Holding a key to temporarily enable Rotate mode

SketchUp
, ,
1

Hello community

Can anyone let me know if it’s possible to hold down a key (say ‘x’) and then have SU switch to ‘Orbit’ mode, just whilst the key is held down?

Once the key is no longer being held, then SU should go back to whatever mode it was in, Push/Pull for instance.

Reason being, constantly switching back and forth between tools, just to change the view of the scene is quite time consuming and could be avoided.

If SU could do this, it would make it similar to graphic design tools like Photoshop or Sketch, which enable the user to quickly navigate around the scene without losing (and having to re-enable) their selected tool. Photoshop or Sketch use the space bar for this.

Disclaimer: I’m an interaction designer and I think about these things a lot.

2

You’re talking about the Orbit tool, not the Rotate tool. Big difference.

It already does and has since the beginning.

For Orbit, press and hold the center mouse button/wheel. Roll it to Zoom. press and hold with Shift for Pan. No need to select the Orbit tool from the toolbar or with a keyboard shortcut.

You should look at this.

1 Like
3

Thanks for the answer @DaveR!

Apologies for the tool names, will edit.

I don’t have a mouse, I’m on a laptop (and frequently designing on-the-go).

Is there a non-mouse solution for this?

4

Problem solved:

Here’s the answer, for those who come from search.

(from Dave’s docs)
If you use Mac OS X, press and hold the Control and Command keys while clicking and holding the left mouse button.

5

That last part sounded misleading. I think that dragging would be more effective than just holding the left mouse button!

You can also hold shift-control-command-drag to do a temporary pan.

6

This topic was automatically closed after 91 days. New replies are no longer allowed.