Changes to Sketcher keyboard shortcuts [Discussion thread]

[Bance]

I have copied a list of Sketcher keyboard shortcuts from the wiki, and gone through them to test if they work.

Results are here:-

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

If anybody knows of any not listed, or any that don't work on a different platform/whatever please add a comment to the doc above.

The purpose of this thread is to try to achieve some consensus as to what should be changed to what. The main causes for concern appear to be the double letter SC's don't work. Super keys (Shift/Ctrl/Alt/windows/whatever) and combinations of these seem to be the preferred method of dealing with this type of issue else where in FC.

There are bound to be suggestions that conflict with other SC's in the global/workbench scope. We will need to try and work around these.

Suggestions, are most welcome

Link to thread that spawned this one:-

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 42#p507242

[openBrain]

May be of interest : https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic. ... 20#p416707

[Bance]

Yes, very useful. Thank you.

[chrisb]

I would like to hear some voices on your workflow, before discussing a concrete proposal. For my way of working this could be a general strategy:

- the first letter of the command would be a natural shortcut

- I use shortcuts mostly for (geometric) constraints, thus I would like to invoke them with a single key

- Next come the dimensions; I can imagine to invoke them with a shift modifier. If the first letter is unique it could be used additionally without the modifier

- The geometric elements could be invoked with another modifier, e.g. the control key.

[Bance]

From my testing and as is shown in the spreadsheet, double letters do not function at all.

Can they be made to work, so they can be used in a new schema?

Of course they work elsewhere in FC.

EDIT. Correction.

[Bance]

I tend to use the polyline tool, or shapes and trim tool, when sketching.

Therefore I agree that geometric constraints should take priority for single letter SC's.

Perhaps Dimension constraints could have a 'D' modifier. (D,V / D.H etc.)

Shift for non unique geometries, and Ctrl or Ctrl+Shift for sketcher tools.

Can we hear from others as to whether this is a sound strategy?

[Syres]

double letters do not function at all.

Can they be made to work

I'm going to be careful how I word this as to not offend the Sketcher developer(s), there is nothing specific to the Sketcher Wb that affects the use of double letter shortcuts, IMHO it's just that the strategy of allocating them in the first place could have been thought out better with regard to the first letter. In my simple logic, the first letter of a double letter SC surely has to be unique across the whole app not just the Wb you're working in?



Purely from a personal standpoint, I don't use any shortcuts in Sketcher and only a handful in FC because my brain can't handle having a significant number of Blender SC's and then having to learn/unlearn similar functions in FC. The use of Ctrl, Shift & Alt in Blender is something that I wasn't enamored with initially but it's just muscle memory now.

[Bance]

as to not offend the Sketcher developer(s)

That's sort of the reason we're discussing this, there is a will to sort things out, but whenever there is change there is resistance.

[openBrain]

I don't like much using Ctrl in WB shortcuts as it is generally used for application wide functions.

Remember that as soon as you set up a double key shortcut, the first one can't be assigned anymore (as a single key shortcut) as it would prevent the former to operate.

Also be aware that as of today, all loaded workbenches (ie. all workbenches that have been accessed at least once during the session) got all their commands loaded in the application space, and thus new conflicts can arise when new workbenches are open.

[Bance]

I don't like much using Ctrl in WB shortcuts as it is generally used for application wide functions.

Does that mean that the current Sketcher tools SC's (which are Ctrl-Shift based,) should be changed?