Mark a container with a custom icon in the Hypershade

User Guide > General > Basics > Assets > Navigating containers > Navigate containers in the Hypergraph or Hypershade >

You can customize the icon that appears next to a container in the Hypergraph, Hypershade and Outliner. You can either associate all containers with the same template with a common icon or you can mark individual containers with unique icons.

To associate an icon with a template

Place your icon image file in the current project’s asset directory.
Rename the image to match the name of the template you want to associate it with.
In Maya, create a container and assign the template. For more information, see Assign a template to a container.
All container nodes that use this template are now displayed with this custom icon in the Hypergraph and Hypershade.

To display a custom icon on a container

Select a container.
Open the Attribute Editor and navigate to the container tab.
Select Icon Name under the Container Attributes heading.
A file browser appears.
Navigate to select your icon image file and click the Open button.
The node for the container is now displayed with your custom icon in the Hypergraph.

If the container you selected is associated with a template that already has an associated icon, then only the selected container’s icon is changed. The rest of the containers associated with that template are unaffected.

NoteThe icon will only appear in the Outliner if the Icon Name refers to an .xpm file. If you modify this file you must reload Maya to see the changes.

NoteThe preferred size for a container icon in the Outliner is 20 x 20 pixels. Icons larger than this will be cropped to a 20 x 20 pixel region automatically in the Outliner display.