Menu Bar

Overview

The main menu is where you can access everything from basic file operations and display options, to more advanced features such as terrain and level editing tools and AI settings.

Some of these commands can also be executed in the ToolBar or by using keyboard shortcuts.

The File menu includes commands related to the handling of files such as open and save level file, show log file, and a list of recently loaded levels.

Menu Item	Description
New	Creates a new level.
Open...	Opens an existing level.
Save	Saves the level.
Save As...	Saves the level under a different name.
Quick Asset Browser	Opens the Assets Browser which lets you to search for anything within your project, and also lets you import assets without having to use separate importer tools.
Export to Engine	Exports the level.
Export Occlusion Mesh	Generates and exports a level Occlusion Mesh for a flagged object. The file will be saved as *.ocm file.
Export SVOGI Data	Exports the SVOGI data, so voxelization is performed offline. This saves CPU time, memory usage and initialization time at run-time. While high-spec platforms will probably be able to do this at run-time, mid spec platforms may benefit from moving these tasks offline. To export succesfully, the CVar e_StreamCgf should be set to 0. Changing this setting should be done either before loading your level, or can alternately be manually changed in the system.cfg file. To make the engine use the exported files in your game, go to Level Editor -> Level Settings and activate the Stream Voxels option under Total Illumination V2. Note that the exported files will not be used while you're editing your game. Only when you play your game through the GameLauncher.exe (or whatever you rename it to in your game) will the engine stream the voxel data from the harddisk.
Recent Files	Lists recently opened levels.
Exit	Closes the Editor, prompting the user to save before exiting, if changes are detected.

The Edit menu contains commands related to object manipulation and selection.

Menu Item	Description
Undo	Undoes the users last action (Ctrl+Z).
Redo	Redoes the users last action (Ctrl+Y).
Undo History	Opens a history of all changes you've made and lets you go back and forth through them.
Delete	Deletes the selected object(s), when you press the Yes button on the confirmation window.
Rename	Renames the selected Engine element.
Duplicate	Duplicates the selected object (Ctrl+D).
Copy	Copies the item you have selected to the clipboard.
Cut	Cuts the item you have selected.
Paste	Pastes the item you have previously copied or cut.
Find	Opens a new Level Explorer window that is set up to search for objects.
Align/Snap	Align an object to the grid or to another object. Will move the pivot point and rotation parameters of the object currently selected to the one that you click on after you press the align to button. Also contains all the snapping options that are available as buttons in the top-right of the Viewport.
Editing Mode	Select the various object editing modes.
Constrain	Limits the movement to the X, Y, Z, or XY axes, to the surface of the terrain, or to the surface of the terrain and objects.
Fast Rotate	Quickly rotates the currently selected object on the selected axis with the degree value specified in the Rotate Angles settings.
Coordinates	Changes the Coordinate System. For more information on Coordinate Systems, click here.
Keyboard Shortcuts	Opens a window with all shortcuts that set up in the Editor.
Preferences	Editor Preferences can be set here.

Menu Item	Description
Save Selected Objects	Saves selected objects as a group including their positions.
Load Selected Objects	Loads the objects you have previously saved and place them in the same location in the level as before.
Link	Linking is used to create hierarchies between objects. If you have one object (child) linked to another and then move the parent object, the child object will move the same way. To link one object to another you have to select one entity, then use the link feature and then clicking on another entity to link them together.
Group	When having multiple objects selected the grouping function will group them together and draw a green box around them.
Prefabs	Create Prefab from Selected Objects makes a new prefab from the selected objects. Reload All reloads all prefabs inside the level with the "on-disk" version. Only useful if prefabs are set to not automatically update. Add Selected Object(s) to Prefab adds currently selected objects to the prefab.
Selection	Select All (Ctrl+A) selects all objects Select None deselects all selected objects Select Invert deselects all selected objects and selects everything else Lock Selection (Ctrl+Shift+Space) locks selection so the objects can't be deselected and no other objects can be selected Selection Mask is a filter for selection where users can specify what type of objects needs to be selectable Hide Selection (H) hides selected objects Unhide All (Shift+H) unhides all hidden objects Freeze Selection (F) makes selected object ignored from selection process Unfreeze All (Shift+F) unlocks all objects from being "frozen"
Material	Assign Current assigns the selected material to the current selected object. Reset To Default resets the material on the object to the default one assigned on object creation. Get From Selected gets the material from the selected object to the material editor. Pick Material lets you pick any surfaces and then display the surface material in the editor.
Lighting	Lets you regenerate all the cubemaps in a level when you select Regenerate All Cubemaps option.
Physics	Get Physics State takes the state of any currently selected entity/entities and makes it permanent in the level. Typically used in AI/physics mode, when letting the object simulate and store its physically correct state. Most useful for ragdolls, since it stores their current pose. Reset Physics State resets the physics state. Simulate Objects enables physics on any currently selected entity/entities in order to place the assets according to the laws of physics. For example, to make a vehicle "sit" correctly on a surface according to its mass and suspension. Generate Breakable Joints allows users to take a compound (multiple node) CGF and generate joints between its touching parts.
Go to Position	Moves the camera to a specified location (useful for sharing the view between different users for debugging for example).
Go to Selection	Moves the camera to the selected object.
Ruler	Activates the Ruler tool which can be used to measure distances.
Save Level Resources	Exports all loaded resources to the specified directory.
Export Selected Objects	Exports selected objects in *.obj file format that can be read by any DCC application.

The Display menu enables the user to toggle display features which will aid in level design, entity placement and object manipulation.

Other commands such as Remember/Goto Location and viewport navigation speed, can also be accessed from the Display menu.

Allows you to hide all helper objects or turn them back on (Shift+Space).

Menu Item	Description
Wireframe/Solid Mode	Enables the Wireframe rendering mode (F2) and turns on the single mode rendering.
Graphics	Very High turns on the Very High display settings. High turns on the High display settings. Medium turns on the Medium display settings. Low turns on the Low display settings. XBox One emulates Xbox One display settings. PS4 emulates Playstation 4 display settings. Custom mode is activated when you change any display settings in the presets mentioned above.
Display Info	Display Info - toggles Display Info on/off. Verbosity Level Low/Medium/High - displays a low/medium/high amount of information when Display Info is on.
Location	Remember Location allows you to save 10 locations that you later recall using the Goto Location Feature. This is useful to quickly jump to different predefined places in Sandbox and in Game (Ctrl+F1,2,3,4 etc). Go to Location lets you jump to the locations saved under Remember Location.
Switch Camera	Default Camera is the default camera. Sequence Camera is used when you want to see through the Camera used in a Track View sequence. Selected Camera Object is the camera entity that you have currently selected. Cycle Camera lets you cycle through the above cameras.
Camera Speed Height-Relative	When enabled, adjusts the speed of camera movement based on the height of the camera above terrain or objects. The camera speed is multiplied by the height in meters (clamped to a range of 1-1000). This lets you to precisely move when being closer to the ground, or quickly to different parts of the level, without constantly adjusting the camera speed slider.
Camera Terrain Collisions	Determines whether the camera will collide with the terrain or move through it when moving around in the Viewport (default = off).
Camera Object Collisions	Toggles object collision on and off. When turned on, the camera does not go through objects on the terrain when hitting them, but will always move along them.
Full Screen (Ctrl+Space)	Switches between the windowed mode and the full screen mode.

The Game menu provides commands to enable Game Mode and test newly created AI/physics features.

Menu Item

Description

Game Mode

Switches to Game Mode so that you can play the level within the editor (Ctrl+G).

Press Esc to exit game mode.

Suspend Game Input

Switches to Sandbox control mode while still running the game in the Viewport. This allows users to adjust properties in the Editor while the game is still running.

To enter Game Mode again, click on the Viewport or use the tilde key (~).

Enable Physics/AI

Enables Physics and AI in Edit mode so that users don't need to jump in-game to see how they behave (Ctrl+P).

Audio

Mute Audio: Sets the volume of sounds to 0 in the engine.
Stop All Sounds: Sends a signal to the audio middleware to stop all playing sounds.
Refresh Audio: Reloads all audio data and sends a signal to the audio middleware indicating that the entire audio system is refreshing.

Option

Description

Navigation Update Mode

Controls how and when the NavMesh is updated.

Continuous

NavMeshes are automatically updated in real time while the level is edited.

After Change

NavMeshes are automatically updated when the changes made to a level's geometry have not been registered for a specific duration of time. This duration can be controlled by the ai_NavmeshStabilizationTimeToUpdate CVar (default is 0.3 sec).

Disabled

Automatic updates of NavMeshes are disabled.

To apply the changes made to a level's geometry and to update NavMeshes when Navigation Update Mode has been set to Disabled, use the options of the Game → AI → Regenerate Navigation menu.

If your Editor is running slowly, setting the Navigation Update Mode to Disabled may improve performance.

Regenerate Navigation

Regenerate Pending Changes	Enabling this option updates those parts of NavMeshes that have been changed after the Game → AI → Navigation Update Mode option was set to Disabled.
Regenerate All Layers	Updates the NavMeshes of all Agent Types.
Regenerate AgentTypeName	Only the NavMeshes of the selected Agent Type are updated.

Debug Navigation Agent Type

Lists available Agent Types, allowing users to select those Types for which debug information is displayed in the Viewport. Agent types must be defined in the Scripts/AI/Navigation.xml file of your project.

Visualize Navigation Accessibility

When enabled, accessible areas of a NavMesh are marked blue while unreachable areas are grayed out in the Viewport.

Show Navigation
Areas

When enabled, Navigation Area shapes are displayed in the Viewport.

Generate Cover Surfaces

Regenerates all Cover Surfaces placed in a level.

Please refer to the Navigation (MNM) documentation for more information on Navigation Areas, NavMeshes and Agent Types.

Synchronize Player

Sets the player to the position where the current editing camera is. This can be used to prevent the camera triggering logic such as AreaTriggers while in Editing mode.

This menu contains a great number of debugging options.

Menu Item	Description
Reload Scripts	Provides functions to reload specific (or all) game scripts.
Reload Texture/Shaders	Reloads all textures and shaders used in the level.
Reload Geometry	Reloads geometries used in the level.
Reload Terrain	Initiates the Terrain (can be used instead of reloading the Editor).
Check Level for Errors	Checks the level for errors (duplicate objects, missing assets) and displays a list in the console.
Check Object Positions	Searches for objects that are contained within other objects in the scene.
Resolve Missing Objects/Materials	Will run a check through the level and try to resolve all objects/materials that have problems.
Save Level Statistics	Saves level statistics to the "YOURLEVELNAME.xml" file in the folder: <root>\user\TestResults
Advanced	Compile Script compiles an entity script. Reduce Working Set removes as many pages as possible from the working set of the Sandbox process. Update Procedural Vegetation forces regeneration of procedural vegetation.
Show Log File	Opens an editor.log file.

This menu contains all the different tools that exist within the CRYENGINE Sandbox Editor. These tools have their own pages explaining what they do, which you can find here.

Menu Item	Description
Level Editor	Create Object opens the Create Object tool. Level Explorer opens the Level Explorer. Level Settings opens the Level Settings. Properties opens the Properties tool.
Viewport	Lets you open different Viewports.
Asset Browser	Opens the Asset Browser.
Audio Controls Editor	Opens the Audio Controls Editor tool.
DataBase View	Opens the Database View tool.
Dependency Graph	Opens the Dependency Graph.
Dialog Editor	Opens the Dialog Editor tool.
Dynamic Response System	Opens the Dynamic Response System tool.
Environment Editor	Opens the Environment Editor tool.
Flow Graph	Opens the Flow Graph tool.
Lens Flare Editor	Opens the Lens Flare Editor tool.
LOD Generator	Opens the LOD Generator.
Material Editor	Opens the Material Editor tool.
Mesh Importer	Opens the Mesh Importer tool.
Particle Editor	Opens the Particle Editor tool.
Schematyc Editor	Opens Schematyc tool.
Terrain Editor	Opens the Terrain Editor tool.
Track View	Opens the Track View tool.
Vegetation Editor	Opens the Vegetation Editor tool.
Advanced	Console opens the Console. Notification Center opens the Notification Center. Python Interactive Console opens the Python Interactive Console. Python Scripts opens the Python Scripts tool.
Animation	Character Tool opens the Character Tool. Facial Editor opens the Facial Editor tool. Mannequin Editor opens the Mannequin Editor tool.
Deprecated	Contains several deprecated tools that will be removed in the future and/or merged into other tools.
Designer Tool	Modeling - opens the Modeling tool. UV Mapping - opens the UV Mapping tool.
FBX Import	Opens the FBX Importer tool that loads animations, skeletons, skins and static geometry meshes.
Substance	Substance Archive Graph Editor - opens the Substance Archive Graph Editor. Substance Graph Default Mapping Editor - opens the Substance Graph Default Mapping Editor Substance Instance Editor - opens the Substance Instance Editor
Universal Query System	UQS Editor - opens the UQS Editor. UQS History - opens the UQS History tool.

With this menu, you can save and load several Editor layouts.

Menu Item	Description
Save Layout As...	Saves the Editor layout under a different name.
Load Layout	Lets you load a previously saved layout.
Reset Layout	Resets the Editor layout tot the default settings.

The Help Menu contains version information as well as access to the Tip of the Day dialog box.

Menu Item	Description
Go to Documentation	Opens the http://docs.cryengine.com website in your default browser.
Console Commands	Opens a list of Console commands.
Console Variables	Opens a list of CVars.
About Sandbox	Displays CryENGINE Sandbox Editor version information.

To make it easier for users to find the tool or action that they're looking for, there is a Menu Search option in the top-right corner of the interface:

This search bar lets you look for anything that is located within the Menu Bar and shows you where it is. It works the same way as other search bars in the engine; simply type part of the tool or action you're looking for and it will filter out anything in the Menu Bar with the text that you typed.

Say that you're looking for something with "selection". You type in part of the word and all the menu options with that text in it will be displayed:

When you've found the menu option you're looking for, you can either click on it, or navigate through the list with the Up and Down arrows on your keyboard and press Enter, to execute it.