Many of the commands in 3ds Max are available as buttons on various toolbars. By default, only the main toolbar is open, docked at the top of the interface.
Several additional toolbars are hidden by default, including Axis Constraints, Layers, Extras, Render Shortcuts, Brush Presets, and Snaps. To toggle a toolbar, right-click a blank area of the main toolbar and choose the toolbar's name from the list. See Customize Display Right-Click Menu for more information.
You can open and close toolbars and place them wherever you want; for more information, See Customizing the User Interface.
The main toolbar provides quick access to tools and dialogs for many of the most common tasks in 3ds Max.
The axis constraint buttons and flyouts appear on the Axis Constraints toolbar. See Using the Axis Constraints.
The Layers toolbar simplifies interaction with the layer system in 3ds Max, allowing you to easily organize the layers in your scene. Most of these operations are available from the Layer Manager, however the Layers toolbar provides shortcuts to several common actions, as well as the advantage of being able to work directly in the viewports.
The Extras toolbar contains several miscellaneous tools for working with your 3ds Max scene.
The Render Shortcuts toolbar lets you assign settings to three custom preset buttons. You can then use these buttons to switch among various render presets.
The Snaps toolbar provides access to the most common Snaps settings.
The animation layers toolbar provides quick access to commands related to the Layer controller, such as enabling, adding, and collapsing layers. Some of these commands are also accessible through the Layer Controller dialog. For more information, see Animation Layers.
The containers toolbar provides commands for handling Containers. For more information, see Container Toolbar.
The Brush Presets toolbar gives you quick access to up to 50 different brush settings for use with paint-oriented tools.
When you right-click a toolbar button that is implemented by a macro script, a pop-up menu appears.
