After SU crashed (importing a geo location), all of my customized keyboard shortcuts reverted back to the default. I am on Mac Yosemite, SU 2015. Is this normal? I would not think so. I have been having trouble with the shortcuts staying after I changed them and updated the plist. Can this be fixed with a setting, like, “don’t do that”?
which plist did you update and how?
Yosemite handles plist’s a little differently, so this info is needed…
I let SU update the plist as I changed the keyboard shortcuts. But in the past I had problems with that, until I found the plist and looked at “Get Info” on the sketchup.plist, which said that it was locked. Once I unlocked it, I was able to make changes to the shortcuts and they would stay after reopening SU. But after a crash, the shortcuts reset to default. Unfortunately, I did not save a copy of that modified plist. I did not think I would need too. But why would it reset?
SketchUp plist is different than shortcut plist - the defaults are stored in the app. Your changes to shortcuts then get put in ~/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2015/SketchUp/Shortcuts.plist. If yours went away, somehow that got deleted, renamed or blanked. out. There’s something weird on your machine.
Remember, there’s cfprefsd, that caches preferences, so what you see in an app may not be stored to disk. You need to clear that cache by restarting cfprefsd.
in SU menu > Window > Ruby Console
Sketchup.find_support_file("Shortcuts.plist")
should give you the path to your shortcuts…
it is separate from the plist your referring to and that may be the issue…
mine looks like this…
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
<string> </string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectSelectionTool:</string>
<string>g</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>makeComponent:</string>
<string>l</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectLineTool:</string>
<string>t</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectMeasureTool:</string>
<string>b</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectPaintTool:</string>
<string>r</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectRectangleTool:</string>
<string>c</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectCircleTool:</string>
<string>a</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectArcTool:</string>
<string>p</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectPushPullTool:</string>
<string>m</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectMoveTool:</string>
<string>q</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectRotateTool:</string>
<string>s</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectScaleTool:</string>
<string>z</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectZoomTool:</string>
<string>Z</string>
<integer>131072</integer>
<string>viewZoomExtents:</string>
<string>e</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectEraseTool:</string>
<string>t</string>
<integer>524288</integer>
<string>doThreeDText:</string>
<string>f</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectExtrudeTool:</string>
<string>o</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectOffsetTool:</string>
<string>V</string>
<integer>131072</integer>
<string>pasteInPlace:</string>
<string>R</string>
<integer>131072</integer>
<string>/Draw/Rotated Rectangle</string>
<string>w</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>/Extensions/Weld</string>
<string>s</string>
<integer>262144</integer>
<string>saveCopy:</string>
<string>k</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>/Extensions/Keyboard Shortcuts</string>
<string>d</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectDimensionTool:</string>
<string>v</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>toggleHideRestOfModel:</string>
<string>h</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>viewShowHidden:</string>
<string>P</string>
<integer>131072</integer>
<string>viewParallelProjection:</string>
<string>u</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>editUnlockSelected:</string>
<string>T</string>
<integer>131072</integer>
<string>togglePageTabsDsiplay:</string>
<string>m</string>
<integer>524288</integer>
<string>/Extensions/Mirror Selection</string>
<string>T</string>
<integer>917504</integer>
<string>viewTop:</string>
<string>b</string>
<integer>524288</integer>
<string>orderFrontColorPanel:</string>
<string>E</string>
<integer>131072</integer>
<string>/File/Export/2D Graphic...</string>
<string>S</string>
<integer>131072</integer>
<string>/File/Export/Section Slice...</string>
<string>A</string>
<integer>131072</integer>
<string>/File/Export/Animation...</string>
<string>y</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>toggleToolbarShown:</string>
<string>§</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>selectOrbitTool:</string>
<string>`</string>
<integer>0</integer>
<string>showModelPropertiesPanel:</string>
</array>
</plist>
if you modify the other com.sketchup.SketchUp.2015 found in User/Library Yosemite will just replace it with the previous, unless done in a very particular way…
so check if you have the correct Shortcuts.plist and edit it if you want…
I mistyped, it was the shortcut.plist. I have never heard or seen “cfprefsd” how do I find it and clear it or restart it?
This is where I see my plist:
the easiest way is to open ‘Ruby Console’ in SU and enter this and hit return…
%x( killall cfprefsd )
then restart SU…
Thanks for the help.
As Charlie Brown would say AUUUUUGH!!! I have recently started having the same problem described here. The problem is that I have read the analysis of the situation and I think what to do to solve it, but I am obviously a bit of a village idiot because it was all very confusing to me.
Is it all possible that some kind soul could just give me a “recipe” as to how to fix this. It is driving me CRAZY! Yes - SU crashes on me quite a bit ( usually when using a third party render plug-in ) and of course every time I reopen it, my carefully assigned keyboard shortcuts are gone.
Not ashamed to say please pretend I am in kindergarten and just give me one of these types of instructions - PLEASE. step1> step 1> step 3> etc. Really pulling my hair out by the roots here.
Thank you.
Step 1 is to get your shortcuts set up the way you want in SketchUp.
Step 2 is to make a backup copy of the file in which SketchUp saves the shortcuts. It is at
/Users/your-name/Library/Application\ Support/SketchUp\ 2016/SketchUp/Shortcuts.plist
Notes:
- replace your-name with your actual username
- the backslashes precede where there are spaces in the path. If you work via Finder you won’t need to enter these backslashes
- your Library folder is hidden by default in Finder. You can use Go->Go to Folder to get there if it is hidden
- put your copy somewhere you can remember!
Step 3: The next time your shortcuts get wiped out, quit SketchUp and then reverse the process above. That is, copy your backup (copy, don’t move) Shortcuts.plist into the original folder per the above path. When asked, say you want to replace the existing file.
Step 4: Log off and then back in. This forces the system to re-read the plist file (there are other ways to force it, but this is the easiest for non-techies).
I cannot begin to thank you enough for these instructions. And so well laid out that even yours truly the village idiot will no doubt be able to follow them. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Finally managed to find the time to sit down this morning to follow these instructions. I guess there is no hope for me and I am fated to have to constantly redo my shortcut preferences, since nowhere that I can see is that shortcuts.plist file stored. And… instructions were to “copy your backup copy”. I don’t understand - what file am I copying? How and where did a copy save itself on my system?
Someone else had suggested saving a copy of the shortcut preferences when I set them up, and spoke of “buttons” to do so. I have been able to find or see any buttons to save anything?
First things first though. I need to be able to find that Shortcuts.plist. Sigh…
Oh boy - OK took a while for the info to filter through the sludge that is my brain, but I did find the file. I deleted it, reopened SU and sure enough all my shortcuts were intact. Returned to the .plist location, saved a copy somewhere that i will remember where it is 
and now I should be good to go.
I will then be able to follow (maybe…) the instructions in your very helpful post should the problem rear its ugly head again.
Thank you very much, this is going to save me tons of frustration in the coming week and forwards.
All the best.
Cheers.