Customizing DAZ Studio

May need to split out

The Edit > Customize command opens the Customize DAZ Studio dialog, which allows you to customize virtually any element in DAZ Studio so that you can arrange things exactly the way you want them to be. If you are new to DAZ Studio, you might want to wait a bit before jumping in and customizing your interface … otherwise tutorials and such will seem a bit confusing because you may not remember where you placed your panes, commands, and toolbars.

You’ll probably find as you learn more about DAZ Studio that you want to locate panes or toolbars in a different place. You may need an Activity tab that displays all of the items you need when you modify materials on an object, or when you create an animation. With the Edit > Customize command you can do all this and more.

To open the Customize DAZ Studio dialog, choose Edit > Customize. You’ll see the dialog shown below.

The left portion of the Customize DAZ Studio dialog displays an Actions List that includes all of the commands in the DAZ Studio menus and submenus. This also includes custom actions that you have created yourself when you save your own presets. Where shortcuts apply to a command, the shortcut is listed to the right side of the command menu.

Notice that some of the commands have their associated icons next to them. While you can add commands that do not have icons, it will be difficult to see them in the Activity tab or in toolbars until you hover over them. For this reason, you will primarily want to work with commands that have icons associated with them. For example, the figure below shows commands that appear beneath the File menu of DAZ Studio. All of the commands have icons associated with them, with the exception of the Scene and Exit commands. If you try to add these two commands to a toolbar, you won’t see any icon representation for them.

The right portion of the Customize DAZ Studio dialog is shown below. It contains three sub-tabs, the purpose of which will be discussed in the sections that follow.

• Use the Activities sub-tab to customize the icons and toolbars that appear in any Activity tab, or to create your own Activity tabs.
• Use the Menus sub-tab to customize the commands that appear in each of the menus in DAZ Studio, or to create your own custom sub-menus.
• Use the Tool Bars sub-tab to customize the icons that appear in toolbars, or to create your own toolbars.

Finally, the Options menu in the Customize DAZ Studio dialog contains three command options:

• Import: Allows you to import a saved configuration file. By default, user interface settings are saved to the DAZ Studio > Resources folder, and use a .dsx file extension.
• Export: Allows you to export a saved configuration file. After you make your changes, use this command to save your custom configuration to the DAZ Studio > Resources folder.
• Restore Defaults: Restores DAZ Studio Activity tabs, menus, toolbars, and actions to the original “as-shipped” configuration.
  
  

NOTE! After you make any changes in the Customize DAZ Studio dialog, be sure to use the Export command in the Options menu to save your customized items to your hard drive. That way, you can switch back to the default layout for tutorials, and then switch back to your custom layout after you have completed the learning.

When you right-click on any command in the Actions list, the menu shown below appears. This menu allows you to customize the shortcuts and toolbar icons that you use in DAZ Studio:

The following customizations are available:

• Change Keyboard Shortcut: Choose this command to assign a new keyboard shortcut to a menu item. DAZ Studio prompts you to press any key (or any combination of multiple keys like Shift+F9).
• Clear Keyboard Shortcut: Choose this command to remove the keyboard shortcut from the selected item.
• Default Keyboard Shortcut: Choose this command to revert to the original keyboard shortcut that was used with the shipping version of DAZ Studio.
• Change Icon: Choose this command to select an icon image for the command. A dialog prompts you to select an image from the DAZ Studio > resources > images folder. You can select an icon image in JPG or PNG format.
• Default Icon: Choose this command to revert to the original icon image associated with the command. If no icon was associated, your custom icon will be removed.

When you first open the Customize DAZ Studio dialog, the Activities sub-tab displays the names of the three default Activity tabs: Load, Pose, and Render. The Actions icons and Toolbars that are displayed in each tab appear in a hierarchical list beneath each Activity tab header. When you expand an Activity tab heading, you see sub-trees that display a list of actions and toolbars that are configured for the selected Activity tab.

• The Actions sub-tree displays the icons that appear in the upper-left corner of each Activity tab. For example, the Actions icons that appear in the Load Activity tab are icons for the File > New, File > Open, File > Import, Create > New Primitive, and What’s This help commands.
• The Toolbars sub-tree allows you to enable or disable the display of the Help, Create, Tools, and Main toolbars in each of the Activity tabs.

NOTE! Display of all toolbars is off by default, but you can toggle them on by right-clicking the toolbar you want to display and choosing Enable Toolbar from the menu that appears.

To add an Actions icon to any Activity tab:

1. Choose Edit > Customize to open the Customize DAZ Studio dialog.
2. Select the Activities tab in the right side of the dialog. Select the Activity tab (Load, Pose, Render, or custom Activity tabs) that will contain the new icon, and expand its list. Examples of the Actions and Toolbars lists for the Load Activity tab are shown below. Other Activity tabs will have similar options.
3. Look through the Actions list on the left side of the Customize DAZ Studio dialog. Select any command or action that has an icon associated with it.
4. Drag the associated command from the left side and drag it to the tabs on the right side of the dialog. Drop the selected command over or beneath the desired Actions tree.
   
   

To show or hide a toolbar in any Activity tab:

1. Choose Edit > Customize to open the Customize DAZ Studio dialog.
2. Right-click the toolbar that you want to show or hide.
   • Choose Enable Toolbar to display a hidden toolbar. The status will turn from Off to On.
   • Choose Disable Toolbar to hide a displayed toolbar. The status will turn from On to Off.

The Menus sub-tab in the Customize DAZ Studio dialog is shown in the following image. This sub-tab allows you to customize the commands that appear in the menu bar and in tab options menus.

You can accomplish the following tasks in this sub-tab:

• To add a command to a menu or sub-menu, drag the desired command from the Actions List in the left section of the Customize DAZ Studio dialog and drop it into the desired menu location.
• To create a new sub-menu, right-click on the menu beneath which you want to create the sub-menu. Then choose Add Submenu from the list that appears. A new menu item appears beneath the selected menu and you can assign a name to the new sub-menu.
• To rename a custom sub-menu, right-click on the sub-menu you want to rename, and choose Rename Item from the menu that appears. You can also click once to select the menu item and click again to activate the text edit field. Enter a new name and press Enter.
• To remove a command, separator, or custom sub-menu, right-click on the sub-menu you want to delete, and choose Remove Item. The selected item will be removed from your menu options.
• To add a separator between menu items, right-click on the menu item that you want to appear directly above the separator and choose Add Separator. A line appears directly beneath the selected menu item.

The Tool Bars sub-tab in the Customize DAZ Studio dialog allows you to create your own toolbars and add them to your custom interface layouts.

You can accomplish the following tasks in this sub-tab:

• To add a command to a toolbar, select a command in the Actions list that has an icon associated with it, otherwise you will not be able to see the item in the toolbar. Drag the desired command from the Actions List and drop it into the desired toolbar location.
• To create a new toolbar, right-click on any item that appears in the Tool Bars tab, and choose Add Toolbar. A new toolbar item appears and you can assign a name to the new toolbar.
• To rename a toolbar, right-click on the toolbar you want to rename, and choose Rename Item from the menu that appears. You can also click once to select the toolbar item and click again to activate the text edit field. Enter a new name and press Enter.
• To remove a command, separator, or custom toolbar, right-click on the item you want to delete, and choose Remove Item. The selected item will be removed from your toolbar options.
• To add a separator between items in the toolbar, right-click on the toolbar command that you want to appear directly above the separator, and choose Add Separator. A line appears directly beneath the selected toolbar item.