F1 – Opens 3D Max Reference (Help)
Depending on the feature you are currently working with, it may take you directly to the main help page regarding that feature.
F2 – Shade selected faces toggle
When you are in polygon sub-object level and select one or more polygons, they will be shaded entirely (red) by default, like this:
When you press the F2 key you can toggle between the default setting and having only the edges turn red for select faces/polygons, as shown below. This can be very useful when you have complex models.
When you press the F2 key you can toggle between the default setting and having only the edges turn red for select faces/polygons, as shown below. This can be very useful when you have complex models.
F3 – Toggle between Wireframe and Smooth + Highlights
By default, a viewport in 3D Studio MAX will show objects as wireframes. Instead of right-clicking the viewport and choosing Smooth + Highlights to show the shaded object, you can simply press the F3 key to set a viewport to Smooth + Highlights as shown below, or back to Wireframe.
F4 – View Edged Faces
As you can see in the picture above, when you switch to Smooth + Highlights, 3D Studio MAX will not show the edges of the faces. By pressing the F4 key, you can have the object display the edges of all faces, regardless of whether they are selected:
The following two are usually the first two keys I press when starting with a default empty scene:
G – Hide/Show Grid
Unless you actually need the grid (e.g. to snap to), it can get in the way. The G key allows you to hide or show it.
J – Show Selection Bracket Toggle
The reason for using this key is similar to using the G key. By default, 3D Studio MAX shows a selection bracket around each select object (unless the viewport is in Wireframe mode). This can become very annoying, but can easily be removed by pressing the J key.
The following four keys are amongst the first I suggest you start using:
Q – Select
Enables the Select tool:
W – Select and Move
Enables the Select and Move tool:
E – Select and Rotate
Enables the Select and Rotate tool:
R – Select and Scale
Enables the Select and Scale tool:
H – Select by Name
Opens the Select by name dialog. This dialog shows a list with all visible objects in the scene. When you need to attach or link objects for example, and there are many objects in the scene, selecting by name can make things a lot easier.
CTRL-A – Select all
CTRL-D – Deselect all
Spacebar – Selection Lock toggle
This key can be useful sometimes, but annoying more often. When you try to select a certain object and a different object remains selected, press the Spacebar key because you probably already hit it by accident and ‘locked your selection’.
1 to 5 – Sub-object level X
This is another good example of a real timesaver. Instead of using the mouse button to select a sub-object level of an Editable Poly for example, you can press one of the following keys.
1 – Vertex
2 – Edge
3 – Border
4 – Polygon
5 – Element
These allows you to quickly change between the sub-object levels, e.g. move a vertex, than scale a polygons, chamfer a line, etc.
7 – Polygon counter
The 7 key allows you to display a polygon counter in the upper left of the upper left viewport:
8 – Open Environment and Effects Dialog
Viewport Hotkeys
F – Switch to the Front viewport
T – Switch to the Top viewport
L – Switch to the Left viewport
R – Switch to the Right viewport
P – Switch to the Perspective viewport
B – Switch to the Bottom viewport
C – Switch to a Camera viewport
CTRL-C – Create camera from viewport
Creates a new Camera, work only on Perspective viewports.
V – Open view shortcut menu
Allows you to pick a view from a list (using another key again of course). For example, press the V key and then the K key for Back view.
Z – Zooms in on the current selection
CTRL-X – Toggle Expert mode
Removes command panels, toolbars, etc. and leaves you only with viewports. Don’t even think about using this unless you know your hotkeys. 
ALT-Q – Isolate Object
Isolates the object you selected and hides all others. This is a great feature for when you work with a scene or object consisting of many individual objects. Unfortunately, it does not work for sub-object selections such as a group of polygons. If you got used to hiding and unhiding objects, this option will definitely save you a lot of time.
O – Adaptive Degradation Toggle
Shows objects as boxes while moving, rotating, zooming on viewport to increase viewport performance. I hardly ever use this one, but it’s one of those darn keys you may hit by accident and wonder what the heck is going on with your objects.
X – Transform Gizmo Toggle
Another good example of a key you may hit by accident and wonder why you cannot move, scale, rotate, etc. anymore. Pressing X will change the gizmo from
to: 
D – Disables the viewport
Although this one can be useful, it is also one I occasionally press by accident. Press the D key again to disable/enable the viewport.
Shift-Z / Shift-Y – Undo /Redo viewport operation
Undo operations such as switching to a different view, rotating, zooming or moving through viewport.
+ and – – Increase/decrease Gizmo size
The following are three rendering related hotkeys I used the most:
F9 – Render last rendered viewport, or, in case of the first render, render selected viewport.
Shift-Q – Quick render, renders selected viewport.
F10 – Opens the Render Scene window allowing you to set rendering options.
M – Opens the Material Editor
CTRL-V – Clone object
Although holding down the Shift key and moving, rotating, or scaling an object also allows you to create a clone, by using CTRL-V you can create a clone on the exact same location and of the same size as the original.
Alt-X – Display As See-Through Toggle
By pressing the ALT-X keys you can display an object as see-through, partly transparent. This is useful for when you need to see the model sheet/reference/blueprint or other models/geometry through it.
The following three are useful for while working with an Editable Poly:
Alt-L – Select Edge Loop
This is the same as pressing the Loop button in the Editable Poly section when you are in Edge sub-object level.
ALT-C – Cut
Enables the Cut tool, which you can use to draw edges on polygons.
SHIFT -E / ALT-E – Extrude poly
Enable the Extrude tool.
The hotkeys mentioned in this tutorial are just a small subset of the available hotkeys in 3D Studio MAX. And additional or different hotkeys can be available depending on what features you are using. If you search for Default Keyboard Shortcuts in the 3D Studio MAX user reference, you should be able to find a complete overview.
In addition to the default keyboard shortcuts, you can use the following procedure to create a custom keyboard shortcut:
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