Use Keyboard Shortcuts
Introduction
EnSight has a number of keyboard shortcuts that are documented in the ANSYS EnSight User Manual
and in this ANSYS EnSight How-To Manual. But they are scattered all over the Manuals. This is a consol-
idation of all the commands in one reference location. Note below that the alphanumeric keys are
capitalized for emphasis, but that the actual key is the lower case key. You do not need to press the
Shift key when it says P. Simply press the P key.
Basic Operation
Macros (Default - Can Be Edited by Users)
Advanced users of EnSight often find themselves performing repetitive tasks. EnSight's macro facility
lets you save a sequence of commands and then assign a keyboard key to those commands such
that they are executed when the key is pressed. Macros are useful in full screen mode. Note: macros
only work when the mouse cursor is in the graphics window. (see Define and Use Macros).
V - toggle selected part visibility
S - toggle global part highlighting
Contextual Keyboard Keys
A - Press the A key to cancel saving an animation ("abort")
P - The pick key. Manually change what you are picking using the pick mode pulldown. The default
is to pick a part. Simply hover over a part and press the P key and the part will be selected. Or, choose
another pick mode. Change the mode to Pick cursor tool location, and move the mouse over a loc-
ation on a part and press the P key and the cursor will appear at that location on the part.
When Interactive Probe Query is set to Surface pick, P will override the selected pick mode and will
place the query probe on the surface of a part. If Interactive Probe Query is not set to Surface pick
then P key will use the pick mode.
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Use Keyboard Shortcuts
Part Tagging
Use this shortcut to quickly select parts. See the Advanced section of Select Parts
Alt+# (where # is any number from 0-9) - tag selected parts
Ctrl+# - select parts tagged with this number
Keyboard Ctrl-Mouse Combinations
For the mac, these use the command button.
Ctrl-Left button - Rotation about the screen Z-axis
Ctrl-Middle click (or Right+Left buttons) - Zoom
Ctrl-Right button - Pan
Changing the View
See Rotate, Zoom, Translate, Scale for details on these shortcuts.
F1 - Rotate about screen X-axis by 45 degrees
F2 - Rotate about screen Y-axis by 45 degrees
F3 - Rotate about screen Z-axis by 45 degrees
Ctrl+F1/F2/F3 - Rotates -45 degrees
F4 - Spin the graphics window - with mouse motion
F5 - Front view
F6 - Side view
F7 - Top view
F8 - Return to previous view before F5/F6/F7 was pressed
F9 - Full screen (F9 or Esc to go back)
Ctrl+F5/F6/F7 - Save current view to this key
3D Stereo Commands
If you have a stereo graphics card and are running EnSight in stereo mode, there are some function
key shortcuts that are helpful. For more information see Enable Stereo Viewing (p. ?).
F10 - Increase stereo separation angle
F11 - Decrease stereo separation angle
F12 - Toggle 3D stereo on/off
Release 2020 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
2 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Basic Operation
Ctrl+F12 - Swap 3D stereo left/right eyes
Menu Shortcuts (Seen in Top Menu)
You can see this shortcuts in the menu drop-downs. For example, see the File → Save menu has a
Ctrl+S beside the command, showing the shortcut. Some of the more useful menu short cuts are as
follows.
Ctrl+O - Open results dialog
Ctrl+P - Print image dialog
Ctrl+Q - Quit EnSight
Ctrl+S - Save Session file
Ctrl+Shift+S - Save commands from this session
Ctrl+C - Copy image to clipboard
Ctrl+F - Open the Feature Edit Dialog
Release 2020 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 3
Release 2020 R1 - © ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
4 of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
