Tools / Shelf
Shelf
Maya's shelf, done properly. Bring across the shelves you already have, then arrange and style them the way you always wanted to.
Tool Box In the base package
What it does
Imports the shelf you already have
From Maya itself, or from a shelf file somebody sent you. Icons, labels, commands, tooltips, double-click commands and right-click menus all come across — including buttons you made since Maya last saved.
Your commands run unchanged
Buttons run their commands exactly where Maya's own shelf runs them, so a script you have used for years behaves the same way here.
Arrange by dragging
Turn on arrange mode and buttons stop firing: drag one into place, or band-select a group and move them together, including onto another tab. A line shows where they will land.
Three commands per button
A click command, a double-click command, and a list of right-click items, each in Python or MEL independently. A button that carries extras is marked in the corner.
Style it, or let the theme
Label color, label background, button background and alignment, per button — as a hex value or a theme token, so buttons follow whichever theme is on. Reset Style puts it all back in one press.
Widgets on a shelf
A custom widget button is a snippet of Python returning any Qt widget, so a slider or a toggle can sit among the icons. Sections, labels, spacers and row breaks divide up a crowded tab.
Next to Maya's shelf
Maya's shelf is where most of us keep years of buttons, which is why ours starts by importing it, and why commands run exactly where Maya runs them. A button can carry a click, a double-click and right-click items, as Maya's can. The differences are in arranging, organising and not losing work.
| Arranging | Maya moves one button at a time. Here you band-select a group and drag it as one, within a tab or onto another, with a line showing where it will land. |
|---|---|
| Dividing a tab | Maya offers separators. Ours adds row breaks, spacers, labels, and sections that fold away and say how many buttons they hide. |
| More than buttons | A slider or a toggle can sit among the icons as a live widget. |
| Saving | Maya normally writes its shelves when it closes. Ours are written after every edit, with Revert Changes and a backup copy for when you change your mind. |
| Side by side | Open several shelf windows at once, each on its own shelf, and keep a rigging shelf docked next to an animation one. |
| Moving buttons about | Move To and Copy To send a button to another tab or another shelf. One button, or a group of them, also exports to a file of its own, to keep or to send somebody. |
| Buttons you keep | Exported buttons live in a folder beside your shelves and are listed by name under Import Items, ready to drop into any tab. Make folders in there and each becomes a submenu. |
| Colors | Per-button colors can be tied to the theme, so they change when it does. |
Nothing to lose
A shelf writes itself out after every edit, so there is never anything unsaved. Revert Changes is the way back from an edit you did not mean: it returns the shelf to how it was when you opened it, or the last time you pressed Save Shelf, and keeps a backup copy before it does.
Details
| Category | Tool Box |
|---|---|
| Price | Included in the base package, $2 |
| Maya | 2024 to 2027, Windows |
| Install | Unzip into your Maya modules folder, restart Maya — how to install |
| Files | Shelves are saved in your own Maya folder, and export in a click |
| Scene files | Writes nothing into your scene |
Comes with the base package.
Along with the Canvas, the Theme Editor and Selection Info — two dollars, once.