Can Command Aliases Be Used?

colin_starker933

I use OnShape Free for personal projects and Inventor at work. I have Inventor configured so I can access nearly everything from the keyboard with command aliases. I have not found this functionality in OnShape and it’s painfully slow to use as a result.

In Inventor, I type the first few letters of the command then hit enter when I see it narrow down to the correct one. I even access document properties and settings this way. Any item in the ribbon in Inventor can be accessed with an alias. My mouse remains conveniently close to the model and never needs to travel to the ribbon.

Using OnShape is a bit torturous without command aliases. I have not been able to find this feature. I am 10X slower in OnShape purely because of this reason, no exaggeration. Is this feature available in higher plans? Are there any extensions that add this?

My doctrine is that the mouse should be used only when necessary. 10 fingers are always faster than 1 hand.

NeilCooke

No plans to add this.

NeilCooke

No plans to add this.

S1mon

There are many keyboard shortcuts. Hit '?' to see them. They can also be customized to a degree, and there is a shortcut menu which can be customized.

romeograham

You can also start typing to find features
Alt-C (Option-C) opens the search dialog, and then start typing. "Mut..." will find Mutual Trim, for instance (and all the other matching commands). This works for default toolset features as well as your custom features you have in your list. I find it's often faster than poking through menus for commands.
The search is pretty smart, too - if I misspell a command (type "file" instead of "fille..." for Fillet) it will still return the correct item very quickly.

colin_starker933

NeilCooke said:

No plans to add this.

Sad, it's a well-established standard that keyboard shortcuts are faster than using just the mouse. That's been true for decades. I am not surprised that basic ergonomics are ignored considering that OnShape did not have proper model orbiting until recently (constrained orbit).

S1mon

If Onshape had started with only a constrained orbit view mode, I would have been much less likely to start to use it. It really depends on what you're used to and the sort of modeling that you do. To each, his own.

Paulo

Keyboard shortcuts are much different than command line input (like autocad) which requires you to take your hand off the mouse (unless you speed type with one finger).

jnewth_onshape

@colin_starker933 The s-menu might be a good tool for you. You hit 's' in part studios, drawings, sketches, or assemblies, and a toolbar pops up very close to the mouse cursor. This can be configured, under My account > Preferences > Shortcut toolbars. You can also add custom features to it, making it a very flexible interface.