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Keyboard Shortcuts - V3.0 Add-On Available - see Resources

bolsover

bolsover

Senior Member
Making progress... I now have a method of getting a listing of all the 'default' shortcuts.
I aim to get copies of both the 'default' and 'custom' shortcuts, compare the two sets and present the results in some convenient form (possibly .pdf or .html) with all shortcuts listed and colour coded according to whether 'default', 'overridden' or 'custom'.
David
 
bolsover

bolsover

Senior Member
Just testing some ideas with the 'live' user profile as an Add-on with side panel..
More info here than is actually needed and I don't think it will work as a docked panel - just too much info.
I can't easily test but the 'Hint' should show up as localized text.
Interestingly, I've tested a few of the more obscure shortcuts - such as the COMMUNITY_HOME in the screen grab. I 'think' this should open up the forum from the command center browser - but it does not work. The COMMANDCENTER_OPTIONS does however launch the System Options dialog.

1698086670150.png
Further development needed..
 
bolsover

bolsover

Senior Member
NateLiquidGravity said:
If you are looking to do something complex but beautiful then take a look at these for inspiration:
https://waldobronchart.com/note/shortcut-mapper-release
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/ShortcutsManager.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/keyboard-shortcuts.html
Click to expand...
I really like some of these ideas. Great that the waldobronchart tool is open source - shame it's JavaScript and Python but certainly worth exploring further.
Having a 'virtual' keyboard highlighted with the key used makes great sense. It is quite tricky for Alibre though which has 9 separate sets of mappings for each of the different profiles: Design Part Browser, BOM Editor, Design Boolean Browser, Design Assembly Browser etc. Atom uses a subset of these but still not trivial.
I have not tried to analyse the differences yet but there appear to be 366 'default' shortcuts and I currently have no fewer than 463 user shortcuts and I know I have not defined all these! Some of the difference can be accounted for by the fact that Alibre copies quite a few of the user defined codes between the profiles - so that things like sketch shortcuts remain consistent.
I think I'll continue with the original plan for html/pdf presentation for now - but maybe consider something like the waldobronchart solution for the future.
David
 
NateLiquidGravity

NateLiquidGravity

Alibre Super User
My AutoHotkey script scraps a whopping 1346 possible keyboard shortcuts that can be set in Alibre Design Expert! That has got to be some kind of record!
 
bolsover

bolsover

Senior Member
NateLiquidGravity said:
My AutoHotkey script scraps a whopping 1346 possible keyboard shortcuts that can be set in Alibre Design Expert! That has got to be some kind of record!
Click to expand...
I've not studied your script in detail - but I'm not surprised by the count, Alibre seems to allow assigning a shortcut for almost every possible action.
I'm still working through the details - but below is what I have at present - a dropdown so you can select the profile of interest and a simple html presentation of the available shortcuts.
Standard shortcuts in black.
Overridden shortcuts in red.
Custom shortcuts in blue.
Once invoked, the window stays open while Alibre is open but can be closed and reopened at any time.
I've not explored the details but it should be reasonably simple to allow printing/saving of the screen.
Screenshot 2023-10-25 113716.jpg
 
Cator

Cator

Senior Member
bolsover said:
I've not studied your script in detail - but I'm not surprised by the count, Alibre seems to allow assigning a shortcut for almost every possible action.
I'm still working through the details - but below is what I have at present - a dropdown so you can select the profile of interest and a simple html presentation of the available shortcuts.
Standard shortcuts in black.
Overridden shortcuts in red.
Custom shortcuts in blue.
Once invoked, the window stays open while Alibre is open but can be closed and reopened at any time.
I've not explored the details but it should be reasonably simple to allow printing/saving of the screen.
View attachment 39976
Click to expand...
Hi David, the best would be to invoke a python script and make it work... do you think a shortcut could get there?
 
Cator

Cator

Senior Member
Hi David,
you did a great job it works well and the list is clear and opens quickly. By copying and pasting it is also easy to extract a table or something similar.
I only have three notes for you

1)The addon icon looks grainy on my system.
1698337691708.png
2)The button, as you see in the previous figure, remains "lit" blue even after I close the window.

3) The legend to recognize the various shortcuts should be placed briefly at the top of the window and perhaps explained explicitly in one or more tooltips.

Greetings,
Francesco
 
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bolsover

bolsover

Senior Member
@Cator
Thanks for the feedback.
1 Quite right about the icon - I'm looking for something better - graphics is not my strength!
2 I'm not sure why the button remains blue. I'm guessing it is some configuration issue. Might be difficult to debug.
3 I've added some text to show meaning of different coloured shortcuts - hopefully helps.
1698347838636.png
My other items.
4 Home page Shortcuts link does not work
1698347901996.png
5 I think overall display is improved by splitting large tables to a number of smaller tables that can be shown side by side. However, I'm still not happy with the display as it is in the new version 1.1. More improvement needed!

New release linked in next message.
David
 
NateLiquidGravity

NateLiquidGravity

Alibre Super User
Tested on V27 Expert running on Windows 7.

2) The ribbon icon is being treated as a toggle option.

This in addition to 1) when in dark mode it toggles black and is hard to see the icon.
1698370066293.png

3) It says "Black - Standard Shortcut Red - Overridden Standard Red - Custom Shortcut" The word Red that is blue should probably say Blue.

4) Doesn't work here either.

5) or 6)? I could not get it to load any shortcuts. The window shows with the key color notes but the window is empty under that. Maybe a problem with running on Windows 7.
1698370800418.png

7) Having Shortcuts as its own menu is unnecessary since it can be found in the menu under Tools > Add-ons > Shortcuts

[Edit]
8) The ribbon icon is disabled when I open an existing part or assembly but enabled when I create a new file window.
 
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bolsover

bolsover

Senior Member
@NateLiquidGravity
Thanks for the feedback.
3 I can at least fix the Red / Blue issue easily!

1 I had not tested any colour schemes - but will do so. I suspect it is partly connected to the icon I chose for the ribbon bar - testing some options.
2 I'm not sure why the ribbon icon is being treated as a toggle; there does not seem to be anything explicit in the Alibre Interface that might cause that - investigating.
4 'Shortcuts' item in home window - struggling to find a way to remove.
5/6 No shortcuts showing in the tool window. I suspect this is a win 7 issue but can't be sure. Can you let me know the location of your User.NET.profile_27 file? I'm using win 11 and the file is in 'C:\Users\DavidBolsover\AppData\Roaming\Alibre Design\default user' directory. I had tried to use the same code as Alibre to retrieve the file - I'll check back over the Alibre code.
7 I had not noticed the Tools > Add-ons > Shortcuts
8 Again I had not noticed - probably because I only tested with new file.

I suspect that a few of the issues (2,4,8) are connected with the configuration of my AlibreShortcuts.cs file. This is the extension point for the IAlibreAddOn interface. It is not a particularly complex interface but the documentation is not great and the implementation details of some methods is largely guesswork on my part.

Anyway the feedback is of great assistance as it is pointing me to solutions.

David
 
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