ShortCuts

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cadcam
Posts: 273
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:39 am

Re: ShortCuts

Post by cadcam »

Dear Triplus,

I wondered if you could help with my understanding re using the Shortcuts addition, I have been using it to generate what I find a start of a consistent set of shortcuts, see https://forum.freecadweb.org/download/f ... ?id=114887

Apologies if this has been discussed else where but I haven't yet found anything, here or on Github.

1) I started (re-)defining in all my shortcuts in the Global shortcuts section area in the Accessories -> Shortcuts.

2) Initially this seemed to work with the shortcut preceeded by a green dot icon, the command in the specific wb preceeded by a yellow dot.

3) Recently almost all the shortcuts in 'Global' have changed to indicate both a green and yellow dot icon. Checking through the wb submenus I can't find any green or other green/yellow indicators.
[NB Most seem to be related to the same operation in different areas, but I have found 1 where the shortcut is now defined to two functions VT - View Top (my definition) and Selection on Top - I am not sure where the Selection on Top is defined as every entry I have found has a yellow dot]

4) Printing the list shows two entries for each of the shortcuts

Have I done something wrong?
Have I managed to redefine each twice in global? If yes, is it possible to simplify things without having to start all over again?


Can I say that having a central shortcut area is excellent, thank you for your work on this.

A couple of suggestions, I am not sure how much work it would be to implement

a) When the list is printed in clude a column indicating which menu (Global or wb) is the parent (**)

b) Would it be possible to reverse the operation, e.g. load/(re)define shortcuts from a .ods (or .xls) [Ideal as can generate a nicely formated sheet for new users ] Alternatively .csv/txt with #Comment lines. This would enable a user to generatre their own structured shortcut profile, perhaps starting with individual sheets/text areas listing all available commands

(**) To produce handout documents similar to linked earlier having the option to the associated icon name would be useful for automated generation.

Thank you once again for your work on the centralised shortcuts and I hope the concept becomes central to FC and able to be full incorprated with other work that allows customisation of the UI.
AKielhorn
Posts: 24
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2020 9:38 am

Re: ShortCuts

Post by AKielhorn »

This reminds me of the time I learned CAD in the 90s.

Could you please upload your configuration for others to test and comment on its usefulness?

And can you upload the source document for the description?
I would like to add a german translation.

Greetings
Axel
cadcam
Posts: 273
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:39 am

Re: ShortCuts

Post by cadcam »

Dear Axel,

If the post is aimed at me, yes was planning to. The example linked was a early draft written a while ago and I have been updating it quite a bit and trying to get my head around (a) how to produce drawings to ISO/BS8888 more easily and (b) which assembly WB to run with. The documentation is now driven from a spreadsheet through Latex, and I am now extending it to drive the user.cfg file to aid with maintaining a consistent system. Once that is done I was going to put it up for people to criticise and probably rubbish. The spread sheet has the hooks to allow for different languages as well (as well as different icons themes), so happy to help. There is a slight issue that the shortcuts, they are designed to be primarily English Mnemonic and for a person using the left hand end of the keyboard (e.g. Mouse normally in right hand). I will look at what will happen with German & French translation/keyboards

Regards
AKielhorn
Posts: 24
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2020 9:38 am

Re: ShortCuts

Post by AKielhorn »

Hello cadcam,

thanks for your reply.
cadcam wrote: Sun Jul 05, 2020 7:01 pm The example linked was a early draft written a while ago and I have been updating it quite a bit and trying to get my head around

(a) how to produce drawings to ISO/BS8888 more easily and
For obvious reasons I more of a DIN guy.
(b) which assembly WB to run with.
That's a decision I have to make in the near future. I'm on 0.19 and right now experimenting with Assembly3.
The documentation is now driven from a spreadsheet through Latex, and I am now extending it to drive the user.cfg file to aid with maintaining a consistent system.
With ConTeXt and LuaTeX you can directly process the xml in user.cfg.
Have a look at https://github.com/AKielhorn/Prozessbeschreibung for inspiration.
Once that is done I was going to put it up for people to criticise and probably rubbish. The spread sheet has the hooks to allow for different languages as well (as well as different icons themes), so happy to help. There is a slight issue that the shortcuts, they are designed to be primarily English Mnemonic and for a person using the left hand end of the keyboard (e.g. Mouse normally in right hand).
In the old days I had the mouse in my left hand to better access the numeric keys with my right hand. But in the meantime I have changed back.
I will look at what will happen with German & French translation/keyboards
I'm using FreeCAD in english since most tutorial are in english.
I prefer a consistent set of shortcuts to translated versions.
Everyone remembers CTRL-P for "Drucken", no need to translate that to CTRL-D (One company did that and created havoc since no standard shortcut was working.)

Greetings
Axel
cadcam
Posts: 273
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:39 am

Re: ShortCuts

Post by cadcam »

Dear Axel,

Some quick comments,
- Are you still working to DIN6 or infact DIN equivalent of ISO 128 (BS8888)? My experience with TechDraw is that fully matching any standard is still to come. Wonderfan et al are doing a great job but it is big job, so I am looking at possibly putting in macros to achieve certain layouts which can be changed as the base technology advances.

- Assembly is a little problematic, I hope that some combination can evolve in the near future. I think that Assembly4 has some milage, seen commercial systems with a combination of 3 & 4. Making a well laid out drawing with auto-updating cross sections/auxillary view may take a little work at present.

- interesting project, have done something automatically pre-processed by BBCBasic or Perl. But I thn found it was a rod for my back to maintain which is the reason I had moved to more being done in a spreadsheet and then simply automatically loaded into LaTex. Seems easier for users to understand/modify, but can cause issues by dabbling.

-Fully understand the issue re shortcut consistancy.

Will update trial shortly, trying to get a nice set of robust macros and UI to non-standard functions.

Best Wishes
AKielhorn
Posts: 24
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2020 9:38 am

Re: ShortCuts

Post by AKielhorn »

Hello cadcam,

to be honest I should probably read ISO 128 and see how it compares to the things I learned in the 80s.
I already did the change from DIN 7168 to DIN ISO 2768 and from DIN 6784 to DIN ISO 13715.
In the end it is easiest to accept what the CAD program is offering, that's probably close enough.
cadcam wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 8:51 am Will update trial shortly, trying to get a nice set of robust macros and UI to non-standard functions.
That sounds good. I will definitely try that and refrain from defining my own shortcuts until then.

Greetings
Axel
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