[Bug Report] Cannot dock Windows or Panels in the UI with specific Mouse Setting

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I wanted to report a bug I have found and decided to do it here for visibility reason as it can be quite obscure to workaround. As I didn't found any trace of people in the same situation as me I hope this will help light on the issue and get it fixed. 🙂

Since Maya 2017 I can't dock any "Dock" or "Panel" that are undocked, meaning I can't move back a panel or dock it into the interface once I tear it appart. After a long time investigating I finally figured out it was related to my mouse settings in Windows.

I really hope this bug won't stay in the backlog too long because it stops me from upgrading at the moment. However I understand this can affect only a minority of people so its priority may be low.

OS :

Windows 7 and Windows 10

Maya version :

Tested on 2017, 2018.2, 2018.6, 2019.1

Issue :

Cannot dock back any undocked window or panel, see attached gif images for demos.

Repro steps :

1 - Enable "Switch primary and secondary buttons" in Windows Mouse settings

2 - Start Maya with default interface/workspace layout

2 - Click and drag the attribute editor to make it a floating window

3 - Click and drag the title bar of the Attribute editor to dock it back into the main interface

Workaround :

The issue can be mitigated by disabling the switch of buttons in the Mouse settings of Windows.

On Windows 7 :

On Windows 10 :

[dwilson6WCFQ]

Thank you for posting this.  I want to confirm that this is still an issue in Maya 2019/ 2020. 

I've found an alternative to toggling the swap setting every time.  Grab the window/ panel using your primary (right) button, and while still holding the primary button also hold the secondary (left) button.  Drag into place and release your secondary (left) button to dock. 

It seems that for docking Maya is looking at the hardware sides instead of the primary/ secondary set by Windows, yet holding/ moving the panels (along with seemingly everything else in Maya) respects the Windows setting. 

I've always used my mouse left-handed but only noticed this bug recently when I switched mice.  I didn't even think about that fact until I found your post.  Since updating from 2014 I had been using a mouse where the buttons are already flipped in the hardware (Razer Naga Left-Handed Edition), so I didn't use the Windows swap.  I wonder what other weird things we've unknowingly been dealing with as a result of that kind of programming. 

[rubtub1000]

Sadly this did not work for me. What a silly bug :---/

[veronica.n.chastain-1]

Is there not a setting that can help us lefties?? it seems that there should be

[droseXZKER]

This issue has just cropped up for me in 2023.3 and I have never switched the mouse buttons :S

[kaitlyn.gillie]

@droseXZKER , I fixed this and all I needed to do was unlock customization here  and it allowed me to dock again 🙂

Hope this helps! 

 

[tankut]

if you're left handed like I am and have switched mouse buttons I can confirm the docking does not work.  The blue docking line appears very briefly, but panels do not dock upon mouse release.   This is a bug, as it seems to be hard coded to work with left_mouse_button as opposed to primary_mouse_button.

If I need to dock a panel, I need to switch primary mouse button from right to left in system settings, dock, and switch it back.   Hardly convenient.

[dwilson6WCFQ]

Are you able to do this at least? Grab panel with primary, then hold both buttons at once while docking? Still a bug, but a slightly less inconvenient workaround 🙂

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-forum/bug-report-cannot-dock-windows-or-panels-in-the-ui-with-sp...

[tankut]

Works really nicely, thank you very much.

For me this has become "it's not a bug it's a feature", since this prevents accidental docking when the panels are undocked.

[dwilson6WCFQ]

If this "feature" ever gets fixed, know that you can hold CTRL while moving to prevent them from docking too ✌😀