Customize Alias for maximum efficiency

Discover your usage patterns

Customizing Alias for maximum efficiency involves making the functionality you use often easier to get to.

Before you can do this, identify which tools and menu items you use often. If you are just starting using Alias, work with the normal interface for a while until you get a feel for which tools you consistently need over and over again.

Some tools will be used constantly by all users, for example: Pick > Object, Pick > Point Types > CV, Transform > Move, and so on. These kinds of tools are already in the default marking menus and shelves, but you can improve efficiency even more using the following tips.

The psychology of the interface

The goal in customizing the interface is to reduce the number of mental context switches you perform as you work.

Every time the interface distracts you, you go through two context switches: switching from thinking about your task to thinking about the interface, and then back again. Sometimes by the time you get back to the task, you have lost track of what you were doing.

All this costs mental effort. You probably aren’t consciously aware of the time passing as you do these switches, but they can actually take up to a few seconds each time. Any improvement you can make to the interface so that you do not have to think about it during your work results in huge efficiency gains.

First lines of defense

Hotkeys

Your first line of defense against context switches is hotkeys. Just as you probably use the mouse without thinking about it (you think about moving the pointer on the screen, not the physical mouse), with enough practice you can press hotkeys for tools and menu items without conscious effort.

To take advantage of this two-handed input style, switch to single key hotkeys mode. This mode lets you use normal keystrokes (without modifier keys) as hotkeys. This way, there is no need to physically locate two keys, the modifier and the hotkey, which can force a context switch, thus decreasing the benefit of the hotkey.

Use the hotkey editor (Preferences > Interface > Hotkeys/Menu Editor) to assign meaningful keys to the functions you use most often.

See Create and edit hotkeys.

Note

When single key hotkeys are on, you have to press or click in the prompt line before you can type tool input (such as coordinates).

There are two general styles for assigning hotkeys, which you can mix and match:

Use mnemonics, that is letters or symbols that suggest a function. For example, you could assign the m key to DisplayToggles > Model.
If you are already familiar with another program that uses single key hotkeys (such as Adobe products), you can try to use keys that correspond to the functions in that program to take advantage of existing muscle training.
Use keys where your fingers rest, or that are easiest to reach, for very common functions. For example, you can use the Q, W, E, and R keys for Pick > Object, Transform > Move, Transform > Rotate, and Transform > Scale.

Marking menus

The other efficient form of two-handed input is marking menus. Like hotkeys, marking menus take practice before they become second nature. Eventually, however, your keyboard hand will learn to find the marking menu keys ( + (Windows) or + (Mac)) and your mouse hand will learn the directions that correspond to the commands.

See Use marking menus.

Use the marking menu editor (Preferences > Interface > Marking Menus) to add to, rearrange, or replace the marking menus with the tools you use often.

See Customize marking menus.

Second lines of defense

These tips don’t reduce context switches, but they can make using the interface faster.

Shelves

Customize the shelves to reflect the tools you use most often and categories that make sense to you. The default shelves are an excellent starting point: they contain the tools and menu items you probably use frequently.

See Customize shelves.

Tip

Assign a hotkey or marking menu space to the Windows > Palette and Windows > Shelves commands. Then you can keep the palette and shelves windows closed until you need a tool not on your hotkeys or marking menus, saving you screen space.

Tab menus

You can -click a palette or shelf tab to see a pop-up menu of its tools. This is a much faster way of choosing tools from subpalettes than pressing and holding the icons.

Short menus

You can switch between the full (long) menus, and short customized menus, showing only the choices you want, by choosing Preferences > Menus > Long Menus and Preferences > Menus > Short Menus respectively.

Eliminating tools and menu items you never use from the menus and palettes can reduce the time you spend searching through menus and palettes for a specific tool.

See Customize the menus.

Tip

If a menu item or tool seems to have disappeared from the interface, choose Preferences > Menus > Long Menus.