NX custom keyboard shortcuts 6

[WDAG]

I recently switched companies, and I would love to keep my keyboard shortcuts the same as what I'm used to. I assigned the Hide command to F1.

At my new company, F1 is locked to Help On Context. When I go into Customize... Customize Keyboard and find the Help On Context command, I see a little lock icon next to F1 (where I would expect to see a green circle).

How can I change this shortcut from being locked to customizable? I'm on 9.0.2.5 right now.

Thanks

 

[NutAce]

Not sure if this is at all possible.
The F1 key is the default Help key for most of the windows based software.

Ronald van den Broek
Senior Application Engineer
Winterthur Gas & Diesel Ltd
NX9 / TC10.1.2

Building new PLM environment from Scratch using NX11 / TC11

 

[PhoeNX]

This is a hack to do what you want. If you update/patch, it will have to be redone.

Edit your ...\UGII\menus\ug_main.men file & search for UG_HELP_ON_CONTEXT

You will want to delete the line

ACCELERATOR F1

This is how the F1 key is assigned to help. You can then customise to change Hide to the F1 as you were doing.

Anthony Galante
Senior Support Engineer


NX3 to NX11 with almost every MR (24versions)

 

[WDAG]

PheoNX, you're on a roll solving my problems! Thanks!

 

[cpttrips]

Here is a method that will prevent the need to re-do your change when patches are applied and will make it much easier to migrate the change to different NX versions as well:

1. Create a folder where you want to store your menu customization.
2. Create a folder called startup in this location.
3. Create a text file and name it <something>.men. Mine is named edit_ug_main.men
4. Add the text below to your new .men file, replacing the text in <> with a shortcut key for the on context help. Ex: Ctrl+Alt+F1
5. Save and close the file
6. Edit you custom_dirs.dat file, adding the path to the folder you created in step 1

This will override the default menu so when you open NX, the hide command will be F1 and the context help will be your chosen shortcut. If/when you move to a new version of NX, simply edit/replace the custom_dirs.dat file and the commands will be remapped in that version as well.


Text for .men file:

EDIT UG_GATEWAY_MAIN_MENUBAR

MENU UG_HELP
BUTTON UG_HELP_ON_CONTEXT
ACCELERATOR <place new shortcut key here>
END OF MENU

MENU UG_EDIT_SHOWHIDE
BUTTON UG_EDIT_BLANK_SELECTED
ACCELERATOR F1
END OF MENU

 

[PhoeNX]

Cpttrips way is better than my hack.

Anthony Galante
Senior Support Engineer


NX3 to NX11 with almost every MR (24versions)

 

[Toost]

I do not like to tell people what they should do but i will make an exception here...
The shortcut for hide, has been Ctrl+B as long as i can remember. ( yes, a pretty long time.)
- Put useful shortcuts where they are missing , and use the existing as long as they are ok.
The old name for "Hide" was "Blank", which ... = "B".
As well as Ctrl+Shift+B for invert
and "...U" for the old name "Unblank" =Show.

Do not try replicate the shortcuts from another system, chances are you will spend many hours and in the end it's still a different system.

Now that you have replaced Ctrl+B with F1,
what will you do with the rest of these shortcuts ?

Learn to live with the existing ones, add missing ones and spend your time on creating revolutionary designs instead!

Regards,
Tomas

 

[SDETERS]

Also with the F1 function keys, some people like having the "F1" ,"F2" , 'F3" and "F4" set to rotate pan and zoom your model. This is set under the follow environment variable.

UGII_FKEY_DYNAMICS = 1

Old habits die hard for us Old I-Deas users. It has been 6-7 years and still love using these function keys to rotate pan and zoom.

 

[WDAG]

Toost,

There are lots of ways to look at things. I'm sorry that my post has upset you so, but I wonder why that is. The only thing I will argue for universally is additional choice. I'm very grateful to PheoNX and cpttrips for opening the door to me to customize my own setup.

Happy CADing!
WDAG


----------------


A few observations:
- The entire time I have used NX (several years), I have used function keys for my most common commands (hide, show, move object, layer settings, measure, etc). These are as hard-wired into my mind as Ctl-B is for you.
- Given that Hide is among the top couple most common commands that everyone uses, it seems strange to make it a two-key shortcut, and one where you have to stretch your hand. And "Show all" being a 3-key shortcut that spans the width of the keyboard, I can't reach with one hand. That means I have to remove my left hand from my spaceball and my right hand from my mouse, just to access a commonly used command. Does that never bother you?
- There is no "B" in hide, and no "K" in show.
- There are enough keys on the keyboard, plus 32 radial shortcuts, that I don't have to use any multi-key shortcuts if I don't want to.

 

[cowski]

I assign show and hide to buttons on my spaceball.

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[Toost]

I am not upset, not the slightest.
You have fully valid and good points on the current , un-logic, and inefficient shortcuts!
When Unigraphics evolved into NX a development effort was to clean out poor user interface and rename old Unigraphics terms into the current more or less de-facto standard.
a few examples of that : Blank/ unblank Renamed into Hide/ show, Hollow-> Shell, ...-> Blend, Transform -> Move etc. But, the shortcuts stayed !
On the Transform/ Move, as most functionality was transferred from the transform function to the new Move, the shortcut Ctrl+T was moved over.
- Maybe there should have been an face-lift on the shortcuts as well.
- There are as you note a full keyboard waiting to be used, H for hide and S for Show ?
- But, S is assigned to "spline", H is unassigned.

I have in several occasions had the pleasure aid different companies in switching from a different system to NX.
In several of these, there have been a request for that the "known shortcuts in that other system" should be the same in NX.
Weeks of work that do not really add much value. NX is still a different system which works different.
And the next year/next version you will have to either do it again, or adjust all since NX has renamed the function...
for example, one company who previously used Autocad insisted that "finish Sketch" should be "Enter". ( Existing shortcut = "Q")
Enter will ..., not work that well.

That I need use two or three fingers does not bother me, i have been using a laptop since late 90's , without spaceball. ( -to bulky when traveling)
Ctrl and Shift is therefore hard coded for the zoom/ pan/ Rotate ...
If i was using a space ball, yes i would spend some time mapping the buttons.

Is it time for an Enhancement Request on the Shortcuts ?


Regards,
Tomas