An even faster method for selecting tools is the marking menus. Marking menus generally hold fewer tools than a shelf, but are much faster since you can use quick gestures to choose tools. With practice, selecting tools with marking menus becomes almost instantaneous.

To choose common tools with marking menus

1. Hold down the and (Windows) or and (Mac) keys.
2. With the keys held down, hold the .

   

   The left mouse button marking menu appears at the location of the mouse pointer.

3. Keep the held down and drag down until the Pick > Object box is highlighted.

   

   A thick black line shows the direction of the mouse pointer.

4. Release the mouse button to choose the highlighted tool.

   The Pick > Object tool is now the current tool.

5. Hold and (Windows) or and (Mac) with the middle, then with the right mouse buttons to see the other marking menus.

   Each mouse button has a separate marking menu.

   

   Once you have learned which direction corresponds to which tool in a marking menu, you can use a quick gesture to choose the tool.

6. Hold the and (Windows) or and (Mac) keys, then drag up and release the mouse button quickly.

   The black line shows the direction, but the menu is not drawn.

   When you release the mouse button, the marking menu flashes the name of the selected tool on the screen.

   You have just selected Pick > Nothing .

   Use this method to choose tools even faster once you have mastered the positions of the tools on the menu.

Learn which tools are on the marking menus, and use the marking menus whenever you need to choose one of those tools. The more you use them, the faster you will become, until you can choose tools with quick gestures.

To customize a marking menu with common tools

1. On the Preferences menu, open the Interface submenu and choose Marking Menus.

   The MarkingMenus shelf window appears.

   

   This is a special shelf window. The tools and menu items on the different tabs appear in corresponding marking menus.

   

   The procedure to modify the content of marking menus is similar to the one for modifying shelves that you learned earlier.

   Here you will make a small modification to the Selection marking menu shelf.

2. Click the Pick tab in the Palette (if it isn’t already expanded) and locate the Pick > Template tool.
3. Hold down the on the icon and drag it to the marking menu shelf, to the location shown in the image below.

   

4. Release the mouse button to position the icon at the location indicated by the red arrow.

   

   You now have a tool on the marking menu to pick templated geometry.

5. Hold down and (Windows) or and (Mac) keys and press the to show the marking menu again.

   

   The tool you just added is called Pick > Template in the marking menu. Change the name to something more concise.

6. In the MarkingMenu shelf window, hold down the (Windows) or (Mac) key and double-click the Pick Template tool in the shelf.

7. A dialog box appears.

   

8. Type Template in the text field and click OK to rename the tool in the marking menu.
9. Show the left mouse button marking menu again.

   

You now know how to customize the marking menus. In later lessons, you will load pre-made marking menus with common surfacing tools.