Customising the Function Keys in ICEM Surf
With the introduction of SURF+ there is really no longer any need to use function keys in ICEM Surf. If you're familiar with them, though, you can still continue using your favourites. Other functions can then be assigned to the alphanumeric keys which tend to be more accessible and easier to remember. For instance the default for Zoom is "z" and for Shading On/Off it is "s". Of course the user can change these if they want. Now that I use the SURF+ hotkeys all the time, the only function keys that I have chosen to keep are F6 to F8 for Original, Mirror and Both. All other functions I've assigned to alphanumeric keys via the SURF+ Hotkey menu.
If you don't have SURF+, then you can still customise the keyboard function keys in ICEM Surf to activate almost any of the ICEM Surf menus. This is through Windows-Keyboard from the top menu.
The function keys can also be used for functions where there is no menu. The function keys can be specified with any choice of Alt, Ctrl and Shift. This gives us potentially 96 function key combinations to choose from. In practice most users only use a small number of these. The following table shows the default settings for the basic function keys. These can all be modified by the user in ICEM Surf's Windows-Keyboard menu.
If you don't have SURF+, then you can still customise the keyboard function keys in ICEM Surf to activate almost any of the ICEM Surf menus. This is through Windows-Keyboard from the top menu.
The function keys can also be used for functions where there is no menu. The function keys can be specified with any choice of Alt, Ctrl and Shift. This gives us potentially 96 function key combinations to choose from. In practice most users only use a small number of these. The following table shows the default settings for the basic function keys. These can all be modified by the user in ICEM Surf's Windows-Keyboard menu.
Function Key Default Settings
Function Key |
Function |
Description |
F1 |
Shad On/Off |
Shading On/Off |
F2 |
Auto Min/Max |
Automatic Min/Max |
F3 |
View |
Switch to previous view |
F4 |
Perspective |
Switch Perspective On/Off |
F5 |
Anim On/Off |
Switch Animation On/off |
F6 |
Original |
Display the original half |
F7 |
Mirror |
Display the mirrored half |
F8 |
Both |
Display original & mirrored |
F9 |
C-CtrlP On/Off |
Selected curve control points on/off |
F10 |
P-CtrlP On/Off |
Selected patch control points on/off |
F11 |
Plane Symbol |
Plane symbol on/off |
F12 |
Deselection |
Deselect all objects |
Before I started used SURF+ my personal preference for the function keys was to remove Anim On/Off which I never used and make F5 Shading On/Off instead. Then I made F1 Zoom so that the viewing functions Zoom, Auto Min/Max, View and Perspective were grouped together on the first 4 function keys (some people choose to assign the F1 key to Select instead). F9 I had as Reference Manager, F10 usually Display-Options. I used Alt+F1 for the Surface Checker and Alt+F2 for the Curve Checker as these are combinations which are easy to reach with just the left hand.
In summary, my old personal function key settings were as follows:
In summary, my old personal function key settings were as follows:
My Personal Function Key Settings
Key |
Function |
Description |
F1 |
Zoom |
Zoom |
F2 |
Auto Min/Max |
Automatic Min/Max |
F3 |
View |
Switch to previous view |
F4 |
Perspective |
Switch Perspective On/Off |
F5 |
Shad On/Off |
Shading On/Off |
F6 |
Original |
Display the original half |
F7 |
Mirror |
Display the mirrored half |
F8 |
Both |
Display original & mirrored |
F9 |
Refman |
Reference Manager |
F10 |
DispOpt |
Display Options |
F11 |
Plane Symbol |
Plane symbol on/off |
F12 |
Deselection |
Deselect all objects |
Alt+F1 |
Surface |
Diagnoses-Check-Surface |
Alt+F2 |
Curve |
Diagnoses-Check-Curve |