Using the Maya Help

Essential Skills Movies

The first time you start Maya, the Essential Skills Movies window displays in Maya. Watch these movies to learn about the skills you need to master when you first use Maya. The movies are available in English, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese (Mandarin).

Note

There are two types of Chinese character sets: Simplified and Traditional. Mandarin is spoken in both mainland China and Taiwan; but in Taiwan, Traditional Chinese characters are used. On the other hand, in the southern mainland China, Cantonese is spoken but Simplified Chinese characters are used. Maya Essential Skills Movies provide captions in Simplified Chinese with a Mandarin voiceover.

To play the Essential Skills Movies

In the Essential Skills Movies window, click the buttons to play a movie.
Your computer launches the necessary multimedia player and your chosen movie begins to play.
Click your multimedia player’s controls to start, stop, and pause the movie.

To close the Essential Skills Movies window or the multimedia player

To close the Essential Skills Movies window, click the close box in the upper right corner of the window.
If you do not want to have this dialog box automatically display when you start Maya, turn on the Don’t show this at startup check box.
To close the multimedia player, select File > Exit or click the close box in the upper right corner of the window. (This instruction might vary depending upon which multimedia player is used)

If you want to watch the movies in the future

In Maya, select Help > Learning Movies.
The Learning Movies window appears.

Maya Help

Maya Help is documentation that assists you in learning the Maya software by providing reference information about particular topics, how to perform specific tasks, and command references. The Maya Help is HTML-based, fully searchable, and displays in your computer’s default web browser.

By default, your installed version of Maya launches the Help from the Autodesk.com Web site. A download version of the Maya Help is available for those who prefer a local copy. You can download from the following location:www.autodesk.com/maya-helpdownload-enu .

To launch the Maya Help

Select Help > Maya Help.
The Maya Help appears in a separate web browser window (depending on your user preference settings). The left hand pane of the Maya Help lets you navigate to various Maya topics.

To obtain help on a particular Maya topic

In the Maya Help navigation pane, click the name of the Maya topic you want information about (for example, Modeling, Animation, Dynamics, MEL commands, and so on).
The Maya Help displays the associated sub-topics and categories associated with the name you selected.

Maya Index and search

You can search the Maya Help directly using the index and search capabilities. With these tools you find the Maya topic you’re looking for by searching the topic word in an alphabetic list or by directly typing the topic word(s) into the search field and having the search tool find the documentation entries associated with it.

To use the Maya Index

In Maya, select Help > Maya Help.
The Maya Help appears in a separate window (depending on your user preferences). The Maya Index button appears at the top of the left navigation pane.
Click the Index button.
The navigation pane updates to display an alphabetic list at the top of the pane with the first index items listed.
Click an item/letter in the alphabetic list.
The information related to that topic appears in the right pane.

To use the Maya Help search

Select Help > Maya Help.
The Maya Help appears in a separate window (depending on your user preferences). The Maya Search button appears at the top of the left navigation pane.
Click the Search button.
The navigation pane updates to display the available search methods and options. You search a topic by typing in a word(s) that best represent the information you require.
In the text box, type a word that best represents your search topic.
By default, all of the content in the Maya Help is searched. You can narrow the search results by selecting a specific user guide from the drop down list below the text box.
Click the Search button to begin.
The search results appear in the left navigation pane, in order of relevancy.
Click the desired topic from the search results list.
The information related to that entry appears in the right pane of the Maya Help.

Popup Help

Popup Help provides you with a quick method of identifying a particular tool or icon in the Maya user interface.

To use Popup Help

Move your mouse cursor over an icon or button.
The name or description of it appears in a popup window directly over it.

To turn on the Popup Help if it does not appear

If you’re operating Maya on a Windows or Linux operating system:
- Select Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences.
- In the Preferences window, click the Help category and set the Tooltips box to Enable in the Popup Help section so a check mark appears.
- Click the Save button to close the Preferences window.
If you’re operating Maya on a Mac OS X operating system:
- Select Maya > Preferences.
- In the Preferences window, click the Help category and click the Tooltips Enable box in the Popup Help section so a check mark appears.
- Click the Save button to close the Preferences window.

Help Line

The Help Line at the bottom of Maya's window shows information about tools, menus, and objects. Like the Popup help, it displays descriptions when you move the mouse over icons and menu items. It also displays instructions when you select a tool. This is useful if you don’t know or forget how to use a particular tool.

To use the Help Line

Move your mouse cursor over an icon or button.
The icon or button name and instructions about how to use that tool appear in the Help Line.

Find Menu

The Find Menu feature lets you find the location of a particular menu item. Find Menu works only on the main menu items.

To find the location of a main menu item

Select Help > Find Menu.
The Find a Menu Item window appears.
Type the menu item you want to locate in the text field, and press Enter (Windows and Linux) or Return (Mac OS X).
The possible locations for the main menu item display in the results field of the Find Menu window.