What Is the Hypergraph
The Hypergraph is, in its essence, a hypertext-like view of your scene (thus the name). If you have worked with an HTML authoring tool, you will recognize the web-like appearance of linked objects in the Hypergraph. Every element visible in a scene is represented by a text box, and any linked objects have a line that connects them together, showing their connection in the scene. Passing your cursor over the line, younll see which elements of each object are connected. Besides displaying the relationships between objects and elements in a scene, the Hypergraph also lets you create or modify those relationshipsnfor example, you can parent two objects together or break an input connection directly in the Hypergraph, rather than having to go to the scene window or Relationship Editor. In essence, the Hypergraph is your scenenyou can do pretty much everything you can do in a scene window, and more, only itns represented as text boxes instead of the objects you would see in the scene windows.
Note The types of objects visible in a scene depend on the filtering choices younve made using the Hypergraphns Options > Display menu.
The Outliner is exactly what its name implies: an outline of your scene. While you can perform many useful functions in the Outliner, almost all of these can be performed as easily (or more so) in the Hypergraph, and the Hypergraph allows you to do many tasks that are impossible in the Outliner. While the Outliner is, for most people, easier to understand at first, the Hypergraph is actually much more aligned with the way Maya works, as it is organized around navigation and connection conventions used throughout Maya. Thus, once you get accustomed to using the Hypergraph, it will seem much more natural than the Outliner as a means of getting around your scene.
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