but you can now filter and group your non-existent hotkeys.  What a train-wreck. 

finally, I’m just going to go out on a limb here and assume that this half-assed, yet paradoxically bloated feature, is only available in 2020. In other words, 2019 users needed to cut down on revit import times by a quarter minute, but don’t need semi-functional hotkeys. 

[brentscannell]

Can you elaborate on what you mean by 2 letter hotkeys? Do you mean pressing "Z" + "X" at the same time to trigger an action, for example?

What hotkeys do you feel are missing? Autodesk obviously can't control what default hotkeys come with Corona, but it is certainly possible for any 3rd party developer to include default hotkeys to their commands. In addition, our revised system will allow you to customize hotkeys assigned to 3rd party actions in a procedural and transportable way; custom hotkeys assigned to plugin actions will only be active if and when the plugin is loaded, and those customizations can travel with you across different workstations and future version upgrades to 3ds Max as well.

And yes, this new feature is only available in 3ds Max 2020.1 and newer. We've drastically changed the way we deliver software, delivering incremental updates that include both bug fixes as well as new features. Its not about what 2019 users need versus what 2020 users need, its about how quickly features are developed by the development team. The fact that Revit import improvements were delivered in an update to 2019 only means that it was ready first.

Is it fair to say that the one of the biggest hurdles to newer version migration has to do with migrating your plugins as well?

[jfjacques]

Yes, that's what I mean by two letter hotkeys:  A+B. Frankly, I would like it if there was no limit the number of characters I can use when setting hotkeys. A+B+C etc...  If I want to hotkey spline, to "spline",  that should be available - it would still be faster than the click and search of the interface, especially if this is an obscure command. This is THE feature that that makes hotkeys a pain in 3ds.  I never want to go and click on a command. Of all the software I use 3ds, is the only one that forces me to do so.  

I've mentioned this in another post. But this flexibility becomes even more important when you are tulizing more than a single 3d package; at which point you are trying to come up with a hotkey system that overlaps as much as possible. 

I will compile a list as I go through them as they pertain to my workflow.  I have a hard time wrapping my head around the reason why plugins wouldn't have hotkey spaces for all their commands by default. 

Yes, well, I just feel that such an important fix should be available to older versions of max.  Which brings me to your question. Yes, plugins are a key bottleneck with regards to version migration. With the current subscription model, why even bother with versions that you have to completely install? Would it not be feasible to upgrade the software with these incremental fixes and updates? 

[brentscannell]

I can't speak to the reasoning as to why some plugins wouldn't come with hotkeys by default, but we're more than open to help them troubleshoot any issues they may have when using this system.

I'm 100% with you when it comes to developing a common hotkey set for use across packages, or even migrating from one package to another. We know there some limitations currently in our product that would block of from getting 100% interaction pattern parity, the multi-key shortcut issue being one of them. What software packages do you use that have multi-key shortcuts?

As to your question: why even bother pushing out "big" installs anymore, the short answer is that what you're describing is very well aligned with how we actually build the software, however there are still some historical and legacy reason why we are still on this model. In many ways, 3ds Max 2020.2 is actually something similar to 3ds Max 2018.11 (if we pushed 11 updates to 2018) except for the fact that we changed some elements included in the 3rd party SDK/Software Development Kit at the core of the software that required some 3rd party plugins to recompile against a newer version of the core. We try to time these changes at the regular timing of a major release so that they can feel confident that they will only need to recompile once per year, but we are actively looking at ways to separate these concerns out. I expect that one day we will get there, but we need to take one step at a time.

[jfjacques]

Do we have two letter hotkeys yet?