My (for now) Favorite Shortcut Key Combo...

[Joe Carrick]

Alan, did you know that when you place a door, if you hold the mouse button down when you place it, you can drag the door swing the desired direction?

Nice Tip! Thanks Charlie.

[Kelly K]

Kelly,

have you seen this mouse. Looks like more functionality. I am trying to find one for a better price. Looks like fun.

http://store.razerzone.com/store/raz...ctID.220156700

Yes I have in fact my son had one and I tried it, but I couldn't get used to the side buttons, probably in time. Still a good responsive mouse with low pressure clicks.

The thing is I have 14 buttons that sit under my left hand and 8 on my right, and that is about all my brain can handle.

And yes good tip.

[perryh]

Perry, during the next hour of drafting try to quantify the top 4 commands that you access the most. Then assign hot keys to them that you can do with your left hand easily (if you use your right for the mouse). Write them down on a sticky front an center of your monitor. It should only take about 5 times using the commands before you feel an urgent need to send me $20 for saving you $40 worth of time.

Ok when I get some time I will try some shortcuts, but your list is massive. I don't think my brain has enough size for that. I'm for anything that saves time. I have been putting a lot of things on my toolbars so its very easy to just use the mouse and pick it. With a good toolbar, its just as fast to me but what do I know until I try it.

[Tundara Homes]

sometimes I do wonder if it is any faster to push a key or click a toolbar button. There are times, like when my hand isn't already sitting on the board that the mouse move is faster. Other times, the slide click, slide function, slide click, slide function is just way to much for my wrist to handle and the button pusher gets the job. :Sly:

[Tundara Homes]

here's another one I use a lot. Tab and control are on my mouse, but the keyboard would do the job faster than the menus. If you have the wrong window on the top of the pile and you want to view a different one, press control and tab and you can cycle through the open windows instead of going to window menu tab and picking the one you want. I also slightly offest the windows on my desktop so that most of the tabs are viewable to click on, but once in awhile, in a hurry I don't take the time to line them up and control tabbing works nicely.

[lbuttery]

Charlie:

I placed the N(ext) and P(revious) icons on my toolbar so I can click thru the open windows using the mouse - very fast and convenient

Lew

[Tundara Homes]

Charlie:

I placed the N(ext) and P(revious) icons on my toolbar so I can click thru the open windows using the mouse - very fast and convenient

Lew

mm.. another idea for keyboard pushers. I still think the buttons on my mouse are faster though. My wrist doesn't even move to do the same thing. Both buttons are easily pushed by my thumb.

[perryh]

Looks like the same mouse I have. Performance MX

[Charles Volz]

I am still loving my 58-button X-Key with the following button assignment.


http://www.chieftalk.com/attachment....9&d=1296850810


They also sell a 84-button unit.

[David J. Potter]

I use "CTRL-Tab" to switch between active windows

I use "CTRL-S" (save all, I also use F3 which is the same command)

I of course use "CTRL-C" (copy)

CTRL-V (paste)

Those are the main ones I have adopted so far.

Each of us develops our own style and it is well that Chief offers the ability to customize our modes of operation.

DJP

[HumbleChief]

I use "CTRL-Tab" to switch between active windows

I use "CTRL-S" (save all, I also use F3 which is the same command)

I of course use "CTRL-C" (copy)

CTRL-V (paste)

Those are the main ones I have adopted so far.

Each of us develops our own style and it is well that Chief offers the ability to customize our modes of operation.

DJP

I use CTRL-C and V as well but in Chief CTRL-V demands you paste the object in a new location then move it into position.

"Copy and paste in place" allows that new object to be moved along either the vertical or horizontal axis and remain aligned with the original object.

Perfect for CAD work where you need a quick 'Cross Box' aligned above an original to create a double top plate. Or any other object that you want to align with its original.

2 or 3 rectangular polylines that stack like a 2D Steel I beam in CAD? Draw 1 box, CTRL - Q, drag the handles of the new object they align perfectly with original, CTRL -Q again there's the third box perfectly aligned as well.

Not ideal for every copy but in CAD when you need to preserve the original's alignment it's really slick and very fast. YMMV of course.

[SkagitDesign]

A, as in "A". I have it mapped to Pan instead of the middle mouse. I use it all the time.

[Bradley Boltz]

Sorry to say ,I don't use shortcuts. I just can't remember them all.

Don't be sorry Perry, when Apple obtained (pretty much stole it for $50k) their first Graphical User Interface from Xerox in the late '70's we were forever saved from Bill Gate's DOS.

My brain can only remember a few and if you're away from the program for awhile, I don't know how you would remember a couple dozen keyboard shortcuts. I know a guy using Archicad that uses his mouse very little. He's young but man, when you hit your mid-fifties and start having senior moments, uhhhhhh was that "ctrl R+?

I like to keep me hands on me mouse as much as possible as it "feels" more like drawing with your hands and that's the beauty of programs like Chief. You can use short-cuts and your keyboard like Autocadders have had to do for years or you can draw with your mouse.

Using your mouse and then familiarizing yourself with all the onscreen menus and icons allows you to keep your "heads up on the display". Kind of like paying more attention to the road than the dashboard when driving.
Also, the icon keys your brain to the function needed and reminds you when you forget by just passing your cursor over it for a "written discription" of the function.

More power to the guys that can use the shortcuts but not for me. BB

[Joe Carrick]

So.....

How many remember the days of tablet menus?

At least one system I used had a user defined table menu that would execute a macro to perform a series of commands with just a single mouse click. Virtually any set of keyboard inputs could be assigned to a menu item. It was nice because you could put a picture of the macro function on the tablet just like we now have menubars.

Of course it required a tablet where we now use buttons on menubars. But wouldn't it be great if we could define such macros and assign them to our own menu buttons?

[lbuttery]

Brad:

I'm with you

Lew