Hello
I'm adjusting the ribbon in microstation connect and would like to make my own attributes and primary groups, and not use the preset ones. The problem then is the shortcuts. Because in preferences - position mapping I have attributes & primary positions as default; A & S, but when I make my own Attributes and primary group they are treated just like any other group. That means that the shortcuts gets kind of messed up when I have/dont have those groups in different tabs. I want my own to be treated just like the attributes or primary group should be, but customize it myself. Is there a way to do this?
Robert
Hi Robert,
I agree with David, when Position Mapping is used, the proposed solution is probably the only one. Unfortunately it does not solve the problem with different access keys when the group is located at different position in a tab, because Position Mapping keys are always auto-generated.
My question is whether Position Mapping has to be used? Standard ribbon access keys, when Position Mapping is off, allow to define tools (icons) shortcuts independently on the tool position. A disadvantage (for some users) is that groups cannot be displayed using access keys under a cursor (but it can be solved partially by cutomization of <Space> shortcut).
With regards,
Jan
Bentley Accredited Developer: iTwin Platform - AssociateLabyrinth Technology | dev.notes() | cad.point
Oh, I've used the word shortcut, I meant position mapping, thanks.
Don't know what you mean with standard ribbon access key. But I thought you meant the shortcuts first, (what's actually called shortcuts) and it seems I can you them when I turn of position mapping. problem then is i heard you can only have two quick tools, and with that, space bar as well. Don't think I can fit all the commands into just 3 buttons if I want them to be easy to use, (eg. q-0 is not very easy to type).
Or am I missing something here?
Unknown said:problem then is i heard you can only have two quick tools, and with that, space bar as well.
Q and <Space> are hard-coded I guess, but both are configurable, so it's easy to change what is at second level (there are many tools under Q and only one stadard option under <Space>).
Because everything is configured using standard MicroStation key-ins (see Keyboard Shortcuts dialog), I guess it's quite easy to change keyboard assignment as necessary. Old Position Mapping is also typically 2 or 3 key-ins combination, so Q + something (+ something) is pretty the same (and does not depend on a tool position). And when Q and <Space> is not enough, you can assign any other key and assign a proper key-ins to it.
Unknown said:Don't think I can fit all the commands into just 3 buttons if I want them to be easy to use, (eg. q-0 is not very easy to type).
In my opinion there is no such limitation. And when q-0 is hard to type, change it to anything better for you.
Unknown said:Old Position Mapping is also typically 2 or 3 key-ins combination, so Q + something (+ something) is pretty the same (and does not depend on a tool position)
I think my biggest problem is I really don't want it to be 3 key-ins. Therefore I can't put that many tools under Q and space bar as you suggest.
Unknown said:I think my biggest problem is I really don't want it to be 3 key-ins.
But it's general problem, not the difference between keyboard shortcuts and Position Mapping, isn't it?
Unknown said:Therefore I can't put that many tools under Q and space bar as you suggest.
So use another key. I know the most of them are assigned by default to another functionality, but experience of many of my customers is they don't use them all, so they reorganized default assignment to free some key shortcuts.
Often used aproach is they assign the most important tools to <Space> (which is fully configurable), some from them also assigned selected key to open specified group (no more key press is required, because the tool is selected by mouse), and the other tool groups are assigned at second level, so it's about to change default schema under Q.
Maybe the first question is how many groups (or tools directly?) you want (and really need) to assign to be accessible through keyboard shortcuts.
It's just an idea that I have not tested, so not sure whether it works, but maybe visibility check can be used there also, so for the same shortcut a group with context dependet content will be displayed.
Unknown said:But it's general problem, not the difference between keyboard shortcuts and Position Mapping, isn't it?
Yes, that's true.
Unknown said:So use another key.
What we had before was numbers for those main tasks I talked about, (don't know if main tasks is something really common, our just something only my company uses). But numbers are not configurable as shortcuts.
Anyway, thanks for all your input Jan, I'm gonna have to think about how to make this as easy as possible for all our employees. Just find it too bad numbers can't be used as we used to use them.
Unknown said:But numbers are not configurable as shortcuts.
Yes, they cannot be used at first level ... not quite sure why.
In fact I was not aware of this limitation for quite long time in the past, because Czech keyboard has local characaters instead of numbers (which are accessible using Shift), so "first keyboad row" can be used when swtiched from English keyboard.
Unknown said:Just find it too bad numbers can't be used as we used to use them.
In understand this is bad issue when you use them in the past. I don't know too many users that modified Main Task, typically they use other tasks for customization, so they have not depended on numbers.
Ok, so thanks again for your help. I'm really gonna need to think about this. Maybe using shortcuts as you suggested is the best way, at least it would have been if only I would have been able to use the numbers in first level.