Layout PCB switching between layers, shortcuts

[christopher2KLSVU]

How to switch between the layers by shortcuts?

This is very basic function, in Eagle 9.x I could define some commands and then by pressing  for example F1, I have activated TOP layer and when F8 the Bottom layers. And all between respectively by Fx.

It were very long commands defined somewhere in Layer view. Here I do not see this. In some post from February Auto desk people written that it is currently not working.. but in the future..

Man it is like a car without steering wheel!

What is is Autodesk approach to effectively switch between the layers - no mouse sorry.

[christopher2KLSVU]

Really there is no any shortcuts available?

@jorge_garcia 

@yqliu 

@Pieter.Jan.Van.de.Maele 

[ritste20]

From what I understand, you can assign keyboard shortcuts for commands that already have a shortcut programmed but you are not able to custom map keyboard shortcuts for all commands.

In this case, 'c' will bring up the change menu, go to layer, and navigate the list with numbers or up/down arrow keys.

Internal to some other commands like route, you can cycle through layers with the center mouse button/wheel click or spacebar will place a via and I believe you can cycle through layers that way.

I know that's not a great answer to your question but it may help some. The change menu is probably your best bet in not using a mouse.

Regards,

[christopher2KLSVU]

Thanks for the Tip but ( mouse wheel I know, forgotten about C),

To switch from top the layer to inner 4-  I must click three times for wheel case and 4 times for "C" case.

C, Layer, selecting Layer , OK

Wheel,Selecting Layer, OK.

The fastest... is dropdown Menu from main bar, In this way I must relocate my cursor from PCB to Layer Menu, Select Layer and then back with cursor to the last place. It is all non efficient if this is effective I am the President of US and king of EU.

Why not to make it as it was in Eagle?

I could assign any  Functional keyboard key or numerical 1-9 to any layer I wanted. These are basics, why introduce fancy 3D view when the basics are missing? @jorge_garcia @yqliu

These are not king christoph wishes, let see how other software works, how user interface friendly is. I own already one license, please autodesk tell me why I should I buy additional 4?

[ritste20]

You have to remember that Fusion electronics is still basically in its infancy. Autodesk is trying very hard to bring the same functionality as Eagle and then some with the Fusion flavor. Easier said than done. You should check out @matt.berggren post here about the transition and plans for the future.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/eagle-forum/is-eagle-retired/td-p/9516332 

Matt's response is down around message 12 I think in this thread. I think right now the best we can do from a user standpoint is continue to bring these UX concerns to the attention of the dev team and give them the feedback they need to layout critical updates, fix bugs, etc.

[HelenChen-AutodeskQA]

Hi @christopher2KLSVU ,

Sorry for any inconvenience, I will feedback this to our team. Thank you.

Regards,

Helen 

[christopher2KLSVU]

@HelenChen-AutodeskQA  How about layers shortcuts?It is 3 months after I asked about such, basic,standard, kind of must be feature????? We had in meantime few updates and NOTHING.

2.How to rename layer name?

[HelenChen-AutodeskQA]

Hi @christopher2KLSVU ,

You could edit the layer name from Document tab > Layers Display > Double click any layer you want to rename to open the Change Layer Properties dialog, where you could edit the name of the layer.

Hope it helps.

Regards,

Helen

[christopher2KLSVU]

Thank you @HelenChen-AutodeskQA 

That I did not know.

How about Layers shortcuts? Is it really so complicated for the developers?

[benjamin.jordan]

Hi @christopher2KLSVU this is indeed a difficult problem to solve for us.

Let me assure you that basic usability issues like this are at a very high priority for us. This particular issue about assigning shortcuts is hard to solve because all of Fusion 360 has a single shortcut database, therefore I cannot assign a new shortcut in the PCB editor which uses the same key as a different operation in the Mechanical workspace.

This therefore requires some deep work which will take time, but let me assure you we are very aware of this and need to make this possible somehow, and as the new Fusion 360 Electronics product manager I can assure you I feel the same as you about it and will do what I am able to solve this and other essential usability issues. 

I know that answer is not as good as "I've logged the ticket and we will have it fixed next release". But I hope you can accept that we will continue and resolve such things and make other compensatory enhancements where necessary. 

I hope that helps, in the meantime.

-Ben Jordan.

[christopher2KLSVU]

Thank you Benjamin for the answer,

Eagle way was fantastic, I hope you know how it was done.

This is top one missing feature to effectively work with multilayer board.

When company  make it, it is like opening new markets.

[christopher2KLSVU]

@benjamin.jordan 

Perhaps I am like passenger on the back seat who is trying to navigate the driver, but it is really hard to believe for me.

I did simple test:

I have PCB 2D editor tab opened on second display, it is active window now and I am pressing any of F1 to F12 keypad and nothing is going on, same with any numeric Keypad from 1 to 0 - for my understanding these keypads are free, not used by any other short-cuts. Ok  1 to 0 could be problematic without extra control key (ctrl, alt), user can just want to change value from 0 to 4 Ohm and not to change the 1 layer from 1 to 4th, but functional F1 to F12 should not make any troubles.Is not it? We have 12 functional keypads useless, please make them assignable only in 2D editor if there are some other "Global" assignments, which I could not observe during my simple test.

@HelenChen-AutodeskQA 

Helen, I just checked on second PC, shortcut  ALT + CTR + E, does not work,  + I(inspector) works.

[HelenChen-AutodeskQA]

Hi @christopher2KLSVU ,

It's so weird...

We also tried on several PCs, all work well...

Could you please try other hotkeys in the list and see whether any other hotkeys have same issue for you or not?

Regards,

Helen

[christopher2KLSVU]

@HelenChen-AutodeskQAI did video during testing shortcuts. Perhaps I am doing something wrong, mainly I am interested in Design Manager and inspector to show/hide. I have used left CTRL and left ALT keypad.

Both machines are windows system( 10, 7) machines. I am afraid that no one has noticed this or most of the people use software in non efective mouse mode only.

https://autode.sk/3fsPbCO

[HelenChen-AutodeskQA]

Hi @christopher2KLSVU ，

Thank you very much for your video.

It's too strange that I cannot reproduced with our Win 10 OS too.

I will ask other team members for help to check as well. 

Regards,

Helen

[phaggren]

Hi @HelenChen-AutodeskQA  and @christopher2KLSVU 

I tried these shortcuts on my PC.

I can confirm that the CTRL+ALT+E does nothing, but when you select HIDE DESIGN MANAGER from the menu, it does the correct function by hiding the design manager.

Interestingly CTRL+ALT+I for HIDE INSPECTOR does not work either. From the menu it works.

All the other ones perfectly with the given shortcuts in the view menu.

Using Windows 10 version 2004

Cheers

Petri

[HelenChen-AutodeskQA]

Hi @phaggren 

Thank you very much for your feedback.

Your case is neither of the hotkey work, which might be a known issue that once you selected a sheet in the sheet panel or click any place in the Design Manger or Filter or Inspector panel, the hotkey will not work until you click the schematic or board editor to activate the canvas.

Could you please try to click any place in the editor's canvas (e.g. select a component), and then try the hotkey again?

Regards,

Helen

[phaggren]

Hi @HelenChen-AutodeskQA 

I tried with the instructions you gave but the shortcuts still don't work for me either.

All the other view shortcuts work well, but not those two.

I have sent you a video, what shows a log of all the keypresses and what happens on the screen.

Cheers!

[christopher2KLSVU]

In my case CTRL ALT E does not work at all, it does not matter if I click or not something on schematic, or if design manager is already opened from File/view menu, CTRL ALT R does not help.  There is a bug 100%, I see sometimes when it is opened it is blank even if I select some part on schematic. That profs that company has no any test procedure before release, like most common user scenario.

Never mind, I need more Layer shortcuts more than this.

[HelenChen-AutodeskQA]

Hi @christopher2KLSVU ，

About Hotkey doesn't work for hide/show design manager, we are trying to reproduce it in our side. Not sure what's the difference between our operations yet. Will keep you be posted if we found it. Meanwhile, please use the View > Menu to change the hide/show status as a workaround. Sorry for any inconvenience.

About  "I see sometimes when it is opened it is blank even if I select some part on schematic.  ", is it possible that you edited the schematic file and need to click Apply button in the Design manager firstly, because it detected changes in schematic file. 

Regards,

Helen