Assign Shortcut Key to Custom Program
Overview
In Femap it’s possible to assign a shortcut key to a particular command, which makes it very convenient to repeat the command particularly when you are performing a series of actions where the command is used over and over again. However, you can go even further than this, and assign a shortcut key to a custom program, allowing the key to potentially perform repeated sequences of commands. Let’s see how to set this up.
Assigning Shortcut Key
Please follow these step-by-step instructions:
- First of all let’s select a custom program file to assign as a shortcut. If you click the Custom Tools icon, you’ll see a list of all of the custom programs that are delivered with Femap.
- In the View section, you’ll see one titled Snap to Closest Orthogonal View. When you execute this program, the Femap view will shift to the closes orthogonal view, which is very helpful when you require exact views of the model to be activated easily.
- To assign this program to a shortcut key, right click in the toolbars area of the Femap screen, and scroll down to select Customize…
- In the resulting Customize dialog, select the User Commands tab, and click the … icon next to the Program field. In the Command Name field, enter a suitable name for the command to be selected.
- You’ll then be prompted to navigate to a program file in the Open dialog. All of the program files that are delivered with Femap are added to the api directory below the Femap install directory. In this case we wish to select the program Snap to Closest Orthogonal View.BAS in the Views directory. For the default Femap installation location, the pathname is: C:\FEMAPv1031\api\Views\ Snap to Closest Orthogonal View.BAS
- Select the program and click Open.
- Now click Add then Close to finish the program file selection.
- The next step is to assign the program to a shortcut key. Go back and right click in the toolbars area of the Femap screen, scroll down and click Customize… as before. This time pick the Keyboard tab of the Customize dialog.
- Under Press a New Shortcut Key, enter an unassigned shortcut key, Alt+F6 for example, and then click Assign.
- The shortcut key should then appear up in the Key assignments box. Click Close to complete the key assignment.
- Now when you enter the shortcut key, the custom program will be executed. In this example, the view will shift to the closest orthogonal view.
Video Demonstration
Related Articles
Part 6 - Automation
In this section we'll look at using program files and APIs to accelerate repetitive tasks, or handle custom requirements in your particular workflow. Also remember that we have free webinars and tutorials on our Webinar and YouTube pages. <- Back to ...Creating Elements Between Coincident Nodes
Overview The task of creating elements such as springs or gaps between coincident node points can present some challenges. For example, how do you pick the coincident node points individually? Femap offers a couple of solutions to help you create ...Part 1 - Femap User Interface
Introduction Before we begin our analysis, let's get familiar with Femap’s user interface. User Interface We’ll look at the main components of the user interface, including the maps command interface, graphics windows, and tabbed and dockable panes. ...A Comprehensive Introduction to Femap Application Programming Interface (API)
What is the Femap Application Programming Interface (API)? The Femap API is a means to programmatically call Femap functions from within Femap or another programming environment. The code is an object-oriented code written in Visual Basic for ...5 Easy Modelling Mistakes and How to Avoid and Fix Them
One of the most important parts of a stress analysts job is checking their work. Usually this is learned via trial by fire, and after making enough mistakes, a green analyst gains experience eventually learns what to look out for. Here are 5 mistakes ...