Work with the Attribute Editor

Loading attributes into the Attribute Editor makes them available to view or edit. There are several ways to load object attributes:

• Automatically when you select the object
• Manually
• Selecting the object from the Attribute Editor Selected menu
• Selecting the object from the Focus menu

To automatically load attributes for selected objects

When you select an object, its attributes are automatically loaded into the Attribute Editor where you can view and edit them. Each node of the selected object automatically appears as a tab. This is the default method.

1. In the Attribute Editor, select List > Auto Load Selected Attributes to turn it on.
   Note If you select more than one item, Maya automatically updates the most recently selected one (that is, the most recent one in the pick list).

To manually load attributes for selected objects

1. Click the Load Attributes button at the bottom of the Attribute Editor.
   NoteIf Auto Load Selected Attributes is turned off, after selecting an object, you must manually load the object’s attributes into the Attribute Editor to view and edit them.

Attribute Editor graphical controls

There are two common graphical controls that appear in the Attribute Editor for certain attributes: ramp and graph.

Ramp

Each color entry in a ramp has a circular color handle above the ramp, and a square color icon below the ramp. The active color has a white border around its color handle and icon. Ramps can be used for many types of gradients, including transparency, color, and so on.

For more details about ramps in shading, see Ramp Shader.

Graph

The graph control has handles which you can drag in the graph area to set position-value pairs. The active point has a white border around its handle and icon. Graphs can be used for many types of attributes where value changes per position, including paint effect settings, fluid settings, and so on.