Autodesk Alias Tutorial | Marking Menu's

I've received a number of emails from readers telling me that some of the tutorials are too advanced so I've decided to write a series of tutorials aimed at the beginners. This series assumes that the user has never used Alias before.

This first tutorial describes how to set up the marking menu's. Marking menu's are a set of short cuts which are made visible by holding down ctrl+shift then one of the three mouse buttons i.e. left, middle or right mouse button. (LMB, MMB,RMB)

Step 01

Start by viewing what shortcuts are available in each menu. Next open up the marking menu dialog box by going to Preferences>Interface>Marking Menu's. By default it is also within the marking menu itself at the bottom of the LMB marking menu. So alternatively open it up that way.

The top shows three tabs indicating which tool is in which marking menu i.e LMB, MMB, RMB respectively.

You can add tools from the palette Windows>Palete or from the Application Menu.

To add buttons from the Palette drag and drop the tool you want with the MMB.

The buttons are distributed clockwise in 45 degree starting from the top. i.e. the first tool in the Marking Menu list will be displayed at the top of the Marking Menu, the second will be displayed at the top right, the third will be on the right etc...

Step 02

You can rename the tools by holding down the ctrl key and double clicking the tool. Rename the button and click OK.

Step 03

Once you are happy with your configuration right click in the top area just to the right of the tabs and select Save shelf set.

Step 04

If you want Alias to open up with this new configuration leave the object name as user_default.scm. Alternatively if you are planning to use this configuration for a particular workflow save the file name accordingly then when you start a new session of Alias open it up by choosing Replace Shelf Set in step 03.