Working faster with the keyboard

Placing a mark is one click. What slows a takeoff down is everything between the clicks — switching tools, switching counters, trips to the sidebar. All of that has a key.

The shortcut list and the Keyboard Map

Click macros in the bottom-right status bar to open the full shortcut list. On desktop, a keyboard map sits right at the top of it: every key that does something lights up yellow, and hovering a lit key tells you what it does. On a phone or tablet, tap See Keyboard to open the same map.

The Macros dialog with the keyboard map on top — every mapped key lights up, and the shortcut list scrolls underneath.

The ones worth learning first:

Key	Does
`M`	Move / select (drop the current tool)
`S`	Set Scale
`C`	Counter mode
`L`	Quick Line
`P`	Polyline
`D`	Measure
`H`	Highlight
`N`	Note
`V`	Room Sizer
`X`	Multiply Zone
`R`	Rotate page
`←` `→`	Previous / next page (`Shift` jumps between marked pages)
`Ctrl`+`Z` / `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Z`	Undo / redo (`Cmd` on a Mac) — the history keeps your last 50 steps
`Esc`	Cancel / close

Quick Keys: your counters and line types on the number row

The biggest time sink on a busy sheet isn't placing marks — it's changing what you're placing. Quick Keys puts your own counters and line types on the number row.

Click keys in the status bar (next to macros).
For each number 1–0, pick a counter or line type from this project. On a big palette, type in the search box at the top — every dropdown filters to matching names as you type (already-bound items always stay put).
Done. Press 1 while marking up and you're placing that counter; press 2 and you're drawing that line type. Press the same key again to deselect.

The Quick Keys dialog: each number key gets a counter or line type from the project — here 1 is bound to Water Closet and 2 to the waste line.

Bound items wear their digit as a small badge in the sidebar, so you don't have to memorize the layout — and bound keys light up on the keyboard map with their names. Bindings are saved with the project. If you keep a standard palette in your saved Artboard, the same bindings work bid after bid.

Right-click a tool for its settings

Every tool button answers a right-click with a small menu of its actions — Counter and Line offer their settings plus a quick "Add…", Legend, Grid, and Multiply Zone open their settings directly, and Move and Measure offer Set / edit scale — the fastest way back to a page's scale once it's set, right where you notice it's wrong. No hunting through menus. (Building palette items fast is its own trick — see Building your palette in two clicks.)

45° snap for straight runs

Toggle J (or the snap button in Line Type Settings) while drawing lines or polylines and every segment locks to horizontal, vertical, or a 45° diagonal — the angles real plumbing and conduit runs actually take. Toggle it off for freehand tracing.

One workflow, both hands

A fast rhythm looks like this: left hand on the keyboard (1, place, place, 2, trace, Enter, → next page), right hand never leaving the mouse. Set up Quick Keys once at the start of a bid, and the sidebar becomes something you glance at, not something you visit.