2008

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are keyboard alternatives you can use to initiate actions (commands or

tools) normally accessed with the mouse. For example, to open the Select From Scene dialog,

you can press the H key, or you can change the active viewport to a view from the bottom

by pressing B. Keyboard shortcuts let you work faster and more efficiently.

Many keyboard shortcuts are already set for most commonly used actions. Throughout this

reference, command descriptions include the default shortcut, if there is one: look for the

path annotation (with a gray background) at the top of the page.

To modify or add new shortcuts, use the

Keyboard panel on page 7489 of the Customize User

Interface dialog

on page 7489 . Keyboard shortcuts are separated by Groups or Categories of groups

and they organize Actions.

Groups organize the Actions for which you can set shortcuts. Default=Main UI.

Categories offer a further breakdown of the Actions in a Group to specific categories. This

lets you quickly find an Action so you can assign or adjust a shortcut.

Actions are commands or tools.

In most cases you can close a dialog with the same command used to open it. In general this

applies to any combination of input methods, including menu, toolbar button, and keyboard

shortcuts. For more information, see

Toggling Dialogs on page 7253 .

Viewing the Assigned Shortcuts

To see the currently assigned keyboard shortcuts, you can create a text (TXT) file of all the

actions and their shortcuts. Go to the

Keyboard panel on page 7489 of the Customize User

Interface dialog

on page 7489 , and then click Write Keyboard Chart. All actions that can have

a shortcut assigned to them are listed. For actions with no default shortcut assigned, the

Shortcut column entry is blank.

If you click Reset on the Keyboard panel before you click Write Keyboard Chart, the text files

shows the default keyboard shortcut assignments. However, this loses any custom shortcuts

you might have created before.

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