AnyRail hotkeys

[David]

A few hotkeys are available in AnyRail that might make working with it a bit quicker.

Some well known Windows combinations:
Ctrl-S - Save
Ctrl-Z - Undo
Ctrl-Y - Redo
Ctrl-A - Select all
Ctrl-C - Copy
Ctrl-V - Paste
Copy and Paste works also between two running instances of AnyRail.
Simply start AnyRail twice, and you can easily copy stuff from other plans into your own plan.

Other keys:

'Delete' - works when hovering track or hovering a point on a line or surface. It also deletes your selection.
'p' - Adds a new point when hovering a line or surface
'h' - Opens the height dialog when hovering an endpoint, connection, or point on a line

Other interesting functions are available with the Shift key:
- Holding it down while dragging flex control points keeps each pair of control points in line
For the lines and surfaces
- Holding it down while dragging a point scales the figure
- Holding it down while dragging a line segment moves just that segment
- Elements are automatically unglued when dragged with the Shift key down

David.

[pvdleek]

Thanks!
I already knew some of them because you kept it close to the Microsoft "standard". But it's always nice to learn some new hotkeys and prevent RSI

[David]

One more:

Use the mouse wheel while pressing Ctrl to zoom in and out.

David.

[Sven]

Thanks David. The hotkeys are really useful. I'm a big fan of them as they increase work efficeny.

Here are two suggestions for more hotkeys:
- Toggle 3D/2D mode
- Toggle Disconnect/Connect (alternative would be a mouse gesture with a modifier)

[David]

If you select a connection and press 'Del', it'll be removed.

Toggling the 2D/3D view with a hotkey can be very annoying perhaps if building the 3D image takes a long time.

[Sven]

If you select a connection and press 'Del', it'll be removed.

Ok, thanks, I'll give it a try.
I also had in mind disconnecting an entire track - either with hotkey or mouse gesture like "Ctrl + drag" or similar.

Toggling the 2D/3D view with a hotkey can be very annoying perhaps if building the 3D image takes a long time.

Well, depends on the hotkey. If it is not a commonly used one (like F12) I would guess the risk is minimal to hit it accidentially.
As a workaround so far I've used the option to place the button on the quick access toolbar - this already helps as I don't need to switch to a different ribbon.

[JoeBaldwin]

If you select a connection and press 'Del', it'll be removed.

Hi,

Pressing DELETE on the Circle junction disconnects the joint but the delete key on my PC requires the use of my right hand making it really awkward.  Assigning Disconnect to Ctrl-D seems much more useful.  Thank you 

[David]

Well, I'm left-handed ...

Maybe we can make this more flexible later as everyone will have their own preferences. It does not have a very high priority though I'm afraid.

[wpslo]

Here is a way to connect a section [ I think ] .
Press SHIFT and with SHIFT held down Left Click on the desired section and
drag to the required position .
This seems to make a connection .
I have looked at using AutoHotKey but there do not appear to be
any relevant controls .

[Richard Ingraham]

I would really love to see some hotkeys for Rotate, Flip and Disconnect.  I feel like I suck up a lot of time zipping all the way up to the ribbon or right clicking and then selecting these functions.

[David]

@Richard: in which cases do you rotate elements a lot and can't use the rotation handle?

[Richard Ingraham]

@Richard: in which cases do you rotate elements a lot and can't use the rotation handle?

Good point.  I just rarely use the rotation handle because I like to be very precise.  It helps a lot to do so when you're trying to make tracks meet up somewhere else that might be 15 or 20 feet away.  I find using the handle only really useful for taking a piece of track or group of tracks that are connected together and rotating them roughly into place just to see what it will look like, or to get them close enough that I can then connect them to the end of another segment of track.  But other than that, I vastly prefer to open the dialog box and often I want to type in the number and hit enter or I also use the + and - 90 buttons a lot.  If there were a way to hold down a modifier key while using the rotation handles and things would snap into logical spots, then maybe I wouldn't feel the need to open the dialog box?  Or maybe this exists, and I missed it?  If such a feature was possible, then I'd like to be able to set the snap points.  Like 90, 60, 45, 30, etc..
Free hand is just too imprecise to me. 

I hope that's helpful and doesn't come across as overly critical. 

[David]

Well, there could be various ways to create hotkeys.
One could be:
R brings up the Rotate dialog
Another could be:
r45<enter> rotates 45 degrees

I'm just making some suggestions...

[Richard Ingraham]

Well, there could be various ways to create hotkeys.
One could be:
R brings up the Rotate dialog
Another could be:
r45<enter> rotates 45 degrees

I'm just making some suggestions...

I'd be cool with R bringing up the rotate dialog.  And D being disconnect and F being flip.  It could even be Ctrl+ R, D or F if we didn't want to make it too easy to do accidentally.  All of those can easily be done with one hand.

[Cuba64]

@Richard: in which cases do you rotate elements a lot and can't use the rotation handle?

When using a trackpad on a laptop?