Getting started with Alias, parts 3-5: Marking menus, hotkeys, preferences

5-part video series for beginners

• Part 3: Introduction to Marking Menus
• Part 4: Using Hot Keys
• Part 5: Saving and Exporting Preferences

In this five-part series, our own Rich Mazza introduces you to the fundamentals of Alias. Think of this as getting a lay of the land, a high-level overview of the Alias User Interface and the key tools you’ll need to know.

What You’ll Learn

Part 3: Introduction to Marking Menus in Alias

1. The Marking Menus – gesture-based menus – allow you to bring up different options with different keyboard and mouse combinations.
   
   
2. You can customize the options in the Marking Menus for the tools you use the most.

Part 4: Hot Keys in Alias

1. Creating custom Hotkeys for the actions you do the most is a kind of shorthand that improves your Alias workflow.
   
   
2. Consider your most frequent actions—and that’s what you can create a Hotkey for.
   
   
3. The Hotkey may already be assigned, but Alias will warn you about that and you can overwrite it. 

Part 5: Saving and Exporting Preferences in Alias

1. After creating custom Marking Menus and Hotkeys, you’ll want to save them for your next Alias session.
   
   
2. If you’re switching to a newer version of Alias, you’ll need to export your preferences.
   
   
3. When the new Alias loads, it will want to default to its new settings. Let it—and then reload your previous preferences.

You can get started by downloading the new Alias & VRED Learning Editions:

For Alias, click here.
For VRED, click here.

Stay tuned for more learning resources by subscribing to the Design Studio Blog or bookmarking it for future posts.

You can also check us out on LinkedIn, subscribe to our Alias and VRED YouTube channels and follow us on Facebook.