Keyboard shortcuts
Every key the editor listens for, and the one rule about when it does not.
The rule
A shortcut never fires while you are typing. If the focus is in the code editor, the serial input, the project title or any other field, the key belongs to that field. Nothing here needs the Alt key, and any key press holding Alt is ignored.
On a Mac the modifier is ⌘; everywhere else it is Ctrl. The editor works out which and says so in its own menus.
The document
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
Ctrl/Cmd+S |
Save |
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+H |
History: this project's earlier saves |
Ctrl/Cmd+Z |
Undo |
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z or Ctrl/Cmd+Y |
Redo |
Ctrl/Cmd+A |
Select all |
Ctrl/Cmd+C |
Copy the selection |
Ctrl/Cmd+X |
Cut the selection |
Ctrl/Cmd+V |
Paste |
Ctrl/Cmd+D |
Duplicate the selection |
Ctrl/Cmd+S is caught before anything else, wherever the focus is, so the
browser never offers to save the page instead.
Ctrl/Cmd+C and Ctrl/Cmd+X stand aside when there is text selected on the
page outside a control: that is the browser's own copy, which is how you get a
line out of the serial log.
The canvas
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
A |
Open the part panel |
R |
Rotate the selected parts 90 degrees |
Delete or Backspace |
Delete the selection |
D |
Open or close the drawing tools |
T |
Tidy wires: lay the selection, or every wire, out again |
L |
Open or close the layers panel |
Shift+L |
Show levels: the live level and voltage on every net |
Shift+O |
Take the DC operating point; press it again to put it away |
C |
Add a comment where the pointer is |
Enter or F2 |
Rename the selected frame, or edit the selected note |
F |
Fit the whole circuit to the screen |
+ or = |
Zoom in |
- or _ |
Zoom out |
Space (held) |
Pan while dragging |
Escape |
Abandon the wire being drawn, or clear the selection |
Escape does the nearest thing first: if a wire is half drawn it drops that, and otherwise it clears the selection. It also closes the part panel, the canvas menu, the color swatches and the share sheet.
The part panel
The arrows move through the tiles, Enter places the highlighted part, and
Escape closes the panel. The panel swallows its own keys, so A typed inside
the search field is a letter, not a second attempt to open it.
Where else to look
Every button on the canvas toolbar names its shortcut in its tooltip, because the buttons and the keyboard read the same table. The more menu's tiles carry only a word, so for everything in there, this page is the list.
Run, Stop and Save have buttons rather than bare keys, because they are the three things you press most and a button is easier to find than a memory.