I really like the channel box but there is just one aspect of it that I haven managed to find a solution for. I am still fairly new to Maya, so I would like to ask before I conclude “its not possible”, at least out of the box anyways.
So, its possible to use ctrl/shift to fine tune the sensitivity of sliders when dragging a slider on the channel box, as far as I know there are just options; 0.1 with ctrl, and 1 with shift.
Far too often I have found this too inadequate, instead often just having to resort to typing in the values myself, which is a something I would like to avoid.
There are many attributes that often dictate two decimal values, the obvious one right now is the fraction attribute for the bevel node.
Is this not supported currently in Maya out of the box?
By the way, is the Mel code for the channel disclosed by Autodesk? I would not mind dedicating myself to understanding it and eventually implementing or slightly adjusting the current ctrl and shift sensitivity adjustments in place. I wonder where the channel box Mel code files are stored at?
At the top of the Channel Box, there’s three icons. The tripod-looking one on the left is the Manipulator mode toggle, and the one in the middle is the Sensitivity.
The sensitivity toggle will work with non-transform attributes by default. So if you have a custom float attribute (like “fizz” in the example image), left-click on the attribute name, and then middle-mouse-drag in the viewport, the sensitivity button will let you toggle through 4 sensitivity levels when dragging.
For transform attributes (like translateX), the sensitivity level only seems to work when you set the Manipulator mode to “Invisible Manipulator”. With the manipulator mode set to “invisible manipulator”, and the sensitivity set to the lowest setting, click on the transform attribute name in the channel box, then middle-mouse-drag in the viewport, and it should be changing the value at a slower rate than normal.
I was operating entirely unde the wrong impression with that button you point to.
For the longest time, I thought the modfiers, shift or ctrl, performed the exact same function as that button, so I figured, I could just leave the button some random state, and use the modifiers while holding MMB to modify on the go.
From my new understanding, that Icons functionality is essentially a frequency rate, if set to 0.01, it will essentially add 0.01 to the attributes current value. It seems to be using the spped flag of the channelBox command, and its possible to set it to any number.
What a critical blunder lol. but am I glad to know this! thank you for this amazing answer.
