Recommendation: NSDT scene editor helps you quickly build 3D application scenes that can be redeveloped
At first, you might have to spend some time looking up the hotkeys, but once you use them and memorize them, they will let you produce results at least twice as fast. For example, when you're modeling (moving, scaling, rotating, etc.), with one hand on the mouse, you'll have the other hand free to press one of the hotkeys.
Let's start with a few major hotkeys you can't ignore:
step 1
We'll start by modeling a single link in the chain. Click the "Shape" button on the command panel, click the "Rectangle" button, and draw a rectangle as shown in the image below. Don't worry about the exact size.
F1 – Open 3D Max Reference (Help)
Depending on which feature you're currently using, it may take you directly to the main help page for that feature.
F2 – Shade Selected Face Toggle
When you are at the Polygon sub-object level and select one or more polygons, they will be fully colored (red) by default, like so:
When pressing the F2 key, you can toggle between the default setting and making only the edges of selected faces/polygons red, as shown below. This can be very useful when you have complex models.
F3 – toggle between wireframe and smooth+highlight
By default, viewports in 3D Studio MAX display objects as wireframe. Instead of right-clicking the viewport and selecting Smooth+Highlight to display shaded objects, just press F3 to set the viewport to Smooth+Highlight (shown below) or back to Wireframe.
F4 - View Edge Faces
As shown in the image above, when you switch to Smooth+Highlight, 3D Studio MAX will not show the edges of the face. By pressing the F4 key, you can make the object display the edges of all faces, whether they are selected or not:
The following two are usually the first two keys I press when starting from the default empty scene:
G – hide/show grid
Unless you really need the grid (e.g. snapping), it can get in your way. The G key allows you to hide or show it.
J – Show selection brackets toggle
The reason for using this key is similar to using the G key. By default, 3D Studio MAX displays a selection bracket around each selected object (unless the viewport is in wireframe mode). This can get very annoying, but can be easily removed by pressing the J key.
The following four keys are the first keys I recommend you start with:
Q - choose
Enable selection tool:
W - select and move
Enable the Select and Move tool:
E - Select and Rotate
Enable the Select and Rotate tool:
R - selection and scaling
Enable selection and zoom tools:
H – select by name
Opens the Select By Name dialog box. This dialog displays a list of all visible objects in the scene. For example, when you need to attach or link objects, and there are many objects in the scene, selecting by name can make things a lot easier.
CTRL-A – select all
CTRL-D – deselect all
Spacebar – Select Lock Toggle
This key is sometimes useful, but more annoying. When you're trying to select an object and another object remains selected, press the spacebar, as you may have hit it by accident and "locked your selection".
1 to 5 – Sub-object level X
Here's another great example of a real time saver. For example, instead of using the mouse buttons to select an editable poly's sub-object level, you can press one of the following keys.
1 - vertex
2 - edge
3 - border
4 - Polygon
5 - elements
These allow you to quickly switch between sub-object levels, such as moving vertices instead of scaling polygons, chamfering lines, etc.
7 – Polygon Counter
The 7 key allows you to display the polygon counter in the upper left corner of the upper left viewport:
8 – Opens the Environment and Effects dialog
Viewport Hotkeys
F – switch to the front viewport
T – switch to the top viewport
L – switch to the left viewport
R – switch to the right viewport
P – switch to perspective viewport
B – switch to bottom viewport
C – switch to camera viewport
CTRL-C - Create camera from viewport
Creates a new camera that only works on perspective viewports.
V – open view shortcut menu
Allows you to select a view from a list (again with another key of course). For example, press the V key, then the K key to see the Back view.
Z – Zoom in on the current selection
CTRL-X – toggle expert mode
Remove command panels, toolbars, etc. Only the viewport remains. Don't even think about using it unless you know your hotkey. ;)
ALT-Q – Quarantine Object
Isolates selected objects and hides all others. This is a great feature when you're working with scenes or objects that consist of many individual objects. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with sub-object selections, such as a set of polygons. If you are used to hiding and unhiding objects, this option will definitely save you a lot of time.
O – Adaptive fallback switching
Show objects as boxes when moving, rotating, scaling on the viewport to improve viewport performance. I almost never use this, but it's one of those keys that you might accidentally hit and wonder what the hell is going on with your object.
X – Transform gizmo toggle
Another good example where you might accidentally hit a key and wonder why you can't move, scale, rotate, etc. up. Pressing X will move the gizmo from:
D – disable viewport
While this one might work, it's also something I occasionally press by accident. Press D again to disable/enable the viewport.
Shift-Z / Shift-Y – undo/redo viewport operations
Undo operations such as switching to a different view, rotating, zooming, or moving within a viewport.
+ and - – increase/decrease gizmo size
The following three are common rendering-related hotkeys
F9 - Renders the last rendered viewport, or in case of first rendering, the selected viewport.
Shift-Q - Quick Render, renders the selected viewport.
F10 – Opens the Render Scene window, allowing you to set rendering options.
M – open the material editor
CTRL-V – clone object
Although holding down the Shift key and moving, rotating, or scaling an object also allows you to create a clone, by using CTRL-V you can create a clone at the exact same position and size as the original object.
Alt-X – Show as transparent toggle
You can make objects transparent, partially transparent by pressing the ALT-X keys. This is useful when you need to view model drawings/references/blueprints or other models/geometry through it.
The following three are useful for working with editable poly:
Alt-L - select edge loop
This is the same as pressing the Cycle button in the Editable Poly section when at the Edge sub-object level.
ALT-C – cut
Enables the clipping tool, which can be used to draw edges on polygons.
SHIFT-E / ALT-E – Extruded Polyethylene
Enables the extrude tool.
The hotkeys mentioned in this tutorial are only a small subset of the hotkeys available in 3D Studio MAX. Depending on which features you use, additional or different hotkeys may be available. You should be able to find a complete overview if you search for Default Keyboard Shortcuts in the 3D Studio MAX User Reference.
In addition to the default keyboard shortcuts, you can also create custom keyboard shortcuts using the following procedure:
Choose Customize menu > Customize User Interface > Keyboard panel. Use the Group and Category lists to find the action for which you want to create a shortcut. Click an action in the Actions list to highlight it. In the Hotkey field, enter the keyboard shortcut you want to assign to the action. Click Assign.
step 2
Use your mouse efficiently
As important as using hotkeys is to be productive, using the mouse correctly can save a lot of time too. When you're using 3D Studio MAX, regular use of the primary mouse button (which is the left button for most of us) is mandatory, but other buttons (such as middle and right) are equally useful.
Let's start with the secondary mouse button (usually the right mouse button). The most common use of this button is to open a shortcut menu. For example, if you right-click on a viewport's name (such as Front, Left, and Perspective), a popup menu appears that allows you to perform several viewport-related tasks. For many of these options, you should use hotkeys (as above), but for others, such as the viewport's properties, it's still a useful menu. Even more useful, though, is the main shortcut menu that opens when you right-click a viewport:
Some of the options on this menu that I use frequently are:
Unhide/Hide Selected/Unselect, By Name, Convert All To Faces/Vertices/Edges - For example, this will convert selected vertices to selected edges. It doesn't actually change the geometry of the model; it just changes the sub-object level and remembers the selection. Save and manage scene states (very useful!
Another common task of the right mouse button is to open a shortcut menu for the selected object, for example to manage its properties.
Some less common uses of the right mouse button:
Right-click Undo or Redo to view and select a list of undo/redo operations. Right click on the spinner to reset it to zero. Right click on a color or map slot to cut/clear/copy/paste it.
I use the middle mouse button more often than the right mouse button, and it saves me a lot of time, especially during modeling. Here are the most common tasks I perform with the middle mouse button:
Hold it to drag/move the viewport. This saves time because you don't have to switch your current tool to the pan view tool (little hand) in the lower right corner of the interface and switch it back to the tool you were using. Hold it down while holding down the ALT key to rotate the viewport, this saves time because you don't have to switch the current tool to the Arc Rotate tool in the lower right corner of the interface (if you don't have a middle mouse button, you can do this with CTRL-R ). Since my middle button is also a scroll wheel, I use it to zoom in and out of the viewport. If you hold down the ALT key, you can zoom in incrementally.
If you just read this article/tutorial, I recommend you read it again and actually try the different hotkeys and mouse actions. It will change the way you use 3D Studio Max, you will be able to produce more results in the same amount of time. Below is a link to a printer-friendly PDF version of this tutorial. have fun!
Original Link: 3Ds max Getting Started Tutorial: Shortcut Commands and Mouse Hotkeys (mvrlink.com)