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#69362 by ORWoody
Wed Jun 29, 2016 10:01 pm
This is the first time that I have been into the forum in awhile which is why I didn't respond to your question sooner.
The suggested method of using an Alt+ key works, but there are other ways that might be better used. The reason that I say that is because the Alt+ quick keys can go through a multitude of steps and can adjust settings to meet certain conditions.
In the case of the weld line, it is accessible through the drop down menu as well as the menu beside the work space. When a command is accessible through the drop down menu, it is easily activated by using the Ctrl+ key combination. That saves your Alt+ keys for bigger and more complex needs.
The beauty of this command activation is that you are not limited to a letter as is the case with the Alt+ activation.
To make a quick key for the Ctrl+ activation, decide which one you would like to use. In my case, I chose F7 for the weld line and F8 for the weld wall.
With Note Pad (or a good text editing program that doesn't add hidden symbols), open Dcadwin.mnu (after you have saved a copy for insurance). Scroll down to Weld Line. Note that there are two pipe symbols to the right of the phrase. Between the pipe symbols insert F7 so that it looks like this.....Weld Line|Ctrl+F7|Join two lines together
In my case, several lines down, there is Weld Wall so mine looks like this.....Weld Wall|Ctrl+F8|Mend gap in wall lines
I used F1 for One line trim and F2 for Two line trim. These are just suggestions, but they work for me.
If you start looking in that file, you will see lots of commands that you use regularly, but just click, click, click to get to them. If you make the quick keys work there, it won't be long until you almost forget how to search for them the old way.
Good luck,
Woody
#69365 by Roger D
Thu Jun 30, 2016 5:43 am
You can also use letters in the Dcadwin.mnu combinations, so one could make weld wall to be be
Weld Line|Ctrl+W|Join two lines together
as long as it is not already used elsewhere in the file.
#69366 by ORWoody
Thu Jun 30, 2016 5:56 am
Yes. As Roger said, one can use letters. Or numbers. Or even things like commas and periods. There are so many choices that one soon runs out of commands to invoke. I used all of my numbers, letters and symbols. Then I realized that I had created so many "quick keys" that I couldn't remember some of the lesser used commands without clicking the Cntrl+ key and seeing where it took me.
The Ctrl and Alt keys and the hot keys make it where I very seldom need to go into another menu. Even then, it is usually to fine tune such as changing from Group to Area or something like that.
#69367 by dirtsailor2003
Thu Jun 30, 2016 8:24 am
REX PEET wrote:Make sure the dcadwin.mcr file contains the following and then hit Alt W

W^52#^
//cleanup\weld line



Interestingly enough, Alt-W was set up to work as weld line. I never use it so didn't know the code though is different than what you gave. This is what our mcr file looks like. Which still has me wondering how to program quick keys. I am not a computer programmer so this all looks like randomness to me.

A^;^S5^
B^;^F9^F4^
C^;^F0^
D^:^F6^F1^F1^F2^S0^F3^
E^;^F6^
F^;^F9^F1^F1^
G^Ä^ú^:^F6^F3^F8^
H^;^S2^F4^F8^F5^F0^F1^F8^S0^F2^F8^F3^F0^F2^S9^
I^;^S1^$^S8^S0^
J^;^F9^F5^
K^;^F8^
L^;^F9^S1^
M^;^F4^
N^:^S6^F1
O^;^F9^F4^F1^$^$^
P^:^S5^
Q^:^S9
R^ã^;^S4^
S^;^F5^
T^;^S6
U^;^F9^F0^
V^;^F0^S6^S7^S6^
W^;^F9^F7^
X^:^F7^
Y^:^F3^F9^S0^F6^S7^S7^S7^S7^S7^S7^S5^S4^S3^S2^S1^F0^F9^F8^F7^F6^F5^F4^F3^F2^F1^
Z^;^F0^S8^S2^
#69368 by dirtsailor2003
Thu Jun 30, 2016 8:27 am
ORWoody wrote:This is the first time that I have been into the forum in awhile which is why I didn't respond to your question sooner.
The suggested method of using an Alt+ key works, but there are other ways that might be better used. The reason that I say that is because the Alt+ quick keys can go through a multitude of steps and can adjust settings to meet certain conditions.
In the case of the weld line, it is accessible through the drop down menu as well as the menu beside the work space. When a command is accessible through the drop down menu, it is easily activated by using the Ctrl+ key combination. That saves your Alt+ keys for bigger and more complex needs.
The beauty of this command activation is that you are not limited to a letter as is the case with the Alt+ activation.
To make a quick key for the Ctrl+ activation, decide which one you would like to use. In my case, I chose F7 for the weld line and F8 for the weld wall.
With Note Pad (or a good text editing program that doesn't add hidden symbols), open Dcadwin.mnu (after you have saved a copy for insurance). Scroll down to Weld Line. Note that there are two pipe symbols to the right of the phrase. Between the pipe symbols insert F7 so that it looks like this.....Weld Line|Ctrl+F7|Join two lines together
In my case, several lines down, there is Weld Wall so mine looks like this.....Weld Wall|Ctrl+F8|Mend gap in wall lines
I used F1 for One line trim and F2 for Two line trim. These are just suggestions, but they work for me.
If you start looking in that file, you will see lots of commands that you use regularly, but just click, click, click to get to them. If you make the quick keys work there, it won't be long until you almost forget how to search for them the old way.
Good luck,
Woody


Where is this elusive MNU file hiding???? I have searched through all my Datacad18 files and it isn't anywhere that I can see.
#69369 by dirtsailor2003
Thu Jun 30, 2016 8:28 am
Roger D wrote:You can also use letters in the Dcadwin.mnu combinations, so one could make weld wall to be be
Weld Line|Ctrl+W|Join two lines together
as long as it is not already used elsewhere in the file.


Where is this elusive MNU file hiding???? I have searched through all my Datacad18 files and it isn't anywhere that I can see.
#69375 by ORWoody
Thu Jun 30, 2016 10:23 am
The dcadwin.mnu file is in the Messages and Labels folder under the Support Files folder in DataCAD.
When you open that file, you will see a list that begins like this....

File||Display File menu options
New||Create new file
Open...||Open existing file
Close||Close current file; prompt to save changes
Close All||Close all open files; prompt to save changes
Save|Ctrl+F9|Save changes to current file......


Save was the first command to which I added my own quick choice.

On down the list, I had a group where I added the quick key access to almost all of them....

Mirror|Ctrl+M|Mirror drawing entities about a line
Stretch|Ctrl+S|Stretch end-points of entities
Enlarge|Ctrl+N|Scale the size of entities
Erase||Delete entities from your drawing
Change||Change the properties of existing entities
Partial Erase|Ctrl+E|Erase only part of an entity
Line Cleanup||Clean up intersections of lines and walls
1 Line Trim|Ctrl+1|Trim to a line
2 Line Trim|Ctrl+2|Trim two intersecting lines together (pick segments you want to keep)
Free Trim||Trim lines to nearest intersecting line(s)
Weld Line|Ctrl+F7|Join two lines together
Wall Cleanup||
T-Intersection|Ctrl+I|Cleanup wall "T" intersections
L-Intersection|Ctrl+L|Cleanup wall "L" intersections
X-Intersection|Ctrl+X|Cleanup wall "X" intersections
Weld Wall|Ctrl+F8|Mend gap in wall lines

What you are looking at here is the command followed by the two pipe symbols that enclose the quick key. It is ended with a hint so that you can look at it to see what the command is that you are activating.

You pasted your dcadwin.mcr file and indicated that you didn't understand what you were looking at. No problem. All of us have been there and what we learned was that the answer is much simpler than one thinks. That is the way with most things in DataCAD.
The series that you are looking at on your first line is....
1. The letter to invoke the command (when used in conjunction with the Alt key).
2. A separator (the caret symbol ^ ).
3. The menu (Note that there are two menu stacks, Edit and Utility. One access them with a toggle of the right mouse button or on can touch the semi-colon or colon. That is why you see the semi-colon after the first caret).
4. A caret (as a separator)
5. S5 (The S5 choice on the Edit menu stack)
6. A final caret
To see how this works, simply touch your semi-colon key. That will take you to the Edit menu. Look at the selection at S5. It is S5 Curves.
Your second line is also on the Edit menu and takes you to One Line Trim under the CleanUp selection.

As you can see, most of these do not take you very deep into the menu choices. That is why most serious DataCAD users look at what commands they find themselves using and customizing the dcadwin.mcr file to save many, many keystrokes.
Mine begins like this....

A^:^F7^S5^F9^$^// Calculate polyline "area"
B^;^S3^S7^S3^F3^S4^60^$^// Draw bi-fold door
C^;^S3^S1^S0^F0^S8^S2^F1^$^// Change text "content"
D^;^S3^S1^S0^S3^S7^S3^F1^S4^45^$^S5^0^$^// Draw single door

If you look at my second line, you'll notice that the first four items are exactly like your first four items. That is because "B" is the hot key and the other items are the standard entry codes and separators to go to the Edit menu.
Instead of F9 in the fifth place, I have S3. That is the Architect choice on the menu. The items that follow are just the menu choices used in this hot key series. Each one with a caret as a separator.
At the end, there are two slashes that tells DataCAD to ignore what follows. After those slashes, I have written out a hint. That was so that if I wanted to revise a seldom used hot key command, I didn't have to wonder what each of my letters did.

A couple of things to note in my commands; You can see some stand alone numbers that don't fit the F or S positions on the Edit or Utility menus. That is because those are angle values. In B, my bi-fold doors will be open 60 degrees and in D, my single door will be open 45 degrees. Each of those numbers is followed by the separator and then a dollar sign. The dollar sign is used just like the Enter key on your keyboard.

My use for DataCAD was primarily in the 2D mode and my hot keys were oriented toward that usage.

If you experiment with these commands a little, you will learn a more about DataCAD than you might think. What happens is that you really begin looking at how you get through a certain sequence in your drawing methods. Building quick keys can almost be considered fun when you find that instead of a dozen or more picks to get to a command, you need only a Alt+ key selection.
Smiles and high fives all around.

Good luck,
Woody

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