Anybody using a keyboard with G-keys when working in 3DS Max?

[branskyj]

Hi all,

 

My old keyboard broke and want to replace it with something like the Corsair K95 Mechanical Keyboard.

That one has additional 18 G-keys which can hold up to 108 macros (according to Corsair's web-site).

 

I've never used a keyboard with G-keys before, just did a search online and as it turns out some guy had successfully assigned G-keys in his AutoCAD Civil 3D.

Can anybody who uses similar keyboard confirm if I can assign various commands in 3DS Max to the G-keys please?

 

If possible- how should I go about assigning the G-keys in Max? Is that even done within Max or I need to use the Corsair software to customise the keys to work with Max.I know how to assign regular keys to different commands

 

I am mostly interested in modelling and think this can be very helpful for me.

 

Thank you very much.

[jonathandewitt]

I would imagine the software it comes with allows you to set them as universal macros or program-specific macros. In which case you assign a keyboard shortcut in Max, then program that key combo into the keyboard software.

[branskyj]

I see, that makes sense.

Thank you very much, Jonathan.

[Dimitris Tolios]

Depending on the Keyboard manufacturer and model, the Macro keys can be assigned on the fly - ballpark:

 

1) click on "Assign macro" special key or key-combination

2) press the G/Macro key you want to assign it to usually flashes or lets you know it is in "record mode"

3) press the key-combination / shortcut

 

2 & 3 might be the other way around, i.e. you click the shortcut first, than the Macro key you want to assign it to.

 

For sure you have more control with the supplied software, but the latter is often not 100% bug free and might also take a irrational amount of space in your HDD. When the SSDs were insanely more expensive and we were struggling to fit as mush as we could in less than 100GB of SSD (or before that 50GB), it was a huge pain to deal with 500+ MB of ... keyboard control center... really?

 

Most of these gaming keyboards already have profiles for popular games and the supplied software searches your registry and pre-loads profiles for what is already installed, to be activated when the respected .exe is loaded.

 

For 3DS that is probably not the case, so you might have to research into the existing keyboard shortcuts, or create your own keyboard shortcuts and then assign them to Macro keys.

[branskyj]

Thanks a lot, Dimitris and sorry for the long time to reply, I didn't even realise you have posted...

Anyway, got myself a Corsair K95 Black (non RGB) with 18 macro buttons.

 

Indeed, the procedure is to set a shortcut to an action in 3DS Max first (in my case I set Alt+1 for LOOP edges) and then in the Corsair software I had to assign that Alt+1 combination to a certain macro key (one of the 18 G keys). And it worked

 

Thanks for the help, guys.