Ability to Delete Assembly Constraints Using the 'Delete' Keyboard Key

[tstoutYZ3MS]

This would be a nice time saver for Inventor users. The current methodology requires right mouse selection of a Delete command, and takes approximately 1.5 seconds. However, simply using the keyboard's 'Delete' key would be instantaneous and take about .1 second. Time is of the essence, and Inventor needs to speed things up in so many areas.

[Nauris47]

It is possible to delete if you have selected more than one constraint.

[ambrose]

I totally agree.

The idea linked below is basically the same thing, please consider giving it a vote.

Get rid of redundant constraint editing options and make the UX more consistent with Windows - Autod...

[Yijiang.Cai]

Many thanks for posting the idea to us, and tracked as [INVGEN-66691]

[Yijiang.Cai]

@tstoutYZ3MS @Nauris47 @ambrose we have provided the option in the hamburger menu to hide the input dialog for clicking constraint node in the browser. When it is checked, the selected constraint will be deleted when pressing Delete key. Does it work for you?

[tstoutYZ3MS]

@Yijiang.Cai, this is not acceptable because I must set my editing constraint offsets in the feature browser pane to off in order to enable the delete by "Delete" key behavior. I should not be forced to select between either one or the other behavior. I really need to be able to edit offset values within the feature browser pane, along with ALSO being able to delete constraints with the "Delete" key.

[ambrose]

@Yijiang.Cai, I wish I had known about that sooner! Thank you for telling us. I do agree with @tstoutYZ3MS that this should be off by default and would probably be easier to find if it was in the main application settings menu.

[ambrose]

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@tstoutYZ3MS wrote:

.....I really need to be able to edit offset values within the feature browser pane.....

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I hope you don't mind if I ask why? Does it matter if you edit the value in the feature browser of in the "Edit Constraint" dialog (assuming the same number of clicks and keystrokes)?

I don't see how you could keep the single-click-edit option while also having the delete key work in the expected way. Unless they start messing with the way editing the number works, which I would not be in favour of!

[tstoutYZ3MS]

@ambrose @Yijiang.Cai, After further thought, I think the ability to edit constraint offset values in the feature browser could potentially go away, as long as the full-time ability to delete said constraints using the "Delete" key is available.

[SteveMDennis]

So let's discuss this a bit.

@tstoutYZ3MS I'm with @Anonymous on this fact: I don't see how you could keep the single-click-edit option while also having the delete key work in the expected way. Unless they start messing with the way editing the number works, which I would not be in favour of!

The only way to have BOTH that I can think of would be to NOT set focus to the offset edit box when you pick the constraint. That means the focus of the program would still be in the "browser" (from your pick with the mouse) and the delete key would work. BUT, that would mean to change the offset from 0.000 to 1.000 would require you to move over and actually click the mouse again in the edit box.

Once the edit box has focus it receives all keyboard input, how are we to determine if your delete was intended to delete the constraint or just one character in the edit box?

If you've been using Inventor for a long time you might remember when we first implemented this box it was located at the very bottom of the browser pane which would have made this even more painful, we likely auto set focus to it because it was so far away!

If we don't set focus to the edit box like we do today I would argue that it would take even longer for you to edit an offset value than use the delete from the menu, which was your original concern time wise. At a previous company we went through analysis of how humans interact with this kind of movement. If focus was not on the edit box automatically you would have to move your eyes to it along with the mouse, click the mouse in a small target, reengage with the keyboard and type the new data. Surprisingly they eye movements required to do such an operation take way longer than most people think, sorry for the tangent.

As a team we do need to determine how often people use this "Quick offset edit" but unfortunately we cannot right now because it appears in our data as a regular "Edit Constraint" action, we can't differentiate between this edit and a full blown edit with the dialog.  We will likely make that change and than we could determine the best default for the entire Inventor user base.

Hope this explanation is useful.

[Intuos5]

Ideally, this shortcut should be user configurable, so you could, for instance opt to use X or Backspace for constraints and the delete key to delete. Or even Backspace to delete selected items in the browser.

[ambrose]

Hi @Intuos5 - I don't really see why that would be necessary. I feel strongly that it should just be the delete key, like it is everywhere else, including other bits of Inventor.

[Intuos5]

@Anonymous it should be delete by default, but, it should also be remappable in the keyboard shortcuts.