Shortcuts, Mac: 'Dreaded' RESET button (etc)..Needs Work

I use keyboard SHORTCUTS extensively (workflow!) and have seriously struggled with several aspects of this key tool. Shabby (sorry) interface, never seems to improve. What I’d like you Trimble make is an actual ‘shortcut manager’ tool on an open-able page with elbow room.
You simply need to modernize - it’s dangerous the way it is.
Side bar -where the heck is the file kept so I can at least keep a back-up?

  • I have searched for the ‘secret file’ location,repeatedly/ off and on, over many years since SU2015(pro)… no apparent way to find (some confused souls on google looking for same help - no good answers). Why not on the /Preferences/File Location/ for an obvious start?

Today my great fear of accidentally hitting the ‘dreaded’ RESET button happened & wiped-out years of fine tuning. Lost forever? Why no flag/pop-up “are you sure you want to reset /wipe clean? Do you want to save a copy to ___ file”?

  • Also, while I’m ranting, a hover-over tip on the path for each tool with some clue as to what they do would be hoped for/ expected from that tool - some are not in ‘help’ or even google-able (and can’t be cut/pasted from the pallet or dialogue box). Suggestion: folder structure (for all those camera types at least).

-BTW The search-bar on the ‘pallet/ box’ is great help, very useful.

  • I use zoom-previous extensively, found in the customize-menu as a button but not listed in shortcuts(?).

  • Also needed: at least two-character shortcuts, modifier key is not enough (possible like ‘alias’ acad used in the previous millennium).

-Also - can you please make the ‘…/Preferences/File location…’ dialogue box sideways ‘stretchable’ - tacky to not see the whole path IMHO.

Love SketchUp,

Sincerely,
“Linus”

Isn’t there a folder button on the Mac edition for each File path ?

Not for Shortcuts, unless I’m missing something you can point out.

Shortcuts are kept in one of the . json files in the ~/user/Library/Application Support/SketchUp/SketchUp 20xx
Folder
Use TimeMachine to recover previous.
You can open the instructor window for the general tools, it displays the workings of the active tool.

Yes, that actually worked - Thank-you Mike.

re your instructor suggestion - I had actually tried that -it is not linked to the list, which would be a nice-to-have. Is there an all tools Instructor Index? (I have not found the Instructor of much utility, personally. It’s pretty basic.
BTW- I don’t mind investing in learning curve effort including much direct experience, just as well it is not too easy.

My suggestions all stand…
I can’t be the only one.
L~

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You’re definitely not the only one. While the functionality for a lot of things exist in SketchUp, including setting presets for almost anything, they are far from polished. With so many different creative suites out there putting UI and UX as a top priority it certainly highlights the issue.

There are a lot of people around here who will be quick to point out the functions exist and defend against any sort of improvement, which is a bit of a mystery to me still. But you’re not alone.

I hear you, & thx for chiming in. There is a work-around for anything and everything, so many ways to skin a cat- SU users are a patient breed, and we have nothing to complain about. Amazing tool. Amazing community.
The possibilities are awesome - every project better and smarter. I don’t even consider what I make to be ‘models’ -they are ‘process’ - working design explorations in progress, just like SketchUp itself. Craft tradition.
Cheers to all.
L~

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In some respects with the way there are so many ways to accomplish the same result, it would be difficult to modify the software to give a “polished, simplified” version. I believe there may some aspects that even @DaveR hasn’t figured out yet.

There would have to be some thought put into it, yes, of course. It wouldn’t be a quick patch. But that is beside the point, which is that there is vast amounts of room for improvement in the software UI including how shortcuts are assigned. Difficulty and complexity is not a reason to ignore it, it’s a reason to address it!

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FWIW: yes, there a lot of people that have found ways to cope with limitations, including extension developers that are offering ‘UI-improvements extensions’ (this might even be the reason that some things won’t be addressed at all, since there is an ‘app for that’)

Sharing those options doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be addressed, but for a FR to be meaningful or picked up by the developers, they need to be clear and universally applicable.

FR’s usually start with some ranting, but to get to the real issues, is always more difficult (not using the right terms, not knowing where to find changed behavior of the software, etc.)
Discussions like these might clear some things.
Especially after attaching some pics to help clearing the issues.

Remember, this is just a public site, it is not the official FR place to go (there is no public place, FTM)

As for the shortcuts location, there used to be a import and export possibility on Windows, prior to the version which changed the location of these files (2018?) I would call that regression for windows. The plists files on Mac were never easy to find.
They usually don’t explain why certain things change, but they do it for a reason or intention.
My guess is that they are searching for ways to have a more ‘universally’ way by putting them in a .json file, which eventually could be attached to your personal account (Trimble ID?)

You are not alone (~40 M users, both platforms)

One difficulty in making a master list of all possible menu items to set a shortcut for is that the shortcuts are contextual. Take Zoom Selection for example, you can set a shortcut for that, but only if something is selected at the time. The same is most likely true for extensions that have contextual menus. A master list would need to be able to present all of the menus that can possible appear, including the ones that come up only because of an extension being in a certain mode. Still, a resizable version of the shortcuts panel, or all of Preferences, would be useful.

I couldn’t find Zoom Previous, but searching in the forum I found out that it’s Camera/Previous. It normally doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut, a natural choice would be command-[ and command-]. If you can’t set shortcuts that use command, then just [ and ] would still make sense. That’s how other Mac apps take you to the previous or next view. Unfortunately command-[ and ] are already used, so I set the shortcut to { and }. Shift-[ feels a bit like command-[, so I should be able to remember that.

The paths for each tool is just the menu item position. In some cases it doesn’t match the actual menu name. For times like that you can use the Mac Help menu, and while the command is showing in the shortcuts list you can type the menu name, and the Help menu will show you where that item is.

You can see in this picture that where SketchUp calls the menu “context menu flyout”, which is true in a way, Help shows where the menu item really is.

Hi Thx for the tool name (Camera/Previous). I use that one often to get un-lost in space.

Recently learned about “context menu flyout” from the community, don’t remember where exactly - I tried it + it was helpful; doesn’t seem to be currently working (my SU19.2), not to worry, someday I’ll be installing the next SU (& Catalina OS). Nice to see settings are carried fwd.