Using SURF+ Hotkeys
By now you should have installed and tested SURF+. If it's not working then double check all the steps involved in Installing SURF+. Failing that, please contact me and I will do everything I can to help.
Now all you have to do to use SURF+ is:
If you don't want to edit the hotkeys then simply:
If you do want to edit the hotkeys at any time, then, after editing, don't forget to save them:
To activate your edited hotkeys inside ICEM Surf:
Just to reiterate, you only need to do this if you've edited the hotkeys.
To see the full list of hotkeys open the Hot Key Editor with Edit-Hotkeys. Assuming that you're just using the default hotkeys then try a few obvious hotkeys:
s - Shading On/Off
z - Zoom
h - Highlight
l - List
You'll find that Shift is generally used for the Move functions:
Shift+r - Rotate
Shift+t - Translate
Shift+s - Scale
etc.
What you will notice is that in some cases SURF+ hotkeys appear to conflict with the ICEM Surf ones. For example, by default “c” is used for "Modify - Curve - Control Point" whereas in ICEM Surf it means "Select curve end". SURF+ is therefore context-sensitive. In other words if a menu is open and the cursor is close to the geometry then the ICEM Surf version will be used. If the cursor is away from the geometry then the user-defined hotkey will take precedence. So to ensure that you access the SURF+ hotkeys when you have menus open move the cursor away from the geometry. In shaded mode you will have to move the cursor over the background or switch the shading off temporarily or use Alt+x to get rid of all existing menus - in which case conflict of hotkeys cannot occur. If you work a lot in shaded mode then another option is to reduce the size of the graphics window using View Layout and Detail. Hover outside of the window when you want to use hotkeys. Obviously you could avoid having any conflicting hotkeys defined but this would be rather limiting.
Note that certain regularly used hotkeys ALWAYS take precedence. These are “x” for Select and “z” for zoom as the ICEM meanings (x = part, z = centre point) are not used very often. For now this is hard-coded in the software but could be changed in the future.
Now all you have to do to use SURF+ is:
- Open ICEM Surf
- Start SURF+
If you don't want to edit the hotkeys then simply:
- Press START
If you do want to edit the hotkeys at any time, then, after editing, don't forget to save them:
- In the Hot Key Editor, File-Save
To activate your edited hotkeys inside ICEM Surf:
- Press START in the SURF+ menu
- In ICEM Surf pre-2018, Restore User Preferences
- In ICEM Surf post-2018, Windows-Preferences, select SURF_PLUS from User Preference pull-down
Just to reiterate, you only need to do this if you've edited the hotkeys.
To see the full list of hotkeys open the Hot Key Editor with Edit-Hotkeys. Assuming that you're just using the default hotkeys then try a few obvious hotkeys:
s - Shading On/Off
z - Zoom
h - Highlight
l - List
You'll find that Shift is generally used for the Move functions:
Shift+r - Rotate
Shift+t - Translate
Shift+s - Scale
etc.
What you will notice is that in some cases SURF+ hotkeys appear to conflict with the ICEM Surf ones. For example, by default “c” is used for "Modify - Curve - Control Point" whereas in ICEM Surf it means "Select curve end". SURF+ is therefore context-sensitive. In other words if a menu is open and the cursor is close to the geometry then the ICEM Surf version will be used. If the cursor is away from the geometry then the user-defined hotkey will take precedence. So to ensure that you access the SURF+ hotkeys when you have menus open move the cursor away from the geometry. In shaded mode you will have to move the cursor over the background or switch the shading off temporarily or use Alt+x to get rid of all existing menus - in which case conflict of hotkeys cannot occur. If you work a lot in shaded mode then another option is to reduce the size of the graphics window using View Layout and Detail. Hover outside of the window when you want to use hotkeys. Obviously you could avoid having any conflicting hotkeys defined but this would be rather limiting.
Note that certain regularly used hotkeys ALWAYS take precedence. These are “x” for Select and “z” for zoom as the ICEM meanings (x = part, z = centre point) are not used very often. For now this is hard-coded in the software but could be changed in the future.
Tips
It is best to avoid using the Shaded Background option, defined in Windows-Preferences-Style. In fact, SURF+ turns this off (if you really want it on then switch it back on and save your preferences in SURF_PLUS). The reason for this is that SURF+ decides whether to use a hotkey as an ICEM Surf hotkey or a SURF+ hotkey on the basis of whether the cursor is over geometry or over the background. An example would be "f" which in ICEM Surf means "pick Surface" but in SURF+ means "Create-Patch-Face". If the cursor is over the background then the latter meaning would be used. If it's over geometry then it would use the former meaning. With Shaded Background on then SURF+ can't tell whether the cursor is over geometry or not and so it assumes that it is at all times. This means that "f" is always "pick Surface". To get round this the user would have to close all menus (which is easily done with Alt+x by default) before picking "f". Then "Create-Patch-Face" is invoked.
Avoid Alt in any hotkey for "Last View". ICEM Surf doesn't like it - it interrupts the function and prevents it working.
It's best to avoid using the combinations Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v and Ctrl+x for obvious reasons!
Avoid Alt in any hotkey for "Last View". ICEM Surf doesn't like it - it interrupts the function and prevents it working.
It's best to avoid using the combinations Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v and Ctrl+x for obvious reasons!