displaying texture
 

when I apply a texture I can't see it before rendering. Where do I enable this.

Have you tried pressing '6' with your mouse above the viewport in which you'd like to see the texture?

1, 2, 3 are for the degree of smoothness that a selected nurbs/subd object will be displayed,

while 4,5,6,7 are for wireframe, smooth, textured and lit display modes of all objects in the panel your mouse is above when you hit the keys.

You can also turn on texturing by using the menu at the top of exach panel, though I forget 'zactly how you get there and I'm away from my own pc at the moment.

hope this helps.
-S.

thank you, as you can tell im completely new. I'm going to download the interior room tutorial now.

I'm having the similar problem, but 6 is pressed and image shows. The problem is the image does not align right on the viewport, and when rendering it aligns perfectly. How do I fix viewport thing with image automatically aligned?

Can't say without seeing it.
Take a small screenshot and give us a look at the problem.

If it's screwed-up & twisted - like water going down a plug-hole, it's an issue that some vid-cards have. Otherwise, would have o see what it looks like. (could also be a vid-card issue)
-S

I just figured it out. All I had to do was enable "high quality rendering" under shading tab. Got scared for a second, cause I want to do my project asap. Thought I'll never figure how to fix it, but glad I did. Whew. :attn:

ha i can't help but wonder what the newbies would have done before the 'high quality rendering' view was an option... :P

Probably increased the texture resolution of the material in the attribute editor... :p

I would not recommend working in Hi Res mode in Maya. As the scene gets more complex then you wil be in trouble.

Add:
MAYA_NON_POWER_TWO_OFF = 1
to your maya.env file that fixes it.

Good stuff! Works now. :beer: