Ok. So I use Vectorworks, and I'm starting to think that the interface is speeding up my carpal tunnel as you have to do so much clicking in the program. There are shortcuts, which help spread some of the drafting to the left hand, but on the whole most of the work is done with the mouse. In AutoCAD type commands relieve the amount of point and click one has to do, which leads me to this question - Have any of you who use Vectorworks set up scripting commands so that it works almost the same as CAD with type commands? I've heard of this but haven't really tried to set it up. If you have done this I'de like to hear about how to write the scripts.
i haven't done it myself yet because i tend to be pretty bad when it comes to dealing with computers and trying to figure them out but in the last office where i worked we had keyboard shortcuts for vectorworks.
we were obviously working on macs and we had this other program called "quicKeys X" that contained all the macros and was running in the background. the most often used commands were keyboard shortcuts and it made life a lot easier...
hope this helps and if anyone knows how to set up quicKeys i could use some help. thanks.
this is way less about vectorworks, and more about carpal tunnel.
i've been seeing a chiropractor as a last resort to clean up years worth of computer trauma to my body. carpel tunnel all the way up through the shoulder and neck - of course on the right side from mousing - to the point that my shoulder had no function left in it.
it's been weeks, but he's been doing this new technique called A.R.T. [active release technique] - a combo between massage, physio, and chiropractic. amazing results. kicks carpel tunnel's ass in a few visits and the upper stuff in a few more. takes some perseverance through the pain, but damn it has worked.
mwad: you can reprogram the default keyboard shortcuts in Vectorworks. When I was actively using Vectorwork for CDs I was a big fan of having "ASDF" being the pan/zoom tools, "ZXCV" being modifiers (move, rotate, etc) and "QWER" being various drawing tools. That would take care of most of the work needed to be done, and the rest could be done through the icons - speaking of which its also helpful to either change existing or make new toolbars for the commands you're using the most. No point in dealing with expanding toolbars if you don't have to.
with quicKeys, we had all the F-function keys as, as well as the letters programmed to perform certain functions. i suppose you do know that vectorworks comes with certain shortcuts but you are right, many involve pressing on too many keys... this is definitely a shortcoming of vectorworks...
I have all my shortcuts as single keys and all of them are on the left side of the keyboard... no stretching, no reaches, just takes a lil to get used to singel button shortcuts.
I edited my workspace a little bit and have it more like CAD. Like 'L' for line and so on. But yeah, the one button shortcut is hard to get used to, I keep trying to hit spacebar.
Aug 4, 05 4:41 pm ·
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Carpal Tunnel and Vectorworks/CAD
Ok. So I use Vectorworks, and I'm starting to think that the interface is speeding up my carpal tunnel as you have to do so much clicking in the program. There are shortcuts, which help spread some of the drafting to the left hand, but on the whole most of the work is done with the mouse. In AutoCAD type commands relieve the amount of point and click one has to do, which leads me to this question - Have any of you who use Vectorworks set up scripting commands so that it works almost the same as CAD with type commands? I've heard of this but haven't really tried to set it up. If you have done this I'de like to hear about how to write the scripts.
i haven't done it myself yet because i tend to be pretty bad when it comes to dealing with computers and trying to figure them out but in the last office where i worked we had keyboard shortcuts for vectorworks.
we were obviously working on macs and we had this other program called "quicKeys X" that contained all the macros and was running in the background. the most often used commands were keyboard shortcuts and it made life a lot easier...
hope this helps and if anyone knows how to set up quicKeys i could use some help. thanks.
I haven't heard of this program. I'll check it out. Thanks.
As for the MAC commands...I just dislike all of the open apple-option-? commands. Its like playing keyboard twister.
this is way less about vectorworks, and more about carpal tunnel.
i've been seeing a chiropractor as a last resort to clean up years worth of computer trauma to my body. carpel tunnel all the way up through the shoulder and neck - of course on the right side from mousing - to the point that my shoulder had no function left in it.
it's been weeks, but he's been doing this new technique called A.R.T. [active release technique] - a combo between massage, physio, and chiropractic. amazing results. kicks carpel tunnel's ass in a few visits and the upper stuff in a few more. takes some perseverance through the pain, but damn it has worked.
mwad: you can reprogram the default keyboard shortcuts in Vectorworks. When I was actively using Vectorwork for CDs I was a big fan of having "ASDF" being the pan/zoom tools, "ZXCV" being modifiers (move, rotate, etc) and "QWER" being various drawing tools. That would take care of most of the work needed to be done, and the rest could be done through the icons - speaking of which its also helpful to either change existing or make new toolbars for the commands you're using the most. No point in dealing with expanding toolbars if you don't have to.
with quicKeys, we had all the F-function keys as, as well as the letters programmed to perform certain functions. i suppose you do know that vectorworks comes with certain shortcuts but you are right, many involve pressing on too many keys... this is definitely a shortcoming of vectorworks...
Hey, be happy your not using Arris like me. There are no typing commands. The entire program is mouseclicks.
I have all my shortcuts as single keys and all of them are on the left side of the keyboard... no stretching, no reaches, just takes a lil to get used to singel button shortcuts.
I edited my workspace a little bit and have it more like CAD. Like 'L' for line and so on. But yeah, the one button shortcut is hard to get used to, I keep trying to hit spacebar.
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