undocking
 

I have a dual monitor set up and I'm looking for a way to undock the Attribute editor, layer editor and the Channel box. I know how to "tear" drop down menus off but I can't figure out how to do it with the Attribute editor, layer editor or the channel box. I just want to be able to move them to my second monitor to free up some space on my 1st monitor. Is there a way to do this?

Go to Windows -> Settings/Preference -> Preferences...

On the category, choose Inteface.
You can have the Attribute editor open in its own window.

I don't think the channel box can be in its own window though.

Been wondering the same thing myself, since seeing them do that over at BuzzTV. Their attribute editor was always floating, and like you I couldn't work out how on earth to do it. Never had a need, so I forgot about it.

But you've renewed an interest, so I just looked in the built-it help, and it would seem that it's trivial.

To quote directly, "You can set an option in Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences to always open the Attribute Editor in a window instead of in the side panel."

Just go to the help, and do a search for "Open multiple Attribute Editors". Pick the first Tutorial; the one whose name matches the search string. that's where I found it anyway.

Enjoy all that screen acreage..

EDIT: Too slow! Parka's post wasn't there when I started.

i actually thought it was a pain in the ass when they started incorporating the attribute editor in the interface... when i first started learning maya it always opened in a different window... but that was around maya 2-2.5, and i really have no idea when they changed the options, but it's annoying so i've always changed it back to 'open in new window'... i feel badly for those that didn't know this was an option or have become used to the attribute editor being attached to the interface(and shrinking the viewports).

Thanks for the kind reply :)

Been getting into a bit of MEL today, just trying to customize the interface a bit and create a few convenient shortcuts.

I found a way to float a channel box and a way to group custom commands together like a torn-off menu.

Firstly was a script that'll create a floating window that will in this very brief instance allow you quickly set the render-type.

// Exerpt from a new script found on **highend3d**
//
window -title "Render Type";
columnLayout -adjustableColumn true;
button
-label "HW Render"
-command "setCurrentRenderer mayaHardware;";
button
-label "SW Render"
-command "setCurrentRenderer mayaSoftware;";
button
-label "MR Render"
-command "setCurrentRenderer mentalRay;";
showWindow;


There was another thread floating about somewhere about somebody that wanted to be able to turn backface culling on and off reasonably often. It's a bit of a pain to get to, being a drop-down box in Display->Custom Polygon[].

This would be an ideal place for such a command when grouped with other custom commands.

But anyhoo, looking through to check out the available control types to a mel script(button, cobo-box etc) I spotted one for a channel box.

A (very, very) slightly modified version of the code in the maya help examples is:

window -title "My Channel Box";
formLayout form;
channelBox cBoxID;
formLayout -e
-af cBoxID "top" 0
-af cBoxID "left" 0
-af cBoxID "right" 0
-af cBoxID "bottom" 0
form;
showWindow;


As far as I can tell, cBoxID is just an identifier used when setting the form up, there seem to be no nodes with it's name.

Also, something of a nuisance is the fact that custom created windows appear to lose their title when minimised, being numbered sequentially Window1 Window2 etc.

Even without two monitors this is pretty nifty since you can size the window both vertically and horizontally.

Hope it's helpfull.
Simon.

edit: Opps, I was wrong it wasn't 3dtotal it was here:
http://www.highend3d.com/maya/tutorials/