Scan2CAD has a number of great keyboard shortcuts that can help to speed up your workflow and boost your productivity. We'll walk through the most useful few that'll shave hours off your CAD workfflow.
2. Scan2CAD already helps CAD users around the world
save hours of time every working day by automating
the raster-to-vector conversion process.
But what if I told you that you
could save even more time?
3. Scan2CAD has a number of great keyboard shortcuts that can help to
speed up your workflow and boost your productivity.
Want to learn how to use them?
Here’s a guide to our top 10 shortcuts…
4. Learn how to…
Move around the screen
Zoom in and out
Get set up
View vectors
View vector grab points
View vectors by color or type
Vectorize
Undo
Rotate raster image
Tidy up vectors
5. 1. Moving around the screen
Thoroughly checking your image before and after
conversion is the best way to avoid errors and ensure
best results. Using the keyboard shortcuts in the list on
the right means that you can view your image in great
detail whilst still ensuring no part of the image is left
unchecked. This means you can take a systematic approach
to checking your image.
Up
Down
Left
Right
Ctrl + Up
Ctrl + Down
Ctrl + Left
Ctrl + Right
Pan up incrementally
Pan down incrementally
Pan left incrementally
Pan right incrementally
Pan up by a page
Pan down by a page
Pan left by a page
Pan right by a page
6. Tip: When should you use
shortcuts to move around the
screen?
These shortcuts are especially helpful when cleaning up a
raster image, tidying up a vector image or just checking
vectorization results.
1. Zoom in until you can see all the detail
2. Press Ctrl + Right to move one screen to the
right
3. Repeat screen by screen until you’ve moved across
the image
4. Press Ctrl + Down to move down.
5. Press Ctrl + Left to move left, and go across
6. Keep going until you have moved through the
entire drawing
7. M
D
F
Scroll wheel on
your mouse
Magnify
De-magnify
Fill screen with the selected
area
Zoom in around your cursor
position
2. Zooming in and out
Zooming is an intuitive and simple process—just click on
the magnifying glass, or use a keyboard shortcut! Please
note, though, that these shortcuts are different to those
you may be familiar with from programs such as Google
Chrome or Microsoft Office.
When you select an area of your image, you can also use
the F key to enlarge it to fill the screen.
8. Shift + I
Shift + P
Shift + F
Shift + G
G
P
E
C
T
Shift + L
Shift + H
3. Getting set up
Every designer will have different preferences as to how
their workspace is set up. Scan2CAD is no
different—that’s why you can select from a number of
different viewing settings.
In the next few slides, we’ll also be going into detail on
how some of these settings can be used.
Toggle these on/off:
Grid display
Palette display
Raster fading
Vector ghost display
Grab point display
Polygon and polyline endpoint
display
Bezier control point display
Viewing vectors by color/type
Text extents display
Vector line width display
Polygon outline display
9. V
R
B
View Vectors only
View Raster only
View Both vector and raster
4. Viewing vectors
You can choose whether to display your vector image
only, raster image only, or both. This is a useful tool
for comparing your original raster image with the vector
image created by the conversion process. These keyboard
shortcuts are a quick and easy way to toggle between the
different views and compare and contrast between the
images.
10. G
P
Toggle between Grab Points
On/Off
Toggle between Grab Points
On/Off (applicable for
polyline and polygon end
points)
5. View vector grab points
It’s easy to see where your vectors start and end by
viewing grab points. Grab points are placed:
● at the ends of a vector line
● at the centre and 12 o’clock points of a vector
circle
● at the mid points of an arc
● at text origin points
You also use Grab Points to move vectors around the
screen – just position your cursor over the grab point and
drag the vector to its new position.
11. C
6. View vector elements by
type
Choosing to view vectors by type means that different
types of vectors will be differentiated from one another on
screen by being displayed in different colors. The full list of
colors for each line type is:
● Continuous lines Red
● Dash lines Black
● Arrow lines Gray
● Hatch lines Brown
● Polylines Green
● Circles Dark blue
● Arcs Magenta
● Bezier curve Pale blue
● Text Magenta
Toggle between viewing
vector by Color or by Type
12. F5
F6
F7
Ctrl + F5
Ctrl + F6
Ctrl + F7
Vectorize raster text only
(OCR)
Vectorize raster image
without text
Vectorize raster image with
text
Undo raster text recognition
Undo vectorization
Undo text recognition and
vectorization
7. Vectorize
Scan2CAD makes vectorization a one-click process — but
if you’d rather use your keyboard, it can just as easily be a
one-stroke process using the commands on the right.
You can choose whether to vectorize text, lines, or
both — and if things don’t go to plan, it’s just as easy to
undo them by hitting the same key again + Ctrl.
13. Ctrl + Z Undo edits
8. Undo
Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, so you’re
almost definitely familiar with this one. If not, then say
hello to the most useful keyboard shortcut on your
computer.
Using Ctrl + Z gives you the freedom to take a
trial-and-error approach whilst perfecting your vector
image. With Scan2CAD, you can undo up to 256 actions!
14. Ctrl + L Rotate by Line
9. Rotate raster image
Need to deskew a raster image before you vectorize
it? This is one of our favourite tips to do just that!
When you select the Rotate by Line tool, Scan2CAD
will prompt you to draw a reference line. Draw this
line on top of a skewed line which should be exactly
horizontal or vertical. Scan2CAD will use this line as
a reference to detect the angle by which the image is
skewed. The tool will then automatically rotate the
image, giving you perfect alignment!
15. A
E
. (full stop)
, (comma)
Attach End Points On/Off
End Point Snap On/Off
Extend a vector
Increase Grab Snap Distance (by
one value up)
Decrease Grab Snap Distance (by
one value down)
10. Tidy up vectors
Attach End Point determines which grab points are moved together:
Extend Grab Point ‘stretches’ one vector to meet another vector:
Grab Snap Distance defines how close two vector end points must
be for them to snap together.
16. Can’t tell whether Attach End Points is switched on or off?
Just check at the bottom of your screen!
17. www.scan2cad.com/blog
For more tips and
tricks, be sure to
check out our blog!
Each week, our team explores
a different topic from the
world of CAD and its related
fields. We’ve got guides to file
conversion, introduction to
the different CAD file types,
as well as DIY tutorials to get
you started with Scan2CAD!
www.scan2cad.com/blog
18. Scan2CAD converts your images
for CAD & CNC
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