Software & Apps Design 44 44 people found this article helpful Maya Keyboard Shortcut Cheats Improve your Maya workflow with these hotkeys by Justin Slick Writer Former Lifewire writer Justin Slick has been creating 3D computer graphics for more than 10 years, specializing in character and environment creation. our editorial process Justin Slick Updated on March 15, 2020 Tweet Share Email The Ultimate Guide to Keyboard Shortcuts The Ultimate Guide to Keyboard Shortcuts Introduction Windows Timesavers The Best Windows 10 Keyboard Shortcuts Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for Better Productivity How to Use the Shortcut Alt + Underline Shortcut to Create New Folders Essential Shortcuts for iTunes Mac, iOS & iPad Quick Tricks The Best Mac Shortcuts Keyboard Shortcuts for Finder Mac Startup Keyboard Shortcuts 18 Shortcuts for Apple's iOS Shortcuts App iPad Keyboard Tips and Smart Keyboard Shortcuts Android & iPhone Shortcuts The Best Android Shortcuts You Should Be Using Create and Use iPhone X Shortcuts Email Shortcuts The 30 Best Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts for 2020 How to Use Yahoo Mail Keyboard Shortcuts The Complete Apple Mail Shortcut List Shortcuts in iOS Mail Delete Shortcut Keys for Popular Email Programs How to Use Outlook.com Keyboard Shortcuts Create Text Snippets With Shortcuts in Mac OS X Mail Online & Browser Shortcuts Top 36 Shortcuts for Edge and IE 11 Keyboard Shortcuts: Google Chrome for Windows Create Web Page Shortcuts in Chrome for Windows Control Safari Windows With Keyboard Shortcuts Shortcuts for Safari Toolbars Shortcuts for Safari on OS X & Sierra Excel Shortcuts The 23 Best Excel Shortcuts Shortcut Excel's Fill Down Command Shortcut the Current Date/Time Formatting Numbers Adding Worksheets Shortcut to Saving Your Work Creating a Chart MAX Function Shortcut More Office Shortcuts Top 10 Microsoft Word Shortcuts The 5 Best Hidden Word Shortcuts Add Shortcut Keys to AutoText Entries Uppercase Shortcut Key How to Reset Keyboard Shortcuts in Word Shortcut to Speed Up PowerPoint Presentations Other Useful Shortcuts The Best Google Docs Shortcuts 18 Shortcuts for Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon Changing Linux Mint Cinnamon Shortcuts Fedora GNOME Keyboard Shortcuts Maya Keyboard Shortcuts Create or Reassign Keyboard Shortcuts in MS Office Useful Keyboard Shortcuts for Photoshop CC Time-Saving Fill Tool Shortcuts in Photoshop The 5 Most Useful GIMP Keyboard Shortcuts How to Use the GIMP Keyboard Shortcut Editor Shortcuts to Type a Tilde Mark Autodesk Maya / Creative Tools / CC BY 2.0 With a program as complex as Maya, there's so much functionality that unless you're an incredibly versatile artist, there will be parts of the package that you'll barely touch. The key to learning a sophisticated piece of software is to break it down and approach it according to the features you'll be most likely to need on a daily basis. Only after you've learned the core fundamentals should you begin attacking some of the more specialized facets of the software. While you could just as easily open your Maya help documents and bring up a sprawling list of keyboard shortcuts, we thought it would be beneficial to provide an abbreviated list that just shows you the essentials — the stuff you'll be most likely to need in your first weeks or months with the software. This list is meant to supplement our existing Maya training. We go into greater detail for each of the functions listed in the first lessons of our training series, so if something isn't making sense, be sure to refer back to the earlier material. Navigation Shortcuts The navigation commands are central to virtually everything you do in Maya. Don't let yourself fall into the trap of thinking that just because something looks good from the front or side that it'll look good from every angle. You should be continually orbiting around your model and viewing it from every possible perspective. Alt+RMB+Drag - Rotate camera (tumble).Alt+LMB+Drag (or Scroll Wheel) - Zoom in/out. This doesn't actually "zoom" the camera lens, but instead moves the camera forward or backward in space (like a dolly).Alt+MMB+Drag - Track (Move the camera up, down, left, or right).Spacebar - Tap spacebar to switch between four-panel and single-panel layouts. Manipulators After the navigation controls, the manipulator shortcuts are almost like “home-row” for a modeler. Q, W, E, and R let you switch between the selection, translate, scale, and rotate tools quickly and efficiently. Q - Selection ToolW - Translate (Move)E - RotateR - Scale Viewport Command Shortcuts Most of Maya's viewport options can be accessed from the number keys. Numerals 1-3 control object smoothing, while 4-7 control Maya's display modes: Sub-D Preview / Smoothing:1 - Polygon cage (smoothing off)2 - Polygon cage + Subdivision Preview3 - Subdivision Preview (smoothing on)Display Modes:4 - Wireframe5 - Shaded6 - Texture Preview6 - Lighting Preview Miscellaneous Maya Shortcuts And finally, here's a selection of miscellaneous tools you should get to know as soon as possible: F - Frame object. Zooms in on an object so that it fills the viewport panel.G - Repeat a command. It's tough to describe just how handy this can be to someone who hasn't done a whole lot of modeling, but this will be useful time and time again.X - Snapping. Holding down X while using the move, scale, or rotate tools will enable grid snapping.Ctrl+Z - Undo. Obviously, this is enormously useful. Maya's default memory allocation for the Undo function is limited at 50. This might sound like a lot of undoing, but we strongly recommend going into Settings/Preferences and setting the undo steps to something larger (like 100, 200, or even infinite.)Ctrl+G - Group objects.Ctrl+D - DuplicateShift+Ctrl+D - Duplicate special.Ctrl+A - Open attribute editor.(+ or -) - Scale manipulator tool up or down. Making your object manipulator larger actually gives you a finer degree of control over Maya's move, scale, and rotate tools. If you're having trouble with a precise object movement, try scaling your manipulator. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit