Shortcut for Osnap Perpendicular on left-hand side of Keyboard?

[Tim.Hirsbrunner]

When drawing a line, I know that I can enable various snaps through SHIFT+RIGHT CLICK > [KEY], but some of the keys in the right click menu are on the right-hand side of the keyboard. I'm looking for a way to toggle all Osnap commands via a shortcut only on the left-hand side of the keyboard. In this particular instance, I'm trying to find a way to toggle the perpendicular Osnap instead of typing "p." Does anyone have a way for doing this?

I see that there are options for temporary override short cuts, but I have not been able to get these to work. If I type SHIFT+[Any letter/number], instead of activating the temporary override it instead begins a command. 

[tyronebk · Accepted solution]

The solution I use (I'm pretty sure I didn't come up with it) is to edit the CUI > Shortcut Menus > Object Snap Cursor Menu > Perpendicular node.

The original node shows Display > Name = &Perpendicular

where "&P" defines "P" to be the shortcut key for Perpendicular

I change Display > Name to &zPerpendicular

so now "Z" is the shortcut key for Perpendicular.

The letter "Z" doesn't have any obvious connection to the word Perpendicular but all the logical letters on the left side of the keyboard were already taken.

[Tim.Hirsbrunner]

That works for me. Thanks!

[rgrainer · Accepted solution]

Another approach is to make a menu with your own definitions. Before I got comfortable with the cui editor this is how i loaded/edited menus.

A part of this menu uses Ctrl key and a character near the lower left portion of the keyboard for various Osnaps. It also allows for editing/use of various "F" keys for additional Osnaps and combinations thereof.  Copy the below in to a txt file and save it as "ACCELERATION.mnu" with the "mnu" extension as shown to a known location. Edit the osnaps to your own liking, save the file. In autocad, type menuload and browse to the location of the mnu file and load it. Autocad compiles it to a cui and it used from then on. You can edit it in cui editor or just edit the menu file and reload the mnu after unloading the existing cui with the same name. Note: portions of the menu a commented out with two forward slashes "//"; these lines are not evaluated. 

[copy]
***MENUGROUP=ACCELERATION

***ACCELERATORS
[CONTROL+"Z"]ENDP;
[CONTROL+"X"]INT;
[CONTROL+"C"]CEN;
[CONTROL+"V"]INS;
[CONTROL+"S"]PERP;
[CONTROL+"D"]NEA;
[CONTROL+"F"]MID;
[CONTROL+"G"]NODE;
[CONTROL+"Q"]QUADRANT;
[CONTROL+"1"]'PROPERTIES;

//[CONTROL+"L"]CLL;;
///["F3"]'DDOSNAP;
["F4"]CEN,NODE,PERP;
["F5"]ENDP;
["F6"]QUAD,INT;
//["F6"](MENUCMD "P1=*")_1
//["F7"]'RTPAN;
//["F11"](menucmd "P0=mysnap")(menucmd "p0=*")

[copy]

[Tim.Hirsbrunner]

Nice! I just gave it a try and it works. Thank you.

[Tim.Hirsbrunner]

Just to clarify for anyone using user tyronebk 's tip, the "&" symbol is what determines which letter is used as the shortcut key within the right-click osnap menu. For example, just now I was trying to bind my parallel osnap to "3" but was having trouble because there is an item in the menu that already uses "3" as a shortcut (3D Osnap). But when I removed the "&" from the name field for 3D Osnap and added "&3" to the front of the name field for the parallel osnap, it worked.

[Intuos5]

@rgrainerI presume you have this menu hotkeyed to a function tool to override the keyboard shortcuts? How do you use this as alternative to the Shift+Right click method? And doesn't this break many common Ctrl+S/Z/X/V/Y, etc. shortcuts?

[rgrainer]

I presume you have this menu hotkeyed to a function tool to override the keyboard shortcuts?

No hotkey, the menu choices are what they are. Make changes if you want to make changes to suit your self. 

How do you use this as alternative to the Shift+Right click method?

I still have the Shift+Right click available, for those Osnaps which I occasionally might need, but don't use very often.  I prefer not to use the shift+right click menu and I use the menu I posted instead 

And doesn't this break many common Ctrl+S/Z/X/V/Y, etc. shortcuts?

Yes it does break all of those, but I don't care. My Osnaps are invoked way more than the copy & paste, etc.
The intent of the post I originally replied for was for calling osnaps with the left hand and mousing with the right. Most of the Ctrl+? characters are close to the left side of the keyboard, so you don't have stretch the fingers too far to invoke them. The intent of my reply to you was to show you the framework for another option or approach for your situation.  You can and should change the characters/letters to be whatever works best for you. With this approach to call a override,  you hold CTRL and press another key, so it's really pressing two keys, as in your original request. If you use the F keys you can call a osnap, or multiple osnaps with just one key. It will also work in a polyline edit action. 
With this method (that I have been using for a long time), I  have at least three ways to quickly and easily call an endpoint Osnap, for example.

[Intuos5]

I see, thanks for the detailed response!

[rgrainer]

You're welcome.