Special Keys in Site Planning (topic)

Special keys :

Also see :

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Alt

Accelerator keys: Holding down the Alt key and pressing any letter on your keyboard that matches an underlined letter on one of the labels on the Modeling or the Drawing Editor menu bar opens the menu which that label identifies. Once a menu is open, the accelerator key associated with any command on that menu invokes the tool associated with that command.

Alt cannot be used to define a keyboard shortcut . This prevents conflicts from occurring when Alt is used for accelerator keys on menus.

Like Ctrl and Shift , the Alt key is sometimes used to modify the functionality of a command mode. For instance, pressing it while certain mouse bindings are active will show additional (previously hidden) mouse bindings .

Unicode Latin 1 characters 0160 to 0255 can be used in SDS2. Character codes 01 to 0126 are available on your keyboard without your having to enter the character code. To get a Latin 1 character, with [num lock] on, hold down the Alt key and type in the character code, or cut and paste from the Character Map that can be launched from your operating system's Accessories menu.

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Arrow keys may be used for traversal from cell to cell on setup tables or to move within a cell. For keyboard shortcuts , these keys are referred to as Up , Down , Left and Right .

The Left key moves the text insertion bar to the left of a character within a cell, or scrolls through the items on a list box .

The Right key moves the text insertion bar to the right of a character within a cell, or scrolls through the items on a list box .

The Up key moves the text insertion bar from the cell it is in to the cell above on a table. On a window that is not a table, Up does the same thing as Shift+Tab .

The Down key will move the text insertion bar from the cell it is in to the cell below on a table. On a window that is not a table, Down does the same thing as Tab .

Ctrl+Down may be used like Tab to move from one widget to the next on a window.

Ctrl+Up may be used like Shift+Tab to move back one widget on a window.

Arrow keys can also be used to scroll down drop-down menus in the Drawing Editor or Modeling or to switch command modes.

See text entry widgets for additional uses of arrow keys.

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@

For second point location that is used, for example, to locate a member or a line, the character @ can be used to type in an angle that is measured from a 0° line (horizontal across the screen ) through the first point that was located. The second point will be located on the typed-in angle. The angle and/or distance you enter will be displayed in the status line .

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Backspace

In a text entry field , pressing the Backspace key deletes the character (letter, number) to the left of the cursor .

If text is selected (highlighted) in an entry field, Backspace deletes that text.

Backspace

The distance/angle constraint for second-point location can be erased from the status line , thus removing the constraint, by pressing Backspace as many times as needed to erase all of the characters shown in the status line.

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Ctrl

The following applies when User Options > the " Interface " tab > " Classic selection lists " is not checked ( ). On selection dialogs that allow multiple items to be selected, holding down the Ctrl key lets you click items to add them to the selection or remove them from the selection -- even if those items are not next to each other.

Holding down the Ctrl key while certain mouse bindings are active will show additional (previously hidden) mouse bindings.

Ctrl+middle-click snaps to the surface (in Modeling ) that you click on.

Ctrl+a in a multi-select dialog selects all items -- just like the " Select All " button. It can also be used to select all text within a text block (e.g. " Label text ").. Ctrl+k clears the selection.

Within any window or from one window to another, you can use Ctrl+x to "cut" (or Ctrl+c to "copy") text from one entry field so that it can later be "pasted" into another entry field (using Ctrl+v ).

The Ctrl key is used as a modifier key for many of the default keyboard shortcuts .

Ctrl-drag a member's piecemark or section size or left elevation or right elevation or camber or ABM page-line to rotate it around its origin on an erection view in the Drawing Editor . This also works for a label .

Ctrl+Shift-drag does the same, but at 45 degree increments.

Ctrl+Shift can bring up Actual - Horz - Vert mouse bindings immediately after invoking Objects > Dimensions > Add .

When you are editing a string of characters within a text entry field, various text entry widgets may be activated using Ctrl . For instance, Ctrl+e moves the insertion bar to the end of the string of characters.

On windows with tabs (for example, the User Options window), you can hold down the Ctrl key and left- middle- or right-click to tear off a tab.

In the Drawing Editor , holding down the Ctrl key before you grab a dimension line lets you move the dimension line freely (otherwise it snaps to Drag and Drop Configuration points ). You can accomplish the same result by grabbing the dimension label before dragging.

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Delete is a key that appears on expanded keyboards.

If text is selected (highlighted) in an entry field, Delete deletes that text. If no text is selected Delete deletes the character to the right of the insertion bar.

In the Drawing Editor , Delete does the same thing as choosing Edit > Delete with items preselected. Delete is an alternative to the Xxx Erase tools, but does not provide the built-in filtering by object type that those tools provide.

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Enter is the Return key on some keyboards.

When the Select Item(s) in-tool selection mode is active, Enter can be used (instead of " OK " on the context menu) to log in your selections and continue to the next step of that operation.

Select Item(s) bindings

On entry windows you can press Enter on your keyboard instead of clicking on the " OK " button at the bottom of that entry window.

For " Label text " and other fields that allow multiple lines of text, when your cursor is in the text-entry area, Enter creates a line break.

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Esc

VIDEO A mouse button binding reporter is related to Select Items mode. The Esc key is bound to Mode Return and therefore can be used to bring you back to Select Items mode. (Recorded in SDS2 Detailing , v7.2.)

Pressing Esc cancels an operation. It is an alternative to choosing " Cancel " on the context menu or, for many operations, doing a right-click ( Return ).

While moving or stretching selected items in Select Items mode, you can hit the Esc key to cancel. The selected items will revert to their original location.

On a warning window (which does not have a " Cancel " button), Esc closes the window. On other windows, the Esc key is bound to the " Cancel " button. For example, if you press the Esc key on the Beam Review window, you will close the window without applying any Member Status Review changes you may have made.

The Esc key is also bound to Mode Return .

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Function keys

F8 deletes all characters in an entry field that are to the right of the text insertion bar.

F10 inserts "W" to the left of the text insertion bar.

F11 inserts "PL" to the left of the text insertion bar.

F12 inserts "L" to the left of the text insertion bar.

Alt+F4 does the same thing as clicking on the "x" on a window -- it closes the window.

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Keys on the numerical keypad

With [Num Lock] on, number keys such as 1 , 2 or etc. insert the associated number to the left of the cursor.

With [Num Lock] on or off:
+ inserts a space.
* inserts x.

With [Num Lock] on, you can hold down the Alt key, then type the appropriate number to get Unicode Latin 1 characters 0160 to 0255. An alternative way to get these special characters is to cut and paste from the Character Map that can be launched from your operating system's Accessories menu.

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Shift

VIDEO Shift and Shift + Ctrl can be used to move and rotate erection view labels . The capabilities also apply to regular labels. ( SDS2 Detailing , v2016)

On selection dialogs that allows multiple items to be selected, holding down the Shift key lets you select a group of items when User Options > the " Interface " tab > " Classic selection lists " is not checked ( ).

Holding down the Shift key while certain mouse bindings are active gets you additional (previously hidden) mouse bindings.

Tab+Shift moves focus back one widget on an entry window.

Shift+Home selects all characters from the left of the cursor to the begiining of the line.

Shift with left-click in Select Items mode can be used to select more than one item at a time.

In Select Items mode, Shift-drag moves a dimension label or a dimension line.

Shift-drag the middle of a pointer in Select Items mode to change its " Pointer curve " to ' Straight ' or ' Clockwise ' or ' Counter-clockwise '.

Ctrl+Shift-drag a member's piecemark or section size or left elevation or right elevation or camber or ABM page-line to rotate it around its origin at 45 degree increments on an erection view in the Drawing Editor .

Ctrl-drag works in a similar way to Ctrl+Shift-drag , but the rotation is unconstrained.

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Space bar

For keyboard shortcuts , the program refers to the pressing of the space bar as Spacebar .

Pressing the Spacebar when a check box has focus toggles the box from unchecked to checked (or vice-versa).

When User Options > the " Interface " tab > " Classic selection lists " is on (checked), you can press the Spacebar to make the last-clicked item on a selection list become the only item that is selected.

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Tab

Tab moves focus from one widget to the next on an entry window.

When you press Tab after making an entry to a field on a window, the program will validate that entry. If it finds the entry to not be valid, it may open a warning and/or prevent you from going on to the next option on the window.

Tab+Shift moves focus back one widget on an entry window.

Tab indents four spaces for entering code to the " Selection Code " area on the Advanced Selection window.

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