Not all of the options described above are available in every property editor.
Modifying Properties in Property Editors
Property editors are where you’ll find an element’s properties. They are a basic tool that you will use constantly to define and modify elements in a scene.
You can define how a property editor behaves as you work and select elements in Softimage: it can follow your selection and display the properties of any selected element of the same type; it can recycle and display the properties of the selected element; or it can be locked so that it always displays the properties of the same element. For more information, see Locking, Recycling, and Focusing Property Editors.
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Not all of the options described above are available in every property editor. |
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To see the immediate effect of changes you make to an object’s material or texture properties, draw a render region (press q) over the object in a 3D view. For more information, see Previewing Interactively with the Render Region [Rendering]. |
The area in the upper-right corner (below the title bar) contains:
• A Revert icon that lets you reset all controls to the values they had when you first opened the property editor.
• A Preset icon allows you to save or load presets of parameter values (see Creating Presets of Property Settings [Scene Elements]).
• A Help icon that gives you information on all properties on the property set selected on the top tabs. Each property set also has its own help icon on its header.
Animation Controls
The upper-left corner of the property editor, just below the title bar, contains the following controls related to setting keyframes for properties:
• Two arrow icons that let you move to the previous keyframe and next keyframe.
• A keyframe icon that lets you set or remove keyframes for the current settings of marked parameters on the property page. Right-click for more options.
For more information on keyframes, see Animating with Keys [Animation].
Locking, Recycling, and Focusing Property Editors
The three icons in the upper-right corner control how the property editor is updated as you work and select elements:
• The Focus icon updates the current property editor to show the properties of the element you select, but only if the element is the same type as was previously selected (hence “focusing” on the type of element). For example, if you display the property editor of a spotlight and then select a point light, that property editor is updated to display the properties of the point light because spotlights and point lights are both the same type of element. However, if you then select a geometric object, a blank page is shown, because lights and geometric objects are different types of elements.
• The Recycle icon keeps that property editor open and refreshes it to display the properties of any element you select. This is a convenient way of keeping only one editor open at all times. For example, if you select a cube, the property editor shows the cube’s properties. Then if you select a light, the same property editor is updated to show that light’s properties.
• The Lock icon keeps the property editor open for the selected element. You can open other property editors for other elements, but a locked property editor remains open until you close or recycle it.
When you resize a property editor so that there is not enough room to display or use a slider effectively, the slider becomes an input box. When you enlarge the property editor, the input box becomes a slider again.
There is more than one way to access an element’s property editor: how you access an editor depends on your current work context:
• Select an object and:
- Press Enter to display a property editor of the object.
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- Press Alt+Enter to display a property editor of the object, as well as those that belong to all its children.
• In the explorer, click the icon of an element or select an element, then click the Selection button on the Select panel to display a menu from which you can choose certain properties. Click the icon of the property set you wish to view.
• Use shortcut keys to open a property editor. Pressing Ctrl+k, for example, opens the Local or Global Transform property editor of a selected object. You can also create your own shortcut keys to open a property editor of your choice. For more information on this, see Key Maps [Customization].
Certain property editors can be displayed in other ways:
• Move back and forth through previously opened property editors by pressing the Page Up and Page Down keys or choosing the Up, Previous, and Next icons in a property editor’s Inspected Nodes controls. (Right-click on the Previous or Next icons to display a selectable list of most recently viewed nodes.)
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You can use the Page Up and Page Down keys to view property editors even after all property editors have been closed. |
• Right-click in a render region border and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. This displays the View Rendering Options property editor for the region.
• Choose Visibility Options from the eye icon 
menu or Display Options from the display types menu in a viewport. The property editor that displays lets you specify how elements and the viewports themselves are viewed.
• In many cases, after you choose a command, a property editor is displayed automatically. When you choose Get > Material and select a material shader from the menu, for example, the material shader’s property editor automatically displays.
Closing Property Editors
Property editors that display as floating windows can be closed by clicking the X on the right of their title bars.
They can also be closed (as can all other floating window views) by positioning the mouse pointer over the window and pressing Ctrl+` (left single quote). On most keyboards, the left single quote is found directly below the escape (Esc) key. If the pointer is not positioned over a property editor, the first property editor opened will be closed.
Preventing Property Editors from Displaying
You can prevent property editors from displaying automatically whenever a new object or property is created. In addition, you can temporarily toggle the current behavior by pressing Ctrl while choosing a command.
To set your preference for automatically displaying property editors
1. Choose File > Preferences to open the Preferences window.
2. Click Interaction.
3. On the Property Editor/Views tab, toggle Popup Property Editors on Node Creation on or off.
To temporarily override the current preference
• Press Ctrl when choosing a command that creates an object or property.
If your preference is set to automatically open property editors, no property editor opens. If your preference is set to not open property editors automatically, a property editor opens for the newly created element.
Docking the Property Editor in a Viewport
By default, property editors display as floating windows but you can also dock them in a viewport by selecting Property Editor from the viewport’s Views menu.
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This makes it easy to always have a property editor for whatever object is selected (if you recycle it), or always keep a frequently used property editor handy (if you lock it). For information on recycling and locking, see Locking, Recycling, and Focusing Property Editors.
Controlling the Display of Property Editor Tabs
The Tab Style Property Editors preference controls how multiple property sets appear when they are displayed in a single property editor.
The tab-style property editors can be faster when displaying and updating information, particularly when working with large property sets. However, they may require more clicking to switch between property sets.
To set tab-style property editors
1. Choose File > Preferences to open the Preferences window.
2. Click Interaction.
3. On the Property Editor/Views tab, toggle Tab Style Property Editors on or off.
Editing Multiple Elements with Property Editors
Each time you multiple-select a number of elements and open their property editors, you can simultaneously edit their common parameters.
Here are a few techniques where property editors can be used to edit multiple objects:
To edit multiple objects
1. In a 3D view, explorer, or schematic view, select the elements in your scene to be edited.
2. Press Enter.
A property editor displays the common parameters of the selected elements.
3. Make your edits. All the selected elements are edited simultaneously.
Autodesk Softimage v.7.5