Locking or Altering the Maya Hotbox

[Anonymous]

Hi all – one issue that's been hindering my workflow on a daily, even hourly, basis is once I have the Maya hotbox set up the way I want (show common menus, show modeling menu set), sub-menus from the hotbox controls will show/hide because I swipe too fast.  My questions are...

1)   Can I lock the hotbox so nothing changes?

2)   Can I permanently remove any sub-menus from the hotbox controls (plus show pane specific menus option)...perhaps in the hotbox mel file?

3)   Is there a way to recreate the hotbox as a marking menu with the common and modeling menu sets with the viewport options in the middle?  I know  how to make a marking menu with buttons from the shelf, but not with the length-wise menu sets as seen in the hotbox.

I have an image that can help explain.  Any help is greatly appreciated - thank you.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous and welcome to the community!

You should be able to do this by following steps to modify the hotbox which can be found here!

Once you've made the changes you like you should be able to simply save your scene and the settings should carry over.

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!

[Anonymous]

Hi Sean – even though my preferences are saved when I exit Maya, once I start modeling again I can accidentally “show” the sub-menus in the hotbox controls marked as hide because I access the hotbox so fast and frequently. 

This slows down my workflow because I have to go back in the hotbox controls and hide the unwanted sub-menus.  Been using Maya since version 2009 and I've always had this issue.

The ideal solution would be to lock the hotbox ....somehow remove unwanted sub-menus in the hotbox controls under Maya's hood in the hotbox mel file permanently....or be able to recreate the hotbox as my own custom marking menu with the length-wise common/modeling menu sets with the viewport options in the middle.    

In the Marking Menu Editor I can edit the zones, but not the hotbox itself or the hotbox controls.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Ah ok well it looks like this is happening by design for how the hotbox is set up.

That said I understand what you're going for and it could be a nice addition to Maya in the future. 

Therefore I highly recommend posting this request on the Maya Idea Board!

This is a great place for the community to share ideas or feature they want to see in the future of Maya and this board is regularly checked by the dev team!

[Anonymous]

That's a great suggestion, Sean - I'll do that.  I'll leave this post open a bit in case anyone has a workaround.

Also wondering if this can be solved with an environment variable.