I highly recommend using the 3ds Max shortcuts available for every tool
and command rather than pointing and clicking on their respective icons
and menus and this is simply because shortcuts access the commands way
faster than the point and click method. The difference might just be a
few seconds but if you count the number of times you access any tool or
command in 3ds Max by pointing and clicking rather than using the shortcut keys in one project, those few seconds add up to minutes
or even hours.Take note that the 3ds Max shortcuts are not case sensitive, so you can use either the lowercase or the uppercase and it would yield the same results.
The image above shows the front side of the Quick Reference Cube that came along with Autodesk 3ds Max 2009. The other five sides of that cube show the list of default shortcuts of 3ds Max you may use while using the program.
Here's some of the list on that cube and some of my favorites...
Select a named group below to jump to that specific shortcuts group:
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|
| Selection Shortcuts | |
| Viewport Navigation Shortcuts | |
| Viewport Shading Shortcuts | |
| Transformation Shortcuts | |
| Modeling / Rendering Shortcuts | |
| 3ds Max Mouse Shortcuts |
Selection Shortcuts
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| ctrl + a - | Select All | |
| ctrl + d - | Deselect All | |
| page up - | Select Ancestor | |
| page down - | Select Child | |
| q - | Select Object | |
| w - | Select and Move | |
| e - | Select and Rotate | |
| r - | Select and Scale | |
| h - | Select by Name | |
| ctrl + i - | Select Invert | |
| spacebar - | Selection Lock Toggle | |
| Insert - | Subobject Level Cycle | |
| ctrl + b - | Subobject Selection Toggle |
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Viewport Navigation Shortcuts
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| alt + z - | Zoom | |
| ctrl + alt + z - | Zoom Extents | |
| z - | Zoom Extents All | |
| ctrl + w - | Region Zoom | |
| [ - | Zoom In | |
| ] - | Zoom Out | |
| i - | Center to Mouse Pointer's Position | |
| ctrl + p - | Pan | |
| ctrl + r - | Arc Rotate | |
| alt + w - | Maximize Viewport | |
| d - | Disable Viewport | |
| f - | Front View | |
| l - | Left View | |
| t - | Top View | |
| b - | Bottom View | |
| p - | Perspective View | |
| c - | Camera View | |
| u - | User Defined View (Orthographic) | |
| v - | Choose Desired View from List | |
| o - | Adaptive Degredation | |
| shift + z - | Undo Viewport Change | |
| shift + y - | Redo Viewport Change |
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Viewport Shading Shortcuts
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| f2 - | Shade Selected Face Toggle | |
| f3 - | Wireframe Smooth Highlights | |
| f4 - | View Edged Face Toggle | |
| g - | Home Grid Visibility Toggle | |
| j - | Selection Brackets Visibility Toggle |
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Transformation Shortcuts
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| w - | Select and Move | |
| e - | Select and Rotate | |
| r - | Select and Scale | |
| f12 - | Transformation Type-In | |
| f5 - | Restrict to X | |
| f6 - | Restrict to Y | |
| f7 - | Restrict to Z | |
| f8 - | Restrict to Plane | |
| a - | Angle Snap Toggle | |
| s - | Snap Toggle | |
| alt + d - | Snaps Use Axis Constraints Toggle | |
| - (dash) - | Expand Gizmo | |
| = (equals) - | Contract Gizmo | |
| x - | Transformation Gizmo Visibility Toggle |
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Modeling / Rendering Shortcuts
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| ctrl + z - | Undo | |
| ctrl + y - | Redo | |
| ctrl + x - | Expert Mode | |
| m - | Material Editor | |
| 1 - | Sub-object Level 1 | |
| 2 - | Sub-object Level 2 | |
| 3 - | Sub-object Level 3 | |
| 4 - | Sub-object Level 4 | |
| 5 - | Sub-object Level 5 | |
| 7 - | Show Polygon Count | |
| 8 - | Environment Rollout Dialog | |
| 0 - | Render to Texture | |
| ctrl + n - | Numeric Expression Evaluator | |
| ctrl + v - | Clone Selected Object/s | |
| alt + q - | Isolate Selected Object/s | |
| alt + x - | X-Ray View | |
| shift + c - | Hide / Unhide Cameras | |
| shift + g - | Hide / Unhide Geometry | |
| shift + h - | Hide / Unhide Helpers | |
| shift + l - | Hide / Unhide Lights | |
| shift + p - | Hide / Unhide Particle System | |
| shift + s - | Hide / Unhide Shapes | |
| shift + w - | Hide / Unhide Warps | |
| shift + q - | Quick Render Active Viewport | |
| f9 - | Quick Render Previous View | |
| f10 - | Render Dialog |
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3ds Max Mouse Shortcuts
*LMB - Left Mouse Button*MMB - Middle Mouse Button
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| LMB click - | Select | |
| shift + LMB click - | Add Selection | |
| alt + LMB click - | Remove Selection | |
| shift + LMB click & drag - | While in transform mode, Clone and Transform | |
| MMB click & drag - | Pan | |
| alt + MMB click & drag - | Rotate | |
| MMB scroll - | Zoom in / out | |
| ctrl + alt + MMB click & drag - | Zoom in / out | |
| ctrl + pan - | Faster Panning | |
| ctrl + spinner - | Faster Spinner Change |
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I use the mouse shortcuts more often than the keyboard shortcuts for viewport navigation because it is much quicker to access.
You don't have to know all the shortcuts but it's a good practice to use a lot of these to get your work done a little bit faster.
For a complete list of 3ds Max shortcuts, go to Autodesk's 3ds Max Online Documentation
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