Original Article Date: July 7, 2004
Ever tried to figure out the syntax of a Function Key Menu file? Or how you can exceed the character limit? If so, then take a peek at this article authored by Jeffrey Malter. It's quite interesting.... 2004-07-07 Original posting date. 2005-12-01 Added reference table showing all code combinations.
MicroStation includes a nifty dialog to edit function key menus that can be accessed via Workspace > Function Keys. Although this works just fine, it’s sometimes more convenient to edit your function key menu file is a text based editor. This is especially true if your keyins exceed the number of characters allowed in the Edit Key Definition dialog.
Editing the menu file directly requires and understanding of the hexadecimal codes that identify each of the twelve function keys and the CTRL, ALT and SHIFT combinations. Locate and open any function key menu files with a text based editor such as WordPad. The default location for these files is …\Workspace\Interfaces\FKeys\ and they’ll have an mnu extension.
Upon opening the file, you’ll notice is that the first line begins with $FK5.0$ date-time-stamp and that it ends with a blank line. In other words there’s a carriage return at the end of the very last character of the last line. As with many other text based files (such as plot drivers), you can add lines that will be treated as comments if prepend them with a semi-colon (;). MicroStation will rewrite the time-date stamp when it’s internal editor is used to edit and/or save the menu file. After the first line, the format is as follows: [combo key code] [function key code],[command] For function keys that execute an action string, the format is: [combo key code] [function key code],[command];[command];[command];[command] The key codes listed below are not case-sensitive meaning that both B0B and b0b will serve to identify the CTRL+F11 key combination, however, MicroStation V8 will rewrite upper-case key codes in lower-case when its internal editor is used to edit and save the menu file.
Combo Key
So to call up the keyin window with ALT + F10, the format will be: 70a,di cmdbrowse where 7 is ALT + FKey, 0a is the F10 key and di cmdbrowse is the MicroStation keyin to open the keyin window. The table below contains all of the possible combinations:
CODE
For additional information regarding MicroStation commands and keyins, refer to the Related Links below. Have fun and don’t forget to backup your menu file before getting too crazy with your editing!
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