3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [293]
The Layout menu includes various options for controlling how the nodes are arranged. The Align submenu lets you align selected nodes to the Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Center Horizontal, or Center Vertical. You can also Arrange Children or Arrange Selected. The Free Selected (Alt+S) and Free All (Alt+F) commands keep nodes from being auto arranged. With the Layout menu, you also can Shrink Selected, Unshrink Selected, Unshrink All, and Toggle Shrink (Ctrl+S).
The Options menu lets you select the Always Arrange option and view mode (either Hierarchy or Reference mode). You also can select the Move Children (Alt+C) option and open the Schematic View Preferences (P) dialog box.
The Display menu provides access to the Display Floater. The Display Floater (D) command opens the Display floater, which can be used to select the types of nodes to display. You also can hide and unhide nodes and expand or collapse the selected node.
The View menu includes commands for selecting the Pan (Ctrl+P), Zoom (Alt+Z), and Zoom Region (Ctrl+W) tools. You also can access the Zoom Extents (Alt+Ctrl+Z), Zoom Extents Selected (Z), and Pan to Selected commands. The View menu also includes options to Show/Hide Grid (G), Show/Hide Background, and Refresh View (Ctrl+U).
Learning the toolbar buttons
You can select most of these commands from the toolbar. Many of the toolbar buttons are toggle switches that enable and disable certain viewing modes. The background of these toggle buttons is highlighted yellow when selected. You'll also find some buttons along the bottom of the window. All Schematic View icon buttons are shown in Table 25.3 and are described in the following sections.
Note
The Schematic View toolbar buttons are permanently docked to the interface and cannot be removed. •
As you navigate the Schematic View window, you can save specific views as bookmarks by typing an identifying name in the Bookmark drop-down list. To recall these views later, select them from the drop-down list and click the Go to Bookmark icon in the Schematic View toolbar. Bookmarks can be deleted with the Delete Bookmark button.
Note
Most of the menu commands and toolbar buttons are available in a pop-up menu that you can access by right-clicking in the Schematic View window. •
Navigating the Schematic View window
As the number of nodes increases, it can become tricky to locate and see the correct node to work with. Along the bottom edge of the Schematic View window are several navigation buttons that work similarly to the Viewport Navigation Control buttons. Using these buttons, you can pan, zoom, and zoom to the extents of all nodes. These buttons are described in Table 25.4.
The Schematic View navigation buttons also can be accessed from within the View menu. These menu commands include Pan Tool (Ctrl+P), Zoom Tool (Alt+Z), Zoom Region tool (Ctrl+W), Zoom Extents (Alt+Ctrl+Z), Zoom Extents Selected (Z), and Pan to Selected.
Tip
You also can navigate the Schematic View window using the mouse and its scroll wheel. Scrubbing the mouse wheel zooms in and out of the window in steps. Holding down the Ctrl key and dragging with the scroll wheel button zooms smoothly in and out of the window. Dragging the scroll wheel pans within the window. •
Working with Schematic View nodes
Every object displayed in the scene has a node—a simple rectangular box that represents the object or attribute. Each node contains a label, and the color of the node depends on the node type.
Node colors
Nodes have a color scheme to help identify them. The colors of various nodes are listed in Table 25.5.
Note
If you don't like any of these colors, you can set the colors used in the Schematic View using the Colors panel of the Customize⇒Customize User Interface dialog box. •
Selecting nodes
When you click the Select (S) button, you enter select mode, which lets you select nodes within the Schematic View window by clicking the object node. You can select multiple objects by dragging an outline over them. Holding down the Ctrl key while