Plea to alter a keystroke

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Mikerosen
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Plea to alter a keystroke

Post by Mikerosen »

I've gotten used to most of the keystroke shortcuts. The only one that really bothers me is the A for the arrow key. Since the icon for the text tool is a capital A, it's a bit misleading. Could you please either change or add ESC as a return to the arrow key/selection tool?

Also, is there any way other than clicking with the mouse, to confirm and set an object? Have I been doing it wrong for all this time?
Mike Rosen
Seattle, WA, USA

Mac OS Ventura 13.1, iOS 11.4.1 on iPad Pro
Eric Pousse
Posts: 1064
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:31 pm
Location: Tours - France

Re: Plea to alter a keystroke

Post by Eric Pousse »

Bonjour Mike,

Yes I can add the Esc key to return to the selection tool, good idea.

I don't understand what you mean by "confirm and set an object".
Can you explain more please?

Thanks.
Eric Pousse
debenriver
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Re: Plea to alter a keystroke

Post by debenriver »

Hi Mike

Excellent idea to use the Esc key to get back to the selection arrow!

Perhaps A could select the Text tool and then X could select the Cutting Tool ....

Cheers -- George
Mikerosen
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Re: Plea to alter a keystroke

Post by Mikerosen »

Eric,
What I mean is this: i want to draw a rectangle, 2 x 4. I tap the R key, click, drag, and release. I go to the Edit frame, enter my numbers, and tap the Enter key. To my mind, that should be the end of the operation. But unless I click with the mouse, that rectangle is still active. Tapping the Enter key (or ESC, to go back to the selection tool) should "set" that rectangle, so I can move on to draw another one, or switch tools.

The same with the text tool. I want to enter my text, and use the Enter or ESC keys to end the text entry. Now, I find myself tapping the A key, with the result that I have a couple of a's on my document!

Thanks for all your help, and willingness to listen and try new thngs!
Last edited by Mikerosen on Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
Mike Rosen
Seattle, WA, USA

Mac OS Ventura 13.1, iOS 11.4.1 on iPad Pro
Mikerosen
Posts: 339
Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:16 pm
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Contact:

Re: Plea to alter a keystroke

Post by Mikerosen »

debenriver wrote:Hi Mike

Excellent idea to use the Esc key to get back to the selection arrow!

Perhaps A could select the Text tool and then X could select the Cutting Tool ....

Cheers -- George
Great suggestions, particularly a shortcut for the Cutting Tool. I use that a lot, too.
Mike Rosen
Seattle, WA, USA

Mac OS Ventura 13.1, iOS 11.4.1 on iPad Pro
Eric Pousse
Posts: 1064
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:31 pm
Location: Tours - France

Re: Plea to alter a keystroke

Post by Eric Pousse »

Bonjour Mike,
Mikerosen wrote:What I mean is this: i want to draw a rectangle, 2 x 4. I tap the R key, click, drag, and release. I go to the Edit frame, enter my numbers, and tap the Enter key. To my mind, that should be the end of the operation. But unless I click with the mouse, that rectangle is still active.
You might want to change its color or kind of line or etc... but what if RealCADD deselects it automatically?
Mikerosen wrote:But unless I click with the mouse, that rectangle is still active. Tapping the Enter key (or ESC, to go back to the selection tool) should "set" that rectangle, so I can move on to draw another one, or switch tools.
Mike, you can begin to draw a new object when another is selected, with the same or another tool. There is no problem.
But there is a difference :
- When you begin to draw without another object selected, the new one will have the default parameters (color, line width, etc...) = the last modified or displayed,
- If you begin to draw with an object selected, the new one will have the same parameters (because there are the last displayed).
Mikerosen wrote:The same with the text tool. I want to enter my text, and use the Enter or ESC keys to end the text entry. Now, I find myself tapping the A key, with the result that I have a couple of a's on my document!
This works of course also with the text tool. You can create a new text by a click with the tool while the previous text is edited.
RealCADD is not Autocad but is made on Mac, therefore the user is free.
Mikerosen wrote:Thanks for all your help, and willingness to listen and try new thngs!
Thanks to you!

Cordialement.
Eric Pousse
debenriver
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Re: Plea to alter a keystroke

Post by debenriver »

Hi Mike

Normally you just move on to drawing the next object, which automatically de-selects the previous object, But it will draw the next object with the attributes (line weight, colour, dashes, arrows, etc.) of the previous object. You can start drawing the new object simply by hitting its shortcut on the keyboard.

If you want your new object to be drawn with different attributes from the previous one, then you do need to de-select the previous object before drawing the new one. Or you draw it as usual (which automatically de-selects the previous object) and then change its attributes.

The only pain-in-the-butt object is Text, where, if you hit the keyboard shortcut without totally deselecting text first, you get more letters (usually, up until now anyway, aaaa's as you say), or if you hit the Enter key you get a return – neither of which you want! The only keyboard way out at the moment is to hit "function-enter" – function is the bottom left-hand key on the keyboard, labelled "fn". This is because on most laptops the Enter key and the Return key have been combined. fn-enter returns a true "Enter" (execute a function), whereas Enter actually returns a "Return" (originally carriage return and line feed, from typewriter days). Hitting fn-enter frees off text and you can then hit a keyboard shortcut and get to the next tool! But it's a bit of a nuisance.

I think Esc, when used with Text, should logically get you out of Text mode completely. So you could type the text, hit Esc, then immediately hit a keyboard shortcut to go to the next tool. This would be better than using "fn-enter".

What I've been suggesting in another post is an expansion of the Command Line (not to replace the Edit panel but in addition to it) so that, if you wish to, when you are drawing an object you can enter any or all of its Edit parameters on the fly as you draw, as an alternative to going back and editing them afterwards.

Cheers -- George
Mikerosen
Posts: 339
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Location: Seattle, WA, USA
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Re: Plea to alter a keystroke

Post by Mikerosen »

OK, I understand. User misunderstanding, as usual.

Always learning!

Thanks, guys.
Mike Rosen
Seattle, WA, USA

Mac OS Ventura 13.1, iOS 11.4.1 on iPad Pro
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