Keyboard Shortcuts

[Ozzie]

Hi all,

Has anyone else had this problem with VW 12? I use VWLMRW 12.5.2

The keyboard shortcut for the Eyedropper tool is Alt+E - when I hit Alt+E my Edit Menu opens - checked my Workspace and all is ok in there - Alt+E is set for the Eyedropper tool

So - Alt+F ? File Menu opens ? Alt+V ? View menu opens ? Alt+M Modify menu opens - Alt+A - AEC menu opens ? Alt+T ? Tools menu opens - etc

VW12 ? Help ? Keyboard Shortcuts says Alt+Shift+E is for the Eyedropper Tool ? tried that and it opens the Edit Menu too.

What is the short cut for Eyedropper Tool ? Al+E or Alt+Shift+E?

Also on my Windows XP machine this happens for all of the Alts above ? Alt+Shift+ letters as in Alt+ letters above opens all of my Menu items

Another VW 12 Help says for Quarter Arc Tool Alt+3 whereas when I hover my mouse over the tool ? I get 3 as the shortcut.

I have been using 3 as that shortcut anyway - strange though that Help says something different.

[Keith Hadland]

Yep, same problem - I just redefined the Eyedropper shortcut but it is disappointing that the official shortcut is unusable as shipped.

3 is the standard shortcut for the general arc tool, Alt+3 works for the 1/4 arc tool on my machine (win XP/VW 12.5.2 Landmark/Renderworks)

[Guest]

Alt+ any underlined letter in a menu will bring up the associative menu. It's an OS function that can be disabled (but I personally don't recommend it because it's a rather handy function, especially in other programs)

Use the workspace editor to remap another letter (not underlined by a main menu) or some other keyboard shortcut.

I'll send a note to the team internally to resolve this in future versions. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank you for reporting!

[Ozzie]

Keith,

Thanks for your confirmation.

Katie,

Thanks - apparently it happens in VW 2008 to on a Windows machine.

[Guest]

Alt and a letter in any software will invoke the menu as long as the OS setting is enabled.

[Ozzie]

Katie,

In your post above you say - 'Alt and a letter in any software will invoke the menu as long as the OS setting is enabled'

Do you know how to turn the setting on or off in Windows XP Pro?

[Guest]

I'll look into a little bit later on. I think it's in system settings somewhere.

[Ozzie]

Katie,

Sorry hit the wrong key - maybe you can get rid of the above post.

We are just wondering if it is possible to turn it off / on in XP and Vista.

Apparently it is ok on a MAC but XP and Vista are not.

[Ozzie]

Katie,

I found this Microsoft KB article

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310417

If you scroll down a bit it says this -

'A keyboard shortcut does not work if it conflicts with a keyboard combination that is used in the program that is currently active'

I think Alt+ whatever letter opening the Windows menu items are probably useful and should stay as they are.

Maybe the simplest thing is if NNA announces a new shortcut for the Eye Dropper tool and leave the Alt+ letters as they are for Windows users.

I prefer to use the NNA defaults rather than change them.

I did not know about these Windows shortcuts until last week when I discovered this and will use them in Windows moving forward.

Another good one as an example is Alt+Tab to shift between active Windows

Edited September 23, 2007 by CruisinLong

[Guest]

The good news about VectorWorks is, you can choose whatever shortcut you want for the tool. You don't need NNA to declare it for you.

In the interim, switch it to some other letter (not designated by a menu) until an update including this fix is available.

[Ozzie]

Katie,

There is lots of software out there that allows a user to choose there own keyboard shortcuts.

So we have to shuffle through all the already assigned VW keyboard shortcuts and be certain to choose none of them but a unique one - that is possible.

And then too maybe be certain that the one we choose is not a Windows shortcut too that just may happen to work in VW as well.

Again from the Microsoft KB article

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310417

Which again says -

If you scroll down a bit it says this -

'A keyboard shortcut does not work if it conflicts with a keyboard combination that is used in the program that is currently active'

Question is - How come - and are there any others?

From a post above I asked -

In your post above you say - 'Alt and a letter in any software will invoke the menu as long as the OS setting is enabled'

Do you know how to turn the setting on or off in Windows XP Pro?

To which you replied -

I'll look into a little bit later on. I think it's in system settings somewhere.

Did you find out how to do this?

Generally what I find interesting is this - many VW users one would imagine use VW keyboard shortcuts to do things. That being true how come few have discovered this issue with the Eyedropper Tool?

[Guest]

Well, I didn't look into because you had noted that you'll probably keep the OS setting on.

You can use just about any keyboard combination you want. If another tool in VW is used by that keyboard shortcut, a dialog pops up letting you know the shortcut is in use by another tool/menu and which tool/menu it's used by. Then it asks if you want to keep the original shortcut, or use it for the current tool/menu selection.

The only issues I see on Windows is using Alt + F E V M O A T W H, or any other menus in your current workspace underlined in the menus.

Other than that, you can use any other keyboard combination.

I expect most people have changed the eyedropper tool shortcut to something else, or people generally simply click on the tool rather than use a shortcut. And, it's a Windows-only issue.

[Ray Libby]

I checked into a little and I don't think you can disable Atl+key shortcuts in windows.

[jan15]

But with a macro utility, like Keyboard Express, you can override the system and re-assign any key, including the alt-keys that the system assigns to pull-down menus.