User interface >
Customize Mudbox

You can customize the Mudbox user interface in several ways to suit your particular preferences and production workflow.

Customize keyboard shortcuts

Mudbox can be setup to use other keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) based on the default hotkey settings of other Autodesk 3D application: Maya, 3ds Max, and Softimage (in addition to the default Mudbox hotkey settings).

If you use one or more of these applications, you can apply hotkey settings for the application that you use the most, thereby making it easier to remember one set of hotkeys. You can also edit any of the four hotkey presets to customize individual hotkey settings for your particular use.

You select a hotkey preset in either of the following ways:

- The first time Mudbox is launched a Mudbox Setup window appears to let you select a hotkey setting from a drop-down menu. The item you select is saved to your Mudbox user preferences and is used from that point onwards unless another preset is selected using the Windows > Hotkeys item.

- When Mudbox is running, select Windows > Hotkeys and select the desired hotkey setting from the drop-down presets menu or edit the hotkeys in the currently selected preset.
  NoteTo reset to the default hotkey preset settings you must delete your Mudbox user preferences file. For more information, see File environment.

Turn the background grid on or off

The grid is turned on by default in the 3D View. To turn the grid on or off, do one of the following:

- Select Display > Grid.

  A check mark beside the menu item indicates the grid is turned on.

- Right-click anywhere in the 3D View using the mouse/stylus, and select Grid from the menu that appears.

Turn the gradient background on or off

1. From the main menu, select Display > Gradient Background.

   A check mark beside the menu item indicates the gradient background is turned on.

Change the color of the gradient background in the 3D View

The background color of the 3D View appears as a shaded ramp by default. You can modify this to suit your particular viewing and presentation requirements as follows:

1. Select Windows > Preferences.

   The Preferences window appears.

2. Open the Color section, then click on the colored boxes beside the items titled Viewport Top, Viewport Middle, and Viewport Bottom.

   The Select Color window appears.

3. In the Select Color window, choose the color you want the selected region of the background to be, then click OK.

   If you change the top, middle, and bottom to the same color, the background of the 3D View will appear as one solid color.

Change the color of components of the user interface

You can change the color of many items within the 3D View to suit your particular viewing and presentation requirements as follows:

1. Select Windows > Preferences.

   The Preferences window appears.

2. Open the Color section, then click on the colored boxes beside any of the items in the list. For example, Grid, Mask, Wireframe Color, and so on.

   The Select Color window appears.

3. In the Select Color window, choose a color then click OK.

Maximize the working area in the 3D View

You can increase the working area on your computer’s monitor when working within Mudbox in two different ways:

To: | Keyboard shortcut:
--- | ---
Turn the display of the Windows task bar on or off. | Press Ctrl + T
Turn off the display of bordering user interface elements maximizing the working area within the 3D View. | Press the T key NoteYou control which elements are hidden by selecting Windows > Preferences > User Interface and setting the Expert Mode Hides option.

Customize the working range of a Properties slider

Customizing the range a properties slider works within is useful when you are working on a model at a particular scale and need a tool(s) to work within a range suitable to its scale.

1. In the Properties window, type in the value you want to have as the upper limit for the slider’s range.

   This value becomes the new upper range for the slider until you reset it.

2. To reset the slider range to a lower maximum value, type in a new value and double-click the slider.

   The settings are stored in the Mudbox settings file in the My Documents directory for the users’ account.

Save a camera view

You can save a particular camera view as a camera bookmark so you can return to it later. You can bookmark perspective views as well as orthographic views.

1. In the 3D View, dolly, track, or tumble the camera’s view to the desired position.
2. Click the Camera Bookmarks tab to display the camera bookmarks.
3. From the Camera Bookmarks window menu ( ), select Add > Camera Bookmark.
4. Type a name for the camera bookmark in the Camera Bookmark Name window that appears, then click OK.

   The new camera bookmark appears on the Camera Bookmarks tray.

   NoteEnsure you are looking through the same camera type that was bookmarked (for example, perspective vs. orthographic) before clicking a camera bookmark. Otherwise, you may not get the bookmarked view you were expecting.

Add images to the Stencils and Stamps tool trays

You can easily add bitmap images to the tool trays in Mudbox so they can be used as stamps or stencils.

NoteImages that you create for stencils and stamps must be saved as a Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) containing three color channels and an alpha channel (RGBA) and be 16 bit in depth. For more information, see Saving images for stencils and stamps.

1. To add an image to the Stencil or Stamp tool tray when working in the Image Browser you can do any of the following:
   - In the Image Browser, browse to the image you want to add to the tool tray, select it, then click the Set Stamp or Set Stencil icon (depending on where you want to load it) in the Icon Bar.

     The image is loaded and either the Stamp or Stencil properties window appears.

   - In the Sculpt or 3D Paint properties window, open the Stamp or Stencil section as required.
   - In the Stencil or Stamp tool tray, select either Add Stamp or Add Stencil (depending on the tray) and then specify the image file(s) in the file browser window that appears. For more information, see Using the Image Browser.
2. To add an image to the Stencil or Stamp tool trays when working in the Properties window you can do the following:
   - In the Sculpt or 3D Paint properties window, open the Stamp or Stencil section, and click Import.
   - Browse to the image you want loaded as a stamp or stencil and click Open.
   - In the Stencil or Stamp tool tray, select either Add Stamp or Add Stencil (depending on the tray) to save the image as an item on the Stamp or Stencil tray. For more information, see Using the Image Browser

Add models to the Create > Mesh menu

You can add your own models to the Create > Mesh menu so they are available whenever you run Mudbox. For best results, see Prepare a model for sculpting for tips on preparing a model for use within Mudbox. Save the file to the following directory as a .mud format file:

- (Windows) <drive>:\My Documents\Mudbox\2011\data\Meshes
- (Mac OS X) /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/Mudbox 2011/Meshes

Customize the tool positions in trays

The positions of tools in the Sculpt, Paint, Pose and Select/Move Tool trays can be customized by dragging a tool to another position on the tray using the middle mouse button. For more information, see Trays.

Hide components of the user interface

You can hide components of the user interface to better meet your presentation requirements.

To: | Keyboard shortcut:
--- | ---
Turn the display of the Windows task bar on or off. | Press Ctrl + T
Turn off the display of bordering user interface elements maximizing the working area within the 3D View. | Press the T key