Tech Tip: Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are a convenient way to speed up your design process in Onshape. Reviewing and customizing your keyboard shortcuts in Onshape is simple once you know where to look for this information.

Reviewing Your Current Hotkeys

By default, Onshape has many common commands already assigned keyboard shortcuts. If you are new to Onshape or are not using keyboard shortcuts, the first step is to review the current keyboard shortcuts that are already assigned.

Go to the help dropdown in the upper-right corner of the Onshape interface. From there, select Keyboard shortcuts.

This opens a pop-up window displaying all currently assigned keyboard shortcuts for your account. This includes all of the shortcuts assigned by default.

The shortcuts in this window are divided into seven categories based on where the commands are used. For example, the Extrude command is only available in Part Studios, while the Mate command is only available in Assemblies. This makes it easier to find a specific keyboard shortcut based on its usage.

For a larger view of the keyboard shortcuts, use the button in the upper-right-hand corner with an arrow pointing towards the upper right. This button opens this dialog in its own window. You can use this to keep the dialog open on a second monitor for reference.

Customizing Your Keyboard Shortcuts

Not all of the pre-assigned keyboard shortcuts may be what you prefer; maybe you would like to work with more shortcuts. To customize keyboard shortcuts to your preferences, click the Customize keyboard shortcuts link next to the Keyboard shortcuts dialog title.

Alternatively, you can also access the keyboard customizations by clicking your portrait in the upper-right-hand corner, and selecting My account:

And then navigate to Preferences from the left-hand navigation menu:

Both methods open your user preferences to the section where you can customize keyboard shortcuts. There is a subtle difference in how each method brings you to this location. The first method opens the user preferences in a new tab in your web browser, while the second method navigates to the same place in your current tab.

From this window, you can see all of the commands in Onshape. This screen again lists any keyboard shortcuts already assigned to each command, but also lists any commands that are unassigned, or that have had their default shortcut overwritten.

To customize any of the keyboard shortcuts in Onshape, hover over the command to modify, then click the Edit (pencil) button to its right.

This presents a pop-up asking for a new keyboard combination to use as the new shortcut. After pressing the desired keyboard shortcut, if it is already used by an existing command, the dialog displays a notification that this combination is already in use. In this example, click the OK button to confirm you want to keep this shortcut.

Notice that in the lower right-hand corner of the dialog, you have the option at any time to reset the current keyboard shortcut for this command to return to its original value.

Once that keyboard shortcut is applied, returning to the Keyboard shortcuts section of the user preferences displays the new keyboard combination listed for the command you changed. (In our example below, Dimetric has been changed to Shift + 7.)

If you overwrote any commands, they are now listed without keyboard shortcuts or crossed out as disabled if you used a default keyboard shortcut. (In this case, the default shortcut for Isometric view is used.)

If at any point you would like to start over completely, click the Reset all button in the upper right-hand corner. This resets every keyboard shortcut in Onshape back to its original value. This also incorporates any new keyboard shortcuts introduced in updates since you made modifications.

Updating Your Keyboard Shortcuts

Finally, if you came to the user preferences using the second method above, using My account> preferences, press the Return to document hyperlink that appears in the upper-right corner. This returns you to the document you were previously working on, and your new keyboard shortcuts are enabled.

If you accessed the user preferences using the first method above, where it opened the keyboard shortcuts in their own window, this requires two steps. The first is to close the current tab to confirm your keyboard shortcut changes. The second step is to refresh your current browser session by pressing F5 in most web browsers. This reloads the webpage, and now your new keyboard shortcuts are all available.

Want to learn more? Head on over to the Onshape Learning Center for courses, training, and other valuable resources.