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The Interface

The Designer window is divided into seven main regions. Knowing where each region lives saves time in every tutorial that follows.

Designer interface overview annotated with the seven main regions

Region Position What it does
Menu bar Top edge 19 top-level menus: File, Edit, Mesh, Animate, Window, Theme, etc.
Shelf Below the menu bar Quick-access toolbar with the menu set switcher and the most-used commands
Toolbox Left edge 17 selection / authoring / paint tools
View Panel Center The 3D viewport / 2D canvas; where you actually edit
Project Explorer Right edge, top Tabs for Objects, Assets, History, Sets
Channel Box Right edge, middle Numeric properties for the current selection
Properties pane Right edge, bottom Full property editor for the active placement
Tool Properties dock Bottom, expandable Options for the currently-active toolbox tool
Time Slider Bottom edge Frame, timeline, playback transport
Status line Very bottom Cursor coords, current mode, transient toasts
Aether chat panel Floating / docked Chat with the in-app AI agent

The five menu sets

The Designer's menu bar reorganizes itself by menu set: the same pattern as Maya's F2-F6 modes. Switching set shows a different subset of top-level menus. Use the shelf's dropdown or the keyboard shortcuts:

Menu set Shortcut Adds menus
Modeling F2 Mesh, Surfaces, Path
Rigging F3 Skeleton, Skin, Constraints
Animation F4 Animate, Trax, Time Editor
FX (Simulation) F5 Simulation, Procedural
Rendering F6 Rendering, Lookdev, Hypershade

Menus common to every set (File, Edit, Window, Arrange, View, Run, Code, Theme, Help) stay visible regardless. Press F2-F6 to switch instantly.

Default layout

Out of the box the Designer ships in the Modeling set with the Project Explorer's Objects tab active, the Channel Box visible, and the Properties pane collapsed. The first time you launch, you walked through the first-run wizard which set your theme and tablet permissions.

Workspaces

Window > Workspaces lets you save and recall full layout snapshots: panel positions, dock states, toolbox order, and visible tools. Three ship by default:

  • Authoring (default): everything visible, balanced for skin work.
  • Painting: extra-wide canvas, big brush panel, compact channel box.
  • Animation: tall time slider, graph editor docked at the bottom.

Switch with the shelf workspace dropdown, or pin one with File > Preferences > Workspaces > Default.

Theme

The whole UI honors the theme you chose at first launch. Switch any time from Theme > Light/Dark/OLED/Glass/Frost, or author your own under Theme > Customize…. The active theme persists between launches.

Where to next