New Shortcut - Key/Key Combinations for Tools

Documentation / How to
#1

Hello, I’m wondering if there’s a way to set a new Shortcut key/keystroke for certain tools and functions? For instance in order to bring up the “pan” function, I have to type “z+p” at the same time? That’s the default setting anyway.

However I’m so used to using Illustrator for other tasks that I’ve become accustomed to holding the spacebar for similar functionality. The added benefit to the Illustrator method is also that I can press and hold the spacebar while panning, but as soon as I release the spacebar my tool defaults back to the tool I was using prior to panning.

In any case, maybe this is a lot to ask, but I’m curious if there’s at least an option to create new shortcuts? At the very least I’d like to set panning to my spacebar.

Finally, I’m used to getting “under the hood” on a certain programs. So I’d be willing to edit a settings file etc to make these adjustments.

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#2

You can find the source code here: https://github.com/FashionFreedom/Seamly2D/releases

So you can at least edit your own copy. I don’t believe there is an easier way to do so,

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#3

No. Not at this time.

Here’s a homework assigment - comeup with a better shortcut scheme without typing multiple keys. :wink:

It’s no where’s near just a case of getting under the hood and changing a settings file. It’s more like getting in the weeds. We’re talking about setting up a whole feature to add / update shortcuts, and register them… and apply an override to the existing ui form. It’s like dealing with keys in a Windows registry. On top of that you need to where all the coded shortcuts are that are not defined in the dozens of ui forms.

BTW… you do know if you “press” the scroll wheel, pan mode is enabled?

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#4

Amazing! That’s perfect!

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#5

Yeah… once you know that, even a shortcut kinda becomes a moot point. Probably why I didn’t put a lot of thought into the pan shortcut.

We could also assign something to the scroll wheel “tilt” switches for those mice with this feature.

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#6

Oh gosh! That would probably be helpful as well.

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#7

Any ideas?

Can’t tell you how long I used a mouse before I even knew the wheel could tilt. Lol

Oh… BTW… touchpads may vary as to what triggers a scroll button event. Also need to delve futher into touchscreens and guestures to control panning. It’s another whole ball of wax with Qt events.

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#8

Wow, seems like there’s lots of options. I have other buttons on the mouse that could come in handy but for now just pressing and holding down on the scroll wheel is a great advantage.

Yeah and I know the tilt wheel is a thing, but I’ve just never found it useful. But I guess it’s maybe because it never came in handy for online gaming!

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#9

I never found a mouse useful for gaming. Even back in the day I found joy sticks awkward… so much so I hacked one of my Nintendo controllers to work on the serial (joystick) port of an Amiga. :slight_smile: Yeah… I’m dating myself. Lol

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#10

Awesome! I like that sort of ingenuity!

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#11

Never did it before Thank you !!!

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#12

@neverthejetsetter

Without going into details beyond the scope of this topic - I added the spacebar as a shortcut in addition to Z, P. :slight_smile:

Qt allows you to add a list of shortcuts to an action. For ex… on keyboards with a num pad there are 2 sets of numbers - each with different Key values. Both have to be set if you want the standard numbers or the num pad numbers to trigger an action.

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#13

Hello Douglas, I was just wondering if it’s apossible to set the spacebar as a shortcut for the pan-mode, as its not working in my case. Is there something I need to take care of so it’s working ?

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#14

Hey Philip… yeah, it looks like I that I made the change previusly on my end, but was waiting to push the change to the main repo, and had a harddrive crash where I lost it and a bunch of others changes. :frowning: It’s not in any current build for me either. I found it’s easier to reduce the number of conflicts when making PR’s if I don’t get to far ahead of the main. Actually as I;m playing with the zoom at the moment, it also appears for some reason the “pan” cursor is not displaying either? hmmm.

Anyhow, It’s an easy fix. Let’s see if we can get that included in this weeks build, it not by next weeks. :slight_smile:

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#15

Hey Philip… while I’m at it… is there any other shortcuts you would like to add? - as long there is no conflicts.

Sometime down the road it would nice to add the ability for a user to customize the shortcuts, but it’s a bit more involved than one might think. You have to have a system to register the shortcuts, or you’ll end up with conflicts.

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#16

Hey Douglas,

I feel bad for you losing all your work with that hard drive crash :confused:

Actually for now it’s only the panning that I’m looking for as my magic mouse doesn’t have a clickable scroll-wheel. I don’t know how much big of a deal it is, but I could imagine it would be nice if you can hold the spacebar as long you’re using the pan mode and it switches back automatically after letting off, instead of switching back to the previous mode manually.

I’ve just noticed that im barely using the shortcuts, maybe alt+p for point could be changed.

Best, Philip :slightly_smiling_face:

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#17

I added the spacebar as a shortcut. Like I said that’s an easy fix - it’s just a couple lines of code to get the current shortcut, append the space, and (re)set the shortcuts.

While a bit more involved, it is certainly possible to program the app so pressing the spacebar enters pan, and exits upon release. It would take place in the same part of the code that handles for ex: when you hold the CTRL to select multiple items for group, or SHIFT to constrain an angle. Thing I might do though is to add a behavior preference. Not sure how the press-release would affect the normal shortcut behavior.

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#18

Great, thank you for that :slight_smile:

Okay that sounds good and the behavior preference would be a nice thing to have as well.

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#19

I tried to implement this last night… of course I thought it should be easy to just grab the space key press event - toggle the pan, and then toggle again on space key release. Well, if the space is active as a shortcut it keeps toggling off and on while the key is pressed - no bueno. I disabled the short cut, then I got nothing. Hmmm Another no bueno. I’m sure I can get either or to work, but like I suspect, I don’t know if I can get them both to work together. That’s why I’m thinking a preference setting as to which behavior to use is needed.

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#20

No Bueno :smile: well, I think we would be happy with a preference as well, I think myself for example would only use one version anyways, so this should be fine if its the easiest way anyways.

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