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UI Shortcuts: Please add missing function keys F13-24

Aurasphere
Expert

I wont explain the details but would be happy to share the results.

To implement truly ergonomic UX, keypad game controllers are amazing! This needs extra channels of shortcut access

Please add this simple extension of characters

 

Aurasphere_0-1687904136804.png

 

Allows parallel mapping so that all the normal shortcuts can co exist ie using another machine without keypad

Here is an example from the button shortcuts/gestures in Cubase

Aurasphere_1-1687904337136.png

 

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"

25 REPLIES 25

Erwin, that is exactly the case

Maybe when you start getting RSI or carpel tunnel, it might make sense.

 

If you saw the demo, experienced it, the creative freedom that it unleashes becomes apparent. Creativity is from the right side brain, every time you move your mouse etc to execute an action, you are diverting the creative spark and processing left side. You remove the overhead of thinking about it and instead feel what you are doing...they are 2 completely disparate mind spaces...that is why you butter paper at concept phase...because the pencil unleashes the connection

Read the story on the Hamburg opera 🙂

 

EDIT: BTW try adding up how many times your mouse is used for an action, time it and and do some maths...but if you are happy with that..all the best 🙂

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"

Erwin Edel
Rockstar

Thanks! Quite happy. Zero issues with RSI, micro breaks and making sure the pointer speed is such that you move your arm, not your wrist etc etc

 

From playing a MMO for ages, I find that with thumb on ALT, pinky on left SHIFT you can easily get a lot of keybinds in though and maybe with macros you can sort out the missing bits.

Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5

Great! Glad you are happy with it 🙂

Zero wrist movement is a given...but so I thought moving your arm was as well...only my fingers move the mouse.

 

As is full touch typing (no looking at the screen!) and using the mouse only for spatial input; not analytical execution...

Mmo is prob not in the same league, for me anyway (tiny pallet compared to Archicad)...we have physically modelled our BIM stuff well beyond what I have seen in most practices as we have done full BOQ since 97 (in archicad and had the hungary team visit us in Australia in 97).

 

What Im saying is the level of detail is no doubt different else the automating of model construction, in any way would be welcome, I would imagine but here I am contending for a better UI/UX. Eg even our finishes are all predefined, coloured by a consultant in external package and its output populates Archicad surfaces library for automated colours and finishes

 

Truth is...Im prob expecting too much when UI improvement hasn't been experienced and thats fair enough...not many offices have the luxury of developing UI (and this is my overflow/contribution from other undertakings).

 

I dont suffer from any physical detriment but older colleagues have in the past; I have been doing computer graphics since 1988...but def posture has suffered despite aeron B

 

None the less...enloy it Erwin!

 

Every time...do it better :-)...which is why I'm here asking for better.

Please GS, its just a library gate in the framework...not extra new code (as far as I understand)...I will demonstrate the improvements and make it publicly available for those wanting next level...which it is!

 

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"

Erwin Edel
Rockstar

If you include CTRL+ALT+SHIFT as modifiers and consider your left hand can probably comfortably reach 12-20 keys (depending on your finger length), doesn't that open up a lot of options though? 8 options for each key, if I'm counting correctly. Sure some are taken, but you still end up with somewhere between 100-150 options?

Again assuming you can use the hardware driver to bind the extra function keys to keystrokes as those.

 

 

Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5

No...unfortunately...the assumptions must be exercised to view the details required.

  • For the system to work, those modifiers must remain hardwired on the keypad else you will need to jump between keyboard and keypad
  • Adding modifiers to the actual key or macro will disable the ability to use a modifier and make the key only capable of a single action
  • Using more than 1 modifier becomes very hard to remember
  • The reach on a keyboard vs keypad is not comparable and the feel of the keypad means you dont have to look or move your hand off the keypad.

I cant use gesturing atm so that leaves 5 comfortable modifier combinations which are mostly taken in some way or another with defaults in AC.

 

Look at just layer switching alone, when logically grouped in the pic below (this is from the Cubase template which does allow gestures)

 

Aurasphere_0-1687956019592.png

 

Please...try just the above and see how far you get with parallel mapping...I have spent many hours trying to get it to work properly. 

Remember the modifiers and system keys must be reserved and be within reach without stretching for this to work optimally...

 

Fn 13-24 will provide a start

Button gesturing would complete it...

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"

Erwin Edel
Rockstar

My logitech keyboard has 12 extra keys to the left and 3 banks (accesible through a little button at the top). You can populate these 36 keys (3 banks x 12 keys) with a sort of macro of button presses through software, much like you set up hotkeys in ArchiCAD. Isn't this what you mean by the parallel setup?

 

So I could keybind, for example CTRL+SHIFT+Q to something in ArchiCAD in the work environment and then I can set up F13 on the side of the keyboard in bank 1 to act like CTRL+SHIFT+Q.

 

There is no way to use these keys in windows or macOS outside setting something up through the logitech software, I think it's a hardware support issue from OS, rather than software support.

Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5

see above

 

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"

 
I also have eg Logitech G31...quite old now...tried that
But I think you are definitely missing something in the interpretation here
  • Banks are useless as you have to continually switch through them, try and remember the groupings etc...it is not useable
  • The macro buttons do not operate like a single handed keypad eg tartarus and you have to dance between the macro keys and keyboard; they are one shot
  • A keypad, will let you rest your hand comfortably in a single position and without leaving the keypad, execute all that I have outlined, currently quite limited without gesturing but still miles ahead of using the keyboard + extender or keyboard alone
  • ctrl, shift etc are dedicated keys on the keypad...I think if you understood my previous posts you would have noted that you cannot embed qualifiers in the macro.
 
Ill leave it at that; I do appreciate your input...its just nowhere near the point of getting it (it would seem) and  going round in circles.
If you tried it yourself, you would immediately get it...you will quickly realise the finer details of why Im asking for unused function keys to make this work...just try it first
 
eg Assign L as the mnemonic key for layers, add the variation of function using qualifiers, then make it all work eg as per the shortcuts below on the keypad whilst keeping parallel function with default shortcuts.
 
Aurasphere_0-1687959454400.png

 

 
This is a new system and logic...not one shot commands on a game controller 🙂
Its a development from when Archicad rewrote the shortcuts and started using logic eg Shift to invert the original function
eg Instead of ctrl + z = undo and ctrl + y = redo, they used shift as an inversion logic...this system extends that on many different levels..
 

The issue is, Im just asking for a removal of the shortcut keys dialog filter that is ignoring fn 13-24 for those that want to go a lot further with ergonomics/proficiency. Without foreknowledge is far too difficult to explain it...a finished demo would prove it.

 

After a lot of time on other packages and doing UI/UX as a job for many years...Archicad is a great package and deserves an upgrade which this simple request will allow

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"

Lingwisyer
Guru
Archicad does not interpret fn13-24
removal of the shortcut keys dialog filter that is ignoring fn 13-24

What do you mean by shortcut key dialog filter? Are Fn 13 to 24 recognised as unique keys in other programs? I would suspect that they are simply not recognised given the vast majority of people, including devs, would not have keyboards with them...

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What do you mean by shortcut key dialog filter? 

Generally the dialogs etc a libraries that have parameters to control the filtering when coding

 

Are Fn 13 to 24 recognised as unique keys in other programs?

Generally yes

 

the vast majority of people, including devs, would not have keyboards with them.

Which is why they are a perfect solution ie they are unassigned...ready and waiting as an extension tool

 

Every time...do it better ...which is why I'm here asking for better 🙂

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"