Menus and Title Bar Functions and Buttons

File Menu

Function Notes
New Script
Deletes all nodes currently in the Node View. You can also press Ctrl+A in the Node View to select all nodes and then press Delete.
Add Script Calls up the Browser to add in a second set of nodes to those currently in the Node View. The added nodes are renamed if a naming conflict arises (that is, FileIn1 becomes FileIn2 if FileIn1 already exists). Global settings are taken from the added script, as is the new script name.
Open Script Calls up the Browser to read in a script, replacing what is already in the Node View. You can also use the Open button on the Title Bar.
Reload Script Reloads the script listed in the top of the title bar.
Save Script (Ctrl + S) Saves the script without prompting you for a script name. You can also use the Save button on the title bar.
Save Script As (Shift + Ctrl + S) Prompts you for a new script name, and then saves the script.
Save Interface Settings Save your window layout into a file in your <UserDirectory>/settings file. If you call it defaultui.h, it is automatically read next time you launch Shake. You can save the settings file anywhere, but it is not read automatically unless it is in the settings directory.
Load Interface Settings Loads up an interface settings file from disk.
Flush Cache Pushes the images in the memory cache out to the disk cache. Similar to what is done upon exit.
Purge Memory Cache Purge cache is like Flush Cache, but then continues to free the memory that was allocated. Useful if you have most of your RAM filled and want to run a flipbook without actually exiting Shake. That delay when you exit is Shake flushing the memory cache to disk. Whether or not images in the cache are used (regardless of whether they are coming from the disk or memory) is controlled by the cacheMode.
Exit Exits the program. No kidding. You can also use the standard OS exiting buttons on the upper corner of the interface.

 

Edit Menu

Function Notes
Undo (Ctrl +Z)/Redo (Ctrl+Y)
Undo previous commands, up to 100 levels of undo. Layout, viewing, and parameter changes are saved in the Undo list. You can also press the Undo/Redo button: . (You can change the amount of levels in your ui.h file. See Customize Shake for more details.) If you have done an Undo and you haven't changed anything, press Redo to go back to your previous settings.
Find Nodes (Ctrl + F)

Dynamically selects nodes that match your criteria in the Search string.

  • Select by name. Enter the search string, and it immediately activates nodes that match. For example, if you put just f, FileIn1 and Fade1 are selected. If you enter fi, just the FileIn1 is be selected.

  • Select by type. Select by node type. For example, enter Move, and all Move2D and Move3D nodes will be selected.

  • Select by expression. Allows you to enter an expression. For example, you want to find all nodes with an angle parameter greater than 180:

    angle>180

  • Match case. Sets case sensitivity.

 

Tools Menu

The Tools menu gives you a menu listing for each of the nodes in the Tools tabs. You can also press the Right mouse on a Tool tab (that is, Image, Color, Filter, etc) to get a list of those tools.


Viewers Menu

Function Notes
Create Viewer
Creates a new Viewer in the Viewer area, automatically stretching it to fill the Viewer area. You can also press the Right mouse on a Viewer and select New Viewer, or press N on a Viewer.
Spawn viewer desktop Launches a floating viewer window which can then be moved around independently of the interface. It is ideal for dual-monitor setups.




Render Menu

Function Notes
Render Flipbook
Renders a flipbook of whatever is in the current Viewer. It first launches the Flipbook Parameters Window. The window allows you to override the Global parameters if you wish. To cancel the render, press Esc on the flipbook window. See the Flipbook Manual for how to operate the Flipbook.
Render FileOut Nodes Renders FileOut nodes in the Node View. Press F in the Node View to frame all active nodes. You have the option to render only the active FileOuts or all FileOut nodes.
Render Proxies Renders your proxy files for your FileIn nodes, leaving your FileOuts untouched. For more information on proxies, see Overview - About Proxies.




Render Parameters Window

Whenever you call up a render with the Render menu, you launch the Render Parameters Window. This window overrides the Global settings for your render. Note that these settings are not saved into the script; they only control how the GUI is rendering. To render to disk, you must attach an Image - FileOut node.

The Render window looks more or less like this (this example is from Render FileOut nodes window).

 

Render FileOut Page

parameters Notes
renderFileOuts
Indicates if you want to render all FileOut nodes or just the active nodes.
updateFromGlobals Indicates if your settings match the Globals settings (updated), or if you have modified them (update now), in which case the button allows you to update the settings from the Globals.
timeRange Set a new time range using Shake's standard frame syntax, for example, 1-100 renders 1 to 100, 10-20x2 renders frames 10, 12, 14, up to 20, and so on.
useProxy Sets your proxy settings.
quality When this is set to lo (0), anti-aliasing is deactivated, resulting in a poorer quality image, but your render speed is better.
motionBlur, shutterTiming, shutterOffset These can be used to set new motion blur settings for quality, shutter exposure length, and the offset.
maxThread How many processors to devote to the render on a multiprocessor machine.
sequential If you have multiple FileOuts, it may be more effecient to render them sequentially, that is, each file one by one, rather than all of them at the same time. You may trade output inefficiencies with caching or input redundancy.

 




Help Menu

function Notes
Documentation Launches the documentation you are reading into a html browser. The docs are usually located at <ShakeDirectory>/docs/index.html
Support Form Load a Support Form into a html browser. You can use this to report bugs, provide suggestions, get How-to advice, or (eek!) report documentation errors.
Shake Home Page Loads up a browser with www.apple.com/shake.

Buttons

Oops. A backup script is stored automatically every 60 seconds in your <UserDirectory>/nreal/autoSave directory. Jump to it quickly with the Browser's Directories pulldown menu.

This time interval can be changed in your ui.h files in include/startup/ui/something.h. The line looks like this:

script.autoSaveDelay = 60;

The 60 is time in seconds between saves. See Customize Shake for more details.

Undo/Redo

You have 100 steps of Undo/Redo in Shake. You can press the button, or use Ctrl+Z to Undo as well.

Although 100 is a pretty safe number of steps, you can change the amount of undo levels you keep by entering this line in one of your ui.h files:

gui.numUndoLevels = 100;

See Customize Shake for more details.

The Update Buttons

The Update Mode button, in the middle, has three modes:

The Update button is used to manually update the scene, usually used when Update Mode is set to Manual.

 

The Proxy button allows you to quickly get to one of your 4 proxy settings. Clicking it by default jumps between Base and P1. Holding it down allows you to get to the other settings. For more information on Proxies, see Overview - Proxies.


Title Bar Information

The title bar of the whole Shake window gives you current version data, as well as the current script name and the current proxy resolution.