Select other shortcut

I like the RMB menus, but there is often so much in SWx that I can
spend some serious (to me) time searching for what I have been looking
for in that constantly changing list of items.
..
I accidentally ran into this because I had 'S' set as a hotkey for
starting sketches and clicked with the right mouse button instead of
the left (it happens, OK? Lay off)

If I RMB something and hit 'S' when the RMB menu is open in 2006, it
doesn't start a sketch - it jumps into 'select other', which I have
always hated searching for in the RMB menu.
Probably known to the SolidWorks encylcopedias out there, but new to me
so I thought I would share (al'a Wayne Tiffany).

Hope someone finds this useful

-Ed

 

After writing the above, I decided to play a little (all the next are
in asm mode, picking faces of a model). At first I was a little bummed
for being so out of touch, but now I think that maybe I didn't miss
something in a 'what's new' demo? Because it lacks, um, consistency
(or any documentation I could find in the HELP). Could this RMB
shortcut stuff be a microsoft thingy, like the shortcuts for navigating
the standard drop-down menus?

'P', which I use for 'Plane' actually invokes 'open file' (huh?)
'I' inverts selection.
'O' opens the part I selected through RMB in the assembly into a
seperate window (useful! but open part is usually easy to find)
'R' - recent commands (not so useful... I think... must noodle on that
one)
'E'-kicks you into 'edit part' mode. And out.
'T' - delete
'U' - suppress component
'A' - something about an archive folder (PDM?)
'D' - Mate (??? especially since 'M' doesnt appear to do anything )
'F' - add configuration (???)
'G' - jumps the highlight to 'goto component in tree'. I'll use this
one if I can remember it.
'H' - hide (natch)
'K' - edit sketch
'L' - looks like 'view mates'
'Z' - drop down zoom menu (not so useful to me - I like the exsiting
keyboard commands, middle mouse button stuff, or toolbars)
'C' - shange transparency (How often do I use that!!! I like that
one!!!)
'V' - shows the mates that apply to that component... maybe (some are
the same, some are not??? Could be an asm and subasm thing? I can't
figure it out and don't want to blow my groove trying to)
'B' - zebra stripes. I have made my feelings about zebra stripes plain
over the years, so no ed-gasms on this one.
'N' - replace component. Handy, but 'N'?
--------------------------------
Now is where this will get awkward, because (a) for some reason I am
enthralled and am continuing this exploration and (b) things are
different in part from assembly.

In assemblies, W does nothing. In parts, it invokes the 'open part'
command.
In assemblies, 'o' invokes open part - in parts, its rollaback.
'P' suppresses the selected feature.

More in parts RMB clicking a face ( I really don't want to start
looking into edges, verteces, bodies, junk in the tree, etc)
'U' in part starts curvature display or turns it off for that face.
'E' (not 'b' as in asm) starts zebra stripes. Again, no ed-gasm. Sorry
about the blue-balls for all you zebra-stripe lovers.
'H' for hide body - Rocks!
'L' is delete, oddly not 'T' as in assemblies.
'T' is edit sketch, oddly not 'K' as in assemblies
'K', strangely, does nothing in parts (obvious lack of leadership on
this)
'C' - contour select
'N' starts a new sketch on the selected face

I could see most of these not being replacements in my life for
actually searching for the item in the RMB menu (espeically when the
key is inconsistent), but a few (like select other, change
transparency, or hide/show bodies-components) I might adopt ino my
workflow just to add that extra second or two of speed.

However, the kicker - the number one shortcut key I want in my life,
Parent-Child - I can't activate it any way that I can see, and in 2007
beta it was still not in the list for hotkey assignmnet.

Ed

 

<full of chagrin> for the second time I resumed the search after
signing off. I must learn not to post so soon...

Drumroll please...

'/' invokes parent child, probably because of the question mark above
it. This is awesome.
Thank you and good night.

Ed

P.S. And Wayne, I am sooooo sorry - as keeper of the master list I have
probably just hosed your weekend. And finding that it is just not the
alphabet, but might also include punctuation, too? Pass on my
apologies to the family - heck, I still owe them for that 3GB-switch
thing that you ran with

 

....

That's just the Alt-key shortcuts kicking in. In SW, you can't see the
underlines in the RMB menus if you have the option set to hide the
underlines until you press Alt (rmb desktop, properties, appearance,
effects, hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press
the Alt key)

Further, you should be able to access this all from the keyboard, but
the context sensitive menu button on the keyboard (next to Ctrl on the
right side of the keyboard for the 3 keyboards I have here) works in
every application I have except SolidWorks. Bummer. I'm always looking
for alternatives to the mouse.

 

You are on the right track - the "hotkeys" you have found are actually the
Windows Underlined Letters for Keyboard Navigation. One of the reasons you
see inconsistencies is because not all menus are the same if you have a
part/assy/drawing open. Also, the user has the opportunity to customize the
menus, so that will change things. The underline keys are assigned by the
programmer, and if there happens to end up being more than one menu item
with the same underlined letter, the first command gets the go. Go to
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/accessibility/hideunderlines.mspx
to see how to turn on the underlines (or turn off) without having to press
the Alt key.

Years ago I debated including all of these in the list, but decided that
there were way too many inconsistencies to be worth trying to use them
consistently, other than if you find one that works with your menu setups,
etc. Oh, if you look at the menu line for parent/child in a part RMB, you
will see that the underlined character is the "/" - that's why it works.
But, in an assy, the "/" is assigned to Add/Edit Mates. Sorry.

WT

 

Could this RMB

Sort of what I figured - but, new to me, might be new and useful to
someone else. I never use the keyboard for the dropdown menus, but I
think I might be doing it with a few common things in the RMB

No kidding it would be ugly to document.
It's interesting that it is different per setup. On both computers I
use, the '/' IS parent child.
(I'm really happy about just that - I use parent child all the time and
hate scanning for it in the ever changing RMB list. Its fun to get
faster).