Assigning view control to function keys.

By Alex Argüelles, Survey Tech, Florida Department of Transportation

“I used to be a right-hand, mouse-only MicroStation user. But I noticed that when I started to use my left hand, I could work much faster. The greatest speed increase came when I assigned the View Control commands to the first six keyboard function keys, because changing views can take a lot of time if you do it frequently. Now that I’ve programmed my function keys, I find it too slow to use the view control toolbox to change the view.

“To assign View Control commands to the function keys, go to ‘Workspace | Function Keys…’ and assign view commands to the first six function keys. One at a time, select the function key you want to use, press the <Edit> button and type in the command you want for that function key. Select <OK> and you are ready to go.

“My personal set up is as follows:
<F1>: Pan view (key-in: pan view).
<F2>: Make window the shape of the screen (key-in: window area extended).
<F3>: Zoom in (key-in: zoom in).
<F4>: Zoom out (key-in: zoom out).
<F5>: Undo last view operation (key-in: view previous).
<F6>: Fit entire design on the screen (key-in: fit all).
“When I started using the function keys to set the view, it nearly doubled my productivity!”