Update: Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts

[keqingsong]

Hey all, 

I wanna give you an update on our progress around customizable keyboard shortcuts (CKS).  Instead of reviving an old thread I'm starting a new one here. This highly anticipated project is getting somewhere, and it's almost ready for you guys to try!  We went down a slightly different route than what we had first imagined, but we think this experience is nicer, more lightweight, and sets us up to scale without the need of a complicated UI. 

Custom keyboard shortcuts is part of a larger UI project we're working on; you'll be hearing more about it in a blog post coming in towards end of the month. 

You'll be able to assign custom keyboard shortcuts to all your commands via the toolbar drop-down menu. Hover over each tool and you'll see a more options menu. In there, you'll find pin to toolbar, pin to shortcuts (previously known as the "S" key toolbox), and of course, Change Keyboard Shortcuts. 

Gif taken from our development build. Hooray! 

• A custom shortcut is assigned when CKS detects an alpha key. Inputing just modifiers will not register a custom shortcut.
• You can use alphas, modifier+alpha, or a combination of modifiers + alpha.
• Leaving it blank will get rid of an existing key. 
• Reset will reset the command to it's default Fusion 360 assignment. 

• If you enter a key that is already used by another command, CKS will let you know which command is using that key. You can decide whether you want to use a different key or override it. If you override it, the affected command will no longer have a key set.

• It will save to your Fusion 360 account, so they go wherever you go. Log into a different machine with Fusion 360 and voila, launch commands like a boss.

I anticipate that you may have some questions, so here are some answers 🙂 
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When can I try this? 

• We are making a few tweaks and letting it bake, but we think it'll be ready mid-late summer. 

Can I use more than 1 alphanumeric key?

• No. CKS will take any combination of modifier keys + only 1 alphanumeric key.

Can Finish Sketch have a key combo?

• Yes!

Can I use Command + S as a custom key combo? 

• Some key combos are off limits to CKS since they have system level priority. These key combos are:
  
  • Undo:  ctrl+Z (Windows), command+Z (Mac)
  • save: ctrl+S (Windows), command+S (Mac)
  • copy: ctrl+C (Windows), command+C (Mac)
  • paste: ctrl+V (Windows), command+V (Mac)
  • cut: ctrl+X (Windows), command+X (Mac)
  • redo: ctrl+Y (Windows), command+shift+Z (Mac)
  • open: ctrl+O (Windows), command+O (Mac)

What's in Phase 2? 

• As I mentioned earlier, this is just Phase 1. Phase 2 will include improvements to existing experience as well as functionality like: 
  • See all your custom keys in one view
  • Share your custom keys with your team
  • Keys for display setting > visual styles
  • Keys for Viewcube views 

Really excited to hear your thoughts around this! Let us know what you think!

[swami.human]

WAHOO! Thx for all the team's hard work. Really looking forward to this as it will greatly improve workflow...

[laughingcreek]

I think being able to see all your custom keys in one spot (like was teased a while back) is a MUST!

[keqingsong]

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@laughingcreek wrote:

I think being able to see all your custom keys in one spot (like was teased a while back) is a MUST!

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Thanks for your feedback! Totally get you that it's important. Just so I understand where you're coming from, can you explain why it's a must for you? Are you expecting to use that view as a reference of what you've set/haven't set? Or are you thinking of another use case? 

[laughingcreek]

Basically what you've said.  It would be difficult to develop a set of shortcuts in a logical (for the user) way if you could only assign things on the fly.  I can imagine thinking "hmm, R sounds like a good idea for a rectangle"  and then later on thinking. "hmm, R seems like a good idea for revolve, no wait that already rectangle.  maybe I should change rectangle to ..."  

or maybe you already have a set of shortcuts you want to assign. (either unique to the user, or to emulate other software).  Having to go through and find each command and assign individually would be a pita.

[TrippyLighting]

I agree with @laughingcreek that there should be some form of overview even if it is just a .csv export in the beginning to allow a user to get an overview what keyboard shortcuts are defined.

[Anonymous]

Great news. And please add Maya navigation preset to Pan, Zoom, Orbit shortcuts at preferences. Thanks! 

[ittay.dror]

Too bad this isn't done in the office style (alt -> <letter for menu>  -> <letter for submenu>) or the emacs style (shortcut to open option to accept more shortcuts). With the way you do it there are two disadvantages:
1. running out of keys
2. unintuitive shortcuts. people usually remember the shortcut by associating with the first letter. With these shortcuts, I can only overload the first letter by different modifier key combinations that is confusing.

The Office style assigns shortcuts to everything out of the box. You can then allow to assign shorter shortcuts to some of them. The emacs style allows total control so I can create shortcut "families". E.g. put anything related to 'patch' under alt-p and then a letter under that. E.g. alt-p s would be used for 'stitch'. This is similar to the office concept but allows controlling the shortcuts for every level.

[Anonymous]

Please don't forget the sketch constraints in this. I suspect it's not on your list because of how you have designed your UI but please make the effort. I add constraints to sketches as often as I add geometry. And yet they have been left off of the sketch menu as if they are second class citizens.

[Anonymous]

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@keqingsong wrote:

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@laughingcreekwrote:

I think being able to see all your custom keys in one spot (like was teased a while back) is a MUST!

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.... Just so I understand where you're coming from, can you explain why it's a must for you? ...

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A full-featured keymap editor allows users to implement fine-grained control over their application usage, providing a huge increase to efficiency & productivity.

One of the first things I do with any app which has user-mappable shortcuts is to clear all of the default keybindings. This prevents unknown commands from being executed accidentally. It also forces you to explore the available commands & gain a general understanding of the application before creating your keymap.

Additionally, being able to see all of the keybindings in one place is great if you need a quick refresher on what the current keymappings are. The reference is also useful when mapping a custom controller (Logitech G13, Razer Tartarus, TouchOSC, MIDI Hardware, etc.).

Some additional features to consider:

Import / Export / Clear All / Restore Defaults

• JSON or some other human/developer-friendly format would be ideal

Contextual Keybindings

• EG: The 'F' key is currently bound by default to the Model>Modify>Fillet command. If you press 'F' while in the Sketch view, the Sketch view is exited and the Model>Modify>Fillet command is executed. Contextual mapping would allow for a much more efficient workflow; where 'F' would execute Model>Modify>Fillet when in the 3D view, and Model>Sketch>Fillet when in the Sketch view.

Full List Of Commands

• EG: The current keymap editor in Inventor:
• 

• Some improvements that could be made upon Inventors' editor:
  
  • A search field , ideally with fuzzy matching (EG: 'rfil', 'rufi', & 'ru fi' all match the Rule Fillet command). The Levenshtein Distance algorithm is a great fallback to catch misspellings in the event that the initial fuzzy matching logic does not capture many results. Said Fuzzy + Levenshtein combo would also be a huge improvement to Fusion 360's existing search menus. For reference, here's an old demo I made  inspired by the command palette of VSCode/Atom/SublimeText:
  • 
  • A reverse lookup filter (IE: captures a key/chord and filters down the list to all commands that share the same mapping.)
  • A conflict detection system that signals when a user attempts to reuse an existing mapping. This should also factor in the context feature mentioned above, allowing mappings to be reused in separate contexts without triggering a conflict warning.
  • A persistent ListView of categories, rather than a Dropdown Menu, for faster navigation/filtering.

Note

• Most of the mentioned features are implemented fairly well in Visual Studio, so I'll share a screenshot of their editor as well:
• 

[mattCQMJY]

Are you planning on adding customizable keyboard shortcuts for the Navigation Bar?  It's really frustrating not being able to select my own shortcuts for these items. I realize there is some limited customizability via Preferences but why limit the Navigation Bar shortcut options to a few presets?  These should just be treated the same as any of these other tools with the ability to select whichever keyboard shortcut i want.

[Scoox]

I have been out of the loop for a few months and I'm back again, I see a lot of improvements including custom shortcuts! Huge workflow improvement just being able to map tools to CKS. Great work Autodesk!

The one thing I'm missing is the ability to map "Repeat <last action>", unless it's already possible and I've missed it?

Other things that it would be nice to be able to assign are thing like object visibility. I know it might sound like nobody is going to use it but some of us have programmable keyboards with loads of keys and all this functionality could be one key press away.

[phil.knoll]

Is there no way to assign a shortcut to "Paste New"? Someone please let me know if you've found a way to do this.

Rant:

I love the design you've implemented for shortcut creation from menu items, but we still need a real keyboard shortcut configuration. It lets us review them, restore/reset them in the case of account malfunction, port between platforms, and adjust according to input devices. Keyboard shortcuts are one of the most critical aspects of 3D software. People voting for the "Dark Mode" feature are not power users. Fusion 360's limiting factor for me is its inability to draft ideas quickly. It means I use another 3D modeling application for that and then recreate/import those designs into Fusion 360.