Maya UV Mapping Projection Window Overlapped by UV Editor

[amukherjee728]

I have been facing this bug where the mapping option window is overlapped by UV Editor. This wasn't a case before but has been a while now. Any option window that opens gets shifted behind UV editor. The UV editor has to be minimized to get access to the option window behind. Any fix to this would be very helpful.
TIA.

[michael.easter · Accepted solution]

Just tested myself in Maya 2024, it appears that it's giving the UV Editor back focus when you let go of space...

It seems to be an issue with the hotbox, shift > Clicking on an option like Layout in the UV Toolkit lets the options panel take focus. As does accessing options using the marking menus.

Don't have an actual solution if you want to use the hotbox access, but workarounds until a fix is presented could be one of many.

1. Work with the UV Editor Docked, you could have a layout that is just the UV Editor if you don't want the 3D also present (though I recommend it)

2. Use the Marking Menus instead of Hotbox (personal preference, but I find Marking menus way faster) The marking menu for creating UVs is shift > right click > gesture up

3. Use the UV Toolkit instead of Hotbox (I also think this is faster than using the hotbox, but again, preference)

4. Keep the options window somewhere it's not overlapping with the UV editor

One of the nicest things about Maya is that there are tons of ways to access every feature (hotkeys, menu bar, marking menus, hotbox, etc...) so it sucks the one you prefer is broken, but I suppose all you can do is submit a bug report and choose one of the other options for now.

  

[amukherjee728]

Thanks for suggesting the Marking Menu option. I believe that can be adapted. 
Regarding the UV Toolkit, when I open UV menu option, the toolkit tab opens undocked, in a separate menu. But I dock it as preference and to keep a clean look.
But that window layout lasts till that session. After I restart maya, UV toolkit gets undocked again. 
Is it related to saving window layout as a custom preset or something alike?

[michael.easter]

I have a custom workspace for UV mapping where I have the UV Editor and the UV Toolkit docked and it never undocks. But my UV Toolkit stays docked on the floating window too. Not sure what you mean by "dock it as a preference". Make sure you close Maya with the Toolkit Attached, and it should remember it for next time. If you crash out of Maya it will not remember.

[amukherjee728]

Hi,
Thanks for the positive replies. Your suggestion for using marking menu instead has grown on me and I am working by it just fine. 
By "dock it as a preference" I meant personal preference 😅
Also just an additional question if you could help out on this as well, just that I am losing on this menu bar from every other window (hypershade, UV editor, etc.) Is there any option to retrieve them back if I accidentally pressed any option that disabled them?

Thanks in advance.

[michael.easter · Accepted solution]

There are three different commands for the menu bars:

1. Ctrl + m will Toggle the Main Maya Menu Bar

2. Shift + m will Toggle all panels Menu Bars (All active panels like outliner, viewport, UV Editor, etc...)

3. Ctrl + Shift + m will toggle just the viewport Menu Bars

Just a tip, if you get good with using the marking menus you can use Ctrl + Space to hide all the UI except the viewport to model in "fullscreen" mode. It is context sensitive, so what you are hovering over will take over the screen. Just be sure not to save your files with fullscreen mode on, as it will be remembered by the file, and you can't just Ctrl + Space out if you didn't enter it in that session. (Probably a bug, but I haven't submitted a report for it yet)

[amukherjee728]

Thank you very much, your tips, alternatives and recommendations are very helpful for application in my workflow.