Temporary activation for tools other than Pan Tool

[Christiaan]

You know how you can click and hold the space bar to activate the Pan Tool until you release it, is there any way to do this with the other tools as well, such as the Zoom Tool?

[alanmac]

Hi

Do you mean like holding ctrl and pressing 1 or 2 to zoom in and out whilst using another tool.

Alan

Edited January 17, 2007 by alanmac

[Christiaan]

(or command on a Mac)

Yeah, that's not bad, but you have no control over where you actually zoom to.

What I had in mind was a key that activated the Zoom In or Out, at which point you could draw a marquee to zoom, and then when you're done with zooming simply release the key you were holding (just as you would with the Space Bar for the Pan Tool).

At the moment all I know of is C and V shortcuts to switch to Zoom In and Out, but then you've got to click something to go back to the tool you were using.

[alanmac]

Yes command on Mac, of course.

You do have some control, for example if I'm using this function when using the rotate tool it zooms in or out to the point were the cursor/indicator is on the drawing for more accurate alignment and new location point.

Alan

[Ray Libby]

Hold down the space bar, press C to zoom or any others shortcut. When you release the space bar the previous tool will return.

[G_Hannigan]

The space bar can be used to toggle other tools that have a key (or combination of keys). Press Space then C (Zoom), the Pan symbol appears when you hit the space bare & is replaced by the magnifying glass. Hold them down, zoom, click & release. You will return to the previous function. The constraint seem to be what you can remember & manual dexterity.

[alanmac]

Ray and George are of course correct Spacebar C gives you Zoom In, Spacebar V gives you Zoom Out and it does give you the marquee option you talked about.

The two methods seem to replicate the same two ways the zooming functions work in the main workspace, by marquee in the tool palette and by steps in the little view bar.

Quote "The constraint seem to be what you can remember & manual dexterity." So true George so true.

Alan

Edited January 17, 2007 by alanmac

[Jonathan Pickup]

as long as you hold down the space bar, you can use any tool that has a hot key.

So, you could hold down the space bar, hit key 2, draw a line, then release the space bar and be back at the toll you were in before you used the space bar.

[alanmac]

Jonathan

I was looking through the manual I have and can find the shortcut keys listed. Am I missing something, are the hotkeys the ones on their own, is there a list somewhere of "hotkeys" or is it a case of looking in the workspace editor, to see them in some way there.

I guess you could do trial and error and note them down.

Alan

[G_Hannigan]

I don't know if there is a difference between a hotkey & a shortcut, but the technique above will work with tools that require multiple keys (Alt + 4, Rnd Rect). This is where the manual dexterity comes in.

If you have Smart Cursor Cues enabled, the shortcut will display when you hover the pointer over the tool.

Edited January 17, 2007 by G_Hannigan

[Guest]

I printed the keyboard short cuts from Help, laminated them back to back and now have something to sit a cup of tea or coffee on

[Christiaan]

Hold down the space bar, press C to zoom or any others shortcut. When you release the space bar the previous tool will return.

Bingo, thanks Ray and others.

I printed the keyboard short cuts from Help, laminated them back to back and now have something to sit a cup of tea or coffee on

Good idea Darrell. Although I know a lot of advanced tools in VectorWorks, sometimes I'm very lacking in the lower level stuff that's been there for ages, because, well, I haven't been around for ages.