I find myself having to often switch between the Selection tool and other tools, for example when building walls (Rectangle tool), positioning them (Move tool), and then removing unwanted segments (Selection tool).
I end up with an uncomfortable hand position in order to switch quickly back and forth using keyboard shortcuts.
As soon as I inadvertently slightly move my shortcut hand, I have to actually take my eyes off the screen and look down at my keyboard. It turns into a huge waste of time and forces me to break attention with what I was doing with my model.
In the same way that Adobe Illustrator allow a user to hold ctrl (windows) or command (mac) in order toggle on the selection tool, it would be a major improvement in Sketchup to be able hold the spacebar in order to temporarily switch to the Selection tool. Modifier keys for the Selection tool should also become available when in this toggled on mode.
When you release the space bar, the Select Tool toggles off and you are back with the tool you were on, of course.
‘Modifying ‘ tools have a select mode. If you have something selected, it doesn’t work.
Ctrl+T on Windows and Shift+Cmd+A (the opposite of Select All on Mac) deselects anything in order to work in that modus.
If you need to open an object to push/pull or modify something in that object, you can rightclick on it and open it for editing. Once opened, the active tool stays the same prior upon opening.
Thanks for providing another scenario, Mike. However the main issue is that of efficiency in cases where I often change between the selection tool and other tools. I changed my post to give an exact example. with the Move Tool.
You may benefit from the tool stack in Eneroth Tool Memory. I use it a lot myself to switch back to one of the last few tools used. It’s a 14 day free trial.
I like the hold spacebar idea. I also want to try Eneroth’s tool memory. You might also consider remapping your keys for ergonomics. My left hand stays planted in its “home position” (thumb on space, index on F), with the keys that are easiest to reach being mapped to the most common commands. You can see what I mean if you search for images of gaming keybinds. Another ergonomics trick I use is swapping the my capslock and control keys (with SharpKeys). I also swap the escape with tilde, since I’m constantly slapping the escape key in SketchUp.
You might want to try LordOfTheToolbars. A single spacebar will invoke the Select tool. Then, a double Spacebar will call back the tool that was previously active, whether a native tool or a Ruby extension, and whether this was an interactive tool or not.
