• The left pane shows a tree of contexts.

  Each hotkey exists in a context. The same key can be assigned to different actions in different contexts. A hotkey in a higher-level context (for example, the top level "Houdini" context) will be overridden by the same hotkey on a more specific context 9for example, the geometry viewer’s Select tool).

  Some hotkeys, such as ⌦ Del, are assigned to similar actions in many different contexts.

• The middle pane shows a list of actions in the currently selected context.

• The right pane shows a description of the currently selected action and a list of hotkeys assigned to the action.

• Across the bottom is a keyboard schematic showing what keys are currently assigned in the selected context.

• Keys assigned in the selected context are brightened.

• Hotkeys assigned in a lower (more specific) context have light stripes. You can assign the key to an action in this context, but be aware that when you are in the more specific context the key will be overridden.

• Hotkeys assigned in a higher (more general) context have more prominent dark stripes. You can assign the key to an action in this context, but be aware that you will be overriding a more general hotkey in this context.

• Click the Shift, Ctrl, Command, and/or Alt modifier keys on the virtual keyboard to see assignments with those modifiers.

• Click a key to see all assignments to that key (plus any modifiers) in all contexts.

When you assign a hotkey to an action, if the key is already assigned in a higher (more general) or lower (more specific) context, Houdini will display a warning icon next to the key in the hotkey list.

When you select hotkey, the editor displays a message explaining the potential conflict.

Conflicts are often OK. There are many situations where you don’t care that a key in a specific context overrides the same key in a more general context.

For example, if you're working in a modeling tool and not doing animation, you might assign the K key and not worry that you're overriding the Set Keyframe key.

However, if you want to resolve the conflict by editing the editing the keys, you have several choices:

• To remove or change the hotkey from the selected action, click the Delete button next to the hotkey.

• To remove the hotkey from the other action the key is assigned to, click Remove other in the conflict message.

• To change the hotkey on the other action the key is assigned to, click Edit other to jump to the other action in the editor.

1. In the hotkey editor, search for radial, or browse to the Houdini ▸ Panes ▸ Geometry Viewers context in the left pane and scroll to find the radial menus in the middle pane.

   The Geometry Viewers context contains actions corresponding to the radial menus defined in the Radial menu switcher at the top of the main window.

   If you want to create a new radial menu on a key, first create the new menu using Radial menu ▸ Create New. Then go to the hotkey editor to assign it to a key.

2. In the middle pane, select the radial menu you want to assign a key.

3. In the right pane, double-click the Add row and press the key you want to assign to the radial menu.

4. Click Accept to save the change to the keymap.

• The keymap is the set of all assigned hotkeys in the application. Houdini ships with a write-protected default keymap in the install directory.

• If you make any changes to the defaults, the editor stores the modified key map in your preferences directory.

• You can branch off a new custom keymap using ▸ Save As.

• To switch to a different key map, click the Keymap pop-up menu in the top-left corner of the hotkey editor and select the map you want to switch to.

• Browsing for actions in the context tree is not very useful. It’s easier to find an action using the search box in the hotkey editor, or by ⌃ Ctrl + Alt + ⇧ Shift + clicking an item in the user interface.

  Note

  The current legacy organization of contexts is often counter-intuitive. We hope to re-organize the contexts in a future version.

• To restore the selected action to its factory default hotkeys, click ▸ Reset ▸ Command.

• To restore all actions in the selected context to their factory default hotkeys, click ▸ Reset ▸ Context.

• To restore the entire keymap to factory defaults, click ▸ Reset ▸ All.