Keyboard shortcuts

Command shortcuts can be changed in File › Keyboard Shortcuts; these are the defaults.

Click a binding to record a new shortcut. A shortcut can contain Shift, Ctrl/Cmd and Alt/Option modifiers plus exactly one other key. Hold the modifiers, then press the final key; you can take your time assembling the modifiers before that key. The recorder also allows modifiers to arrive after the ordinary key: it previews the chord and waits one second after the last added modifier, and until all keys are released, before confirming. For example, record Shift+Cmd+M for Sketch Mirror on macOS. Escape cancels recording without changing the old binding. Pressing two different ordinary keys cancels the attempt.

The binding button shows modifiers immediately as you press them, even before adding the ordinary key. Releasing a modifier before that key removes it from the preview. A status line tells you to add a key, release all keys, or wait for confirmation; the proposed chord stays visible during confirmation. Nothing is saved while the preview is still pending.

On macOS, the editor, Help list, toolbar hints, context menus and S search display Cmd and Option. Existing settings retain SolidCraft’s Ctrl/Cmd alias for the primary modifier; Control and Command pressed together are recorded explicitly as Ctrl+Cmd. Conflicting bindings still require confirmation, and built-in reserved shortcuts remain reserved. Recording changes app settings, not the design file.

This follows the usual modifier-before-key convention documented by Apple and the key-event and modifier-state model documented by W3C. The one-second grace period is SolidCraft’s recording aid, not a standard-mandated delay; using an already assigned shortcut has no added delay. Operating systems and browsers can intercept reserved combinations before SolidCraft receives them. Choose a different chord if that happens; recording is cancelled if the app loses focus.

L, R and C start their tool family (lines, rectangles, circles) in the variant you used last, as the family’s toolbar button does: after a Midpoint Line, L starts a Midpoint Line again. Pick another variant from the button’s drop-down (or the Sketch Palette) and the key starts that one from then on. The choice is kept across designs and restarts. With Pressing a tool’s shortcut again switches its mode on (Preferences › Sketch), pressing the key again before the first click steps to the family’s next variant.

Keys handled by the window itself:

While a value box has the keyboard (a dimension being added, a dialog field), keys type into it and single-letter shortcuts don’t fire. With Sketch Dimension (D), the box opens as soon as you click a line, circle or arc (or the second point or line), so D, click, type the value, Enter. With Preferences › Design › Step values with the arrow keys and the wheel on, ↑ ↓ in a value box, or the wheel over it, step a plain number by 1 (with Shift by 10, with Alt by 0.1); see Parameters and expressions.

Mouse and touch:

Help › Keyboard Shortcuts in the app lists the current bindings, including any you changed.

With the Touchpad navigation preset, hold Shift while moving the pointer to pan, or Alt/Option to orbit, without pressing a mouse button. Vertical scrolling zooms. These viewport gestures are separate from rebindable command shortcuts; mouse-button selection and editing keep their existing modifiers.

Sketch modifiers

While drawing or dragging a sketch point:

Change the snap-suppress chord in Preferences › Sketch. Selection still uses Shift and Ctrl/Cmd to add or toggle (Preferences › Selection can make Shift add-only).