CA is pretty clever with shortcuts

[KristjanM]

So as I'm learning CA, I'm looking at shortcuts. These are so important. I watched a video and the presenter mentioned a two letter shortcut. In all the softwares I've used, you cannot have a two letter shortcut (except Revit which uses two letter combinations for all shortcuts). I'm not talking about two key shortcuts  such as ones which involve ctrl or alt etc.. So experimenting a bit, give a shortcut of TX to text. Works fine. Give a shortcut of TR to rich text. Works fine. Change text back to T... Chief won't allow a single and double letter shortcut to start with the same letter. Smart Chief programmers. So...thinking of incorporating this with single letters for the most used commands and two letters for other things. I basically hate any shortcut which involves ctrl or alt. When I was using Revit, I really liked the two letter combinations. Chief has the added bonus of also allowing the single key use. Anyone using a similar strategy?

[Alaskan_Son]

2 hours ago, KristjanM said:

So...thinking of incorporating this with single letters for the most used commands and two letters for other things.

 

I know a good handful of users here like to use sequential hotkeys, @glennw in particular has mentioned this quite a few times.  Maybe Glenn or one of the other guys will chime in.  I would however tell you from experience that using both single letters and 2 letters can be a notable pain since the use of a letter in one will preclude the other from functioning properly.  In my opinion you should either use all sequential or all simultaneous...one or the other and not both.  It might start out fine but once your system grows, the aforementioned problems will just get worse.

[KristjanM]

Good point. Another's experience is always useful. I will have to think further about this.

[Steve-C]

I use the heck out of hotkeys. Once I committed to that practice probably 15 years ago, it cut my design time down considerably.

[glennw]

I grew up with Generic Cad which had sequential shortcuts from the beginning - I can't remember how long ago, but it was a long time ago.

I like to think that it was partly my lobbying way back when, that helped to steer Chief towards adopting sequential shortcuts.

I could never understand how those cumbersome and illogical simultaneous "shortcuts" could be considered useful - you needed to be a gymnast to execute them and a rain-man  to even remember them.

 I stick to mostly 2 letter sequential shortcuts with a splattering of 3 letter sequential.

I find that this covers a large percentage of the most commonly used commands.

ie

3D View Defaults 3DD

Perspective Full Overview 3DP

Perspective Framing Overview 3DF

 

The 2 letter shortcuts make it easy to assign logical shortcuts and retain ease of use.

ie

Save SA

Line LI

Grid Snaps GS

Layer Eyedropper  LE

Material Eyedropper ME

Layer Properties LP

Object Snaps OS

 

I would never assign a shortcut to a single key because as you point out, this limits the use of that letter to start another shortcut.

I would never use a combination of sequential and simultaneous shortcuts - that's just getting too cumbersome as the simultaneous shortcuts usually require at least 2 hands to execute.

2 letter shortcuts are easy and quick to execute - one hand on the keyboard and one hand on the mouse.

 

I recommend that you try 2 letter shortcuts to start and see how they go.

You will quickly run out of possibilities if you use single key shortcuts. 

[KristjanM]

glennw,

 

I was actually introduced to 2 letter shortcuts in Revit. Previously, I  had only used Autocad which set the standard for my expectations. I adjusted to the Revit method and grew to embrace it. I find it much easier to remember the letters for a particular command when you have two letters. I think the easiest solution  to the quickest keystrokes for the most used commands is to repeat the first letter for the second letter. Quick enough to push the same key twice and you don't have to move around the keyboard. I did read some of your old posts about this subject. Interesting. Thanks for your comments.

Lots to discover in Chief for me. The more I find, the more I like it.

[para-CAD]

Stream Deck or even better, Touch Portal, is great for automating things including app-specific shortcut keys (hot keys)

[DRAWZILLA]

15 hours ago, para-CAD said:

Stream Deck or even better, Touch Portal, is great for automating things including app-specific shortcut keys (hot keys)

thanks for the info, I just purchased one.  I never used hotkeys, but I will use this.

[KristjanM]

I use Stream Deck in my other programs. Where the shortcuts involve ctrl, alt, etc, this is a great tool.

[Renerabbitt]

Adding to this as I've done extensive shortcut mods over the years.
You can get some really trick setups if you set your hot keys up to take advantage of modifiers such as ctrl, shift, or ctrl+shift on a mouse that properly executes rollover/jamming
Keep in mind there are a few key combinations that cause problem with this methodology. Here are my current keybinds:

[DRAWZILLA]

15 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

Adding to this as I've done extensive shortcut mods over the years.
You can get some really trick setups if you set your hot keys up to take advantage of modifiers such as ctrl, shift, or ctrl+shift on a mouse that properly executes rollover/jamming
Keep in mind there are a few key combinations that cause problem with this methodology. Here are my current keybinds:

nice setup Rene, my problem is that in my old age, and having neuropathy in my fingertips, the mouse with all the buttons just don't work for me anymore, and I sometimes will hit the wrong keyboard keys also, so everything takes me longer to do.  I'm waiting for a thought process to be invented. at least my brain still works.

[Renerabbitt]

42 minutes ago, DRAWZILLA said:

I'm waiting for a thought process to be invented

Most of these buttons are on my thumb, is that still problematic?

[DRAWZILLA]

yep, I can't feel them without looking at the buttons