An argument for keyboard commands

Many pieces of software today are going to great lengths to improve the GUI... ribbon bars, Right-Click menus, etc.

That may be nice, especially for new users and people who don't understand computers, but we shouldn't forget the power of keyboard shortcuts.

If I assume I never let go of the mouse because I'm using a CAD or Drawing-type application, and I'm not using anything fancy like a 3D mouse in the left hand, that leaves my left hand resting on the keyboard and ready to instantly start commands.

For keys in Home Row, you can create

560 3-key combinations
120 2-key combinations
016 1-key combinations

696 total commands

this is for the following keys

qwert
asdfg
zxcvb
[Space] (16)

Back in the day I had a killer PGP file for AutoCAD that leveraged about 200 of those options to make me really, really fast. Only 50 of them were used very often, and I still remember them, they're so embedded now. Too many programs now take away my screen space for icons and forget that a daily user will eventually be able to memorize a few shortcuts and be much more efficient than a mouse-clicker.

Wiimote for Design Review

This reminds me a bit of Johnny Chung Lee's wiimote hack he demonstrated at TED... but this one from AutoDesk Labs just uses the Gyro and buttons to navigate the model in Design Review.

Revit Interface Speed Tips

Visibility and view

• To turn of the visibility of a category, simply select the object you want to switch off and type VH on your keyboard. (you may need to edit your keyboard shortcuts.)
  
• While holding the middle scroll wheel button, tap the space bar to switch to Zoom mode, tap it again to enter Spin mode. Tap again to scroll back to Pan mode.
• Hold down the key and hit the tab button to cycle between open windows.

Object Selection

• Hit TAB to cycle between different objects under your cursor BEFORE you click the button to select.
• If you are editing an object or group of objects and get out of the command you can reselect them without having to go back and pick them individually by using the CTRL + back-arrow key.
• Select an object, right click and you can "Select All Instances" of the object in the model, or just type SA for the same action (regardless of whether they're visible in the current view.)
  

Object Creation

• When selecting lines you can pre-lock them by checking the "Lock" Check box in the Option bar.
• Hitting the space bar flips the orientation of a wall while you're drawing it.
• The Join Roofs tool (next to wall joins tool) will join the face of a gable end roof to an adjacent vertical wall. This is great to do the condition where one lower roof eave "tucks under" the eave of a higher gable.
• Hold the control button while clicking/dragging something to copy it.
• Select an object and type CS to create a similar object. (If selecting a wall it will start the wall command with the same wall type.)
• Hold SHIFT down while moving something to constrict it to Vertical or Horizontal, like the AutoCAD ORTHO command.
• Hit Space while placing doors to adjust the swing direction.
• When placing a component you want to align with an angled wall, hover over the wall and hit space to align the component to the wall.
  

Object Modification

• After selecting an object, you can nudge it around your screen with the arrow keys (provided it's not hosted or attached to something that restricts it in certain directions. Each tap of the arrow key moves it 1/2 your snap distance. Shift+ Arrow key moves it 10 times as far with each tap.
• Hit the space bar while placing a component and it will rotate that element by increments of 90 degrees around it's origin.
• Simply select a door / wall / component (or select multiple objects all at once), then hit the space bar and watch them flip, rotate etc