Do you guys use common hotkey maps between programs?

AtticusMars

I'm finding it very annoying going between 5+ different programs with totally different hotkeys in each one.

Some examples:

- When working in the material graph in Substance Designer you pan around the graph with middle mouse button and open the search with space bar, in UE4 you pan around the material graph with RMB hold and open search with RMB.
- In pretty much every 3D app I have move/scale/rotate is WER, but in Blender it is SRG.
- In Photoshop Alt+RMB adjusts size/hardness of your brush, in Substance Painter it's Ctrl+RMB, in ZBrush it's S and in Blender it's F.

I'm considering trying to sort this out so I can at least get the important stuff shared between all my apps.

Just curious what the rest of you guys are doing, do you change your hotkeys in each program so that you have a common hotkey setup everywhere? Or do you just deal with having different hotkeys in every program?

Swordslayer

I tend to unify shortcuts whenever there's an app that I don't use all that often - in that case, I use AutoHotkey to make its navigation similar to what I use elsewhere so that when I do need it, I don't have to struggle with the navigation there. Other than that, there's no pattern for me, some things I change, most of them leave as is.

Nam.Nguyen

I tried to sync all my navigation hotkeys across softwares before, it didn't work out so well.  The problem is they interfere with other functions, 3d softwares have so many functions that you can't change hotkey. For example when you use a specific tool, in a specific mode you have to hold Shift to add selection, Alt to disselect, Ctrl to paint mask, Ctrl+alt to disconnect node,   bla .. . bla .. . .bla.  Overall it's just a big mess.

So I leave them as they are,  sure it could feel a little awkward when switching software but after 10 minutes everything is back to normal

Mark Dygert

I used to be super anal about customizing keyboard shortcuts and optimizing my workflow but thanks to Autodesk's "fuck up your workflow every April" policy of yearly updates, I stopped caring about most shortcuts and only bother to update them when I come across one that doesn't "work" (not set yet) and it has to be annoying enough that I need to set it.

Plus I always seem to setting up a new PC every few months, either at work or at home and syncing all that crap manually is super annoying. Why can't my settings be saved into the cloud and they automatically update? Why do you have so much Autodesk cloud BS and none of it is useful? HUH AUTODESK? Explain yourself. Oh, uh-ha, ok well then get your head out of your ass and actually do something useful.

Anyway...

I jump back and forth between Maya, Max and zBrush pretty regularly and for the most part I stick to whatever the default is and my brain just shifts gears. I might miss a keystroke once or twice but I quickly adapt. I guess it comes from being a pliable learner and not being dogmatic about "my experience" being the one true experience and that all apps should conform to me.

Do what you gotta do. Do it long enough that it becomes second nature and the rest will sort itself out.

Swordslayer

@Mark Dygert you might want to give a try to KeyHydra, and I have to say I'm on the same boat here in keeping the defaults - not only because of software upgrades but also to be able to switch to any other machine in the studio without stumbling. But while I tend to keep the default shortcuts, I add to them quite a lot, often you can do that while unifying the experience and keeping the original functionality at the same time - for example, for fusion 360 (I don't use it often and max navigation is deep under my skin) I did this:

#IfWinActive, ahk_exe Fusion360.exe<br><br>	; Max-style viewport rotation<br>	; ===========================<br>	Alt & MButton:: Send, {LShift Down} & {MButton Down}<br>	Alt & MButton Up:: Send, {LShift Up} & {MButton Up}<br><br>#IfWinActive

As it only hijacks this particular key combination, everything else works as expected.