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10 Chapter 1: Getting Star ted with 3ds Max
• Group (page 3–674) contains commands for
managing combined objects.
• Views (page 3–675) contains commands for
setting up and controlling the viewports.
• Create (page 3–675) contains commands for
creating objects.
• Modifiers (page 3–678) contains commands for
modify ing objects.
• Animation (page 3–681) contains commands
for animating and constraining objects, plus
commands such as Bone Tools for setting up
animated charac ters.
• Graph Editors (page 3–682) provides gr aphical
access to editing objects and animation: Track
View lets you open and manage animation
tracks in Track View (page 2–501) windows,
and Schematic View (page 3–640) gives you an
alternate way to work with the objects in your
scene and navigate to them.
• Render ing (page 3–683) contains commands
for rendering, Video Post, radiosity , (page
3–51)and the environment.
• Customize (page 3–683) gives you access
to controls that let you customize the user
interface.
• MAXScript (page 3–780) hascommandsfor
working with MAXScript, the built-in scripting
language.
For more information about the 3ds Max menus,
see Menu Bar (page 3–672).
Time Controls
The Auto Key button (page 2–278) turns on
animation mode. The other controls navigate
through time and play back an animation.
Command Pan el
This collection of six panels provides handy
access to most of the modeling and animation
commands.
You can "tear off " the command panel and place it
anywhere you like.
By default, the command panel is docked at the
right of your screen. You can access a menu
that lets you float (page 3–930) or dismiss the
command panel by right-clicking just above it.
If it is not displayed, or you want to change its
location and docking or floating status, right-click
in a blank area of any toolbar, and choose f rom
the shortcut menu.
• Create (page 3–757) holds al l object creation
tools.
• Modify (page 3–758) holds modifiers and
editing tools.
• Hierarchy (page 3–773) holds l inking and
inverse kinematics parameters.
• Motion (page 3–774) holds animation
controllers and tra jectories.
• Display (page 3–775) holds object display
controls.
• Utilities (page 3–778) holds miscellaneous
utilities.
Status B ar and Prompt Line
Thesetwolinesdisplaypromptsandinformation
about your scene and the active command. They
also contain system toggles cont rolling selections,
precision, and display properties. See Status Bar
Controls (page 3–698).
Viewports
You can display f rom one to four view ports. These
canshowmultipleviewsofthesamegeometry,
as well as the Track View, Schematic View, and