How Do I Enable Function Keys In Autocad

[Vinnie Frevert]

Ihave gotten a new version of ACAD Arch v2018. All works fine but no luck with function keys to force them to behave as I'm used to. I always held the F3 key to turn osnap on. Now I can't make it to work. All I can do is toggle on and off by pressing and releasing the key. Trying to hold the key while in command only gives me continuous on and off state. If I remember there was a way to change this behaviour, yet don't remember how.

Yes, I did, and I had an option to hold F3 while in command. This can be enabled, somehow I have forgotten where. When you draw a line and you want to snap to an end of another line you can hold F3 to temporarily activate osnap or vice versa, whatever your default state of osnap is. It works with osnap, polar, ortho and some other function keys, not all of them if I'm correct. You can still toggle F3 while having temporary option available.

Hmmmmmm, I just tried holding down F3 and it actually worked in Autocad 2018. It takes a second to initialize, but it does work. I never realized I could do that, so I guess I learned something new today.

This may be a silly question but do you have your Osnaps set up? I mean, do you have Endpoint, Midpoint, etc. set up in the "Drafting Settings" dialog? I just disabled all my Osnaps and tried holding down F3 but it didn't do anything. So make sure you have some Osnaps set and then try holding down F3.

I have individual osnaps on in ds. There is something to be done before it can work, perhaps a variable, I don't remember. I tried googling around but no joy. When I hold F3 while in command all it does is filling command line with ... string of text.

You're describing a Temporary Override, while in a command prompting for a point while hovering over what you're trying to snap to hold down shift+A or Shift+' and pick. Of course if Osnaps were already enabled this will toggle them off.

No, it was not the question. I have managed to make it to work however, somewhat accidentally. I assigned F3 to snap toggle in cui/temporary override shortcuts (it was unassigned). F3 toggle must have been assigned from somewhere else while F3 override, it seems needs to be assigned in cui (in case it is not.) I can't read macro scripts so I won't go into it. Strangely enough, all available F keys now have temporary behaviour, even though I haven't done anything else.

AutoCAD is a drafting software used in almost all fields for basic drafting and drawing. In AutoCAD, to make drawing is more easy and less time consuming, function keys provide some shortcuts. Once you become familiar with these shortcut keys, you will start enjoying even the basic drafting work.

This function key opens the AutoCAD Help window. It allows the user to take help online if he/she is facing any functional issue in this software. If a user is working offline, then by pressing this key, all the functionalities of this software will be opened in PDF format.

This command automatically activates the O snap feature of AutoCAD. O Snap feature of this software helps to draw your drawing accurately. This will allow you to snap at the specific location of your object while you are picking any point. For example, a user can accurately pick up two points of the line, the center of a circle, etc. If you again press this key, the software will come out from this command.

This command will affect the cursor movement only when the snap style is set as isometric. If the snap style is set as Isometric, Ortho mode will use the appropriate axis pair from 30, 90, and 150 degrees.

This function key turns dynamic UCS on or off. UCS is a user coordinate system that a user can define according to his requirement. Before 2007 when this command is not available while working, the 3D user has to create a new coordinate system every time he/she changes his drawing view. This command is only used when working on 3-dimensional objects.

This command will turn ORTHO mode on or off. This is one of the most useful keys in AutoCAD. This mode is used when the user has to specify an angle or distance using two points using a pointing device. By using this mode, cursor movement will become constrained in the horizontal or vertical direction relative to the user coordinate system.

This key will make a snap grid on or off. Grids are the rectangular pattern of dot-like structure in AutoCAD that covers the entire XY plane of the user coordinate system. Using Grid in AutoCAD is like using the grid paper under your drawing. This will allow the user to align objects and visualize distances between them. By using this key, you can easily snap to a rectangular grid and create your drawing more easily and efficiently.

This function key will allow the user to use the polar tracking option of AutoCAD software. The polar Snapping command will restrict your cursor movement only to specified increments along with the polar angles. Polar tracking will display temporary alignment paths defined by those polar angles you had earlier specified. It also provides additional alignment in up and down directions. This command is useful while working on objects having more than one different orientation when one part of the object is rotated 45 degrees in relation to another part. While working with this command ORTHO command will automatically be shut off.

This key will allow using Object Snap Tracking Command. Object Snap allows the user to snap onto the specific object location when you are picking a point. This is used with other commands to draw your design more accurately. It is so important to command that you will never be able to draw accurately without it. Some designers use the object Snap Tracking command always ON and never turn it OFF.

This command will allow us to use the Dynamic Input command of this software. Dynamic Input provides user cursor input, dimension input, and dynamic prompts. When you right-click after selecting dynamic input, you can select any input according to your requirement. By using this, you can provide dimension inputs near your cursor instead of specifying them on the command line.

This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to browse otherwise, you agree to our Privacy Policy

On a Macally keyboard, I've found that holding Fn and pressing Esc will "lock" the Fn key allowing me to use the function keys by default. Without this, even having set the "Use F1, F2 keys etc..." it wasn't working without holding the Fn key. Locking it worked like a charm.

Yes, I realized shortly after I posted, that my question was kinda stupid. I researched HP keyboards, and it seems that modern keyboards handle key input differently than I expected, and that it is to some extent controlled outside the computer (in the keyboard itself), I suppose for performance reasons. (Probably why there is no BIOS option.) Thus, if one wants different functionality from a keyboard it must be done through remapping software.

I would complain about the lack of common sense in making an atypical functionality the default for a keyboard whose functions can only be altered through remapping, but I have read enough posts here to know that those complaints will fall on deaf ears. I have since swapped my keyboard out for my mid-90's keyboard that I had as a teenager, and though clunky, it works as a keyboard should. Problem solved.

Thanks to Scoobis; I'd mark his response as the answer, but I don't see the option to do so---and, if it is the answer, it seems to be not much of an answer for someone who likes everything about their new keyboard except for the way it works.

Hello, HP employee --

I find your answer to this very real dilemma quite dismissive. WHY ON EARTH WOULD HP INCLUDE A KEYBOARD THAT DOESN'T ALLOW ONE TO CHANGE THE FN KEYS???!!!! And the questioner was exactly right -- the BIOS gives nothing to change to help with this either!!!

My computer is new. It's an HP Pavillion Desktop 595-p0084. It came with a keyboard and mouse. The keyboard looks exactly like the one in the picture in this post.

The keyboard should be replaced!

I have registered this computer on your registration site. I think that HP should come up with a REAL remedy here. Do you know how much time I've wasted on this already??? I really really would like to be able to press a function key without having to hit the Fn at the same time!

I am baffled by the HP responses here-- you shipped a keyboard without basic functionality? Function keys are a standard part of every computer keyboard. It makes no sense to disable them by default and not allow users to make it restore to a normal keyboard. Responding that it just doesn't work is not acceptable. A keyboard that doesn't work needs to be fixed or replaced.

I ended up just going back to my old keyboard that I was able to adjust the way I want it. It's a Logtech. I love it. But I'm still disgruntled about the crummy keyboard that came with my brand new HP desktop computer! Oh, and by the way ... the batteries that came with the mouse had to be replaced within a couple weeks! WTH? I struggled for a bit because I had no idea that a brand new mouse would be faulty ... because of the batteries when I had just purchased it! I thought it was something else and fiddled about unnecessarily!

I also had this same exact issue. Changed they keyboard and all is well. I'm angry about 2 things... first HP sells me a keyboard that is flawed. Unacceptable. Second, tech support does NOT tell me about the issue with the keyboard... rather they want to escalate me to "advanced software support" where I would be charged a fee for them to fix my issue with a registry edit. WHAT??? Come on HP. I pay good money for your products... the least you can do for me is provide a fully functional keyboard and SOME software assistance with my 2 day old computer.

3a8082e126