For those of you who are computer savvy and love to use keyboard shortcuts, I found an EQ6 archived blog post from Feed Dog you might be interested in. Feed Dog has assembled a list of keyboard commands you could use for the EQ6 program. To do this, you must first download the AutoHotKey software (as you’ll read). The Electric Quilt Company can’t tech support AutoHotKey programming, but we thought we’d pass on the tip for those of you who want to give it a try.
“Sure, there are some key commands (the help file and tips of the day list some), but it’s hard to keep straight what the Ctrl key does when you’re drawing a Bezier curve (turns it into a line segment), drawing a rectangle (makes it a square), or coloring a one-patch quilt (colors a whole line of patches).
But I wanted the to poke keys for everything EQ6 does! Rarely able to resist a tinkering challenge, I called AutoHotkey to the rescue. Now whenever I run EQ6, I run my AutoHotkey script too (you can download it below), adding the following keyboard shortcuts to the program:
Alt+B: Change to block worktable
Alt+Q: Change to quilt worktable
Alt+N: New horizontal quilt/EasyDraw block (depending on which worktable is active)
Alt+Shift+N: New on-point quilt/PatchDraw block
Ctrl+Alt+N: New variable point quilt/PatchDraw motif
P: Print quilt
Shift+P: Print fabric yardage
Ctrl+P: Print block
Ctrl+Shift+P: Print templates
Ctrl+Alt+P: Print rotary cutting sheet
Ctrl+B: Open Block Library
Ctrl+F: Open Fabric Library
Ctrl+L: Open Layout Library
+ [plus sign on the number pad]: Add block/quilt to sketchbook (when viewing the worktable)
- [minus sign on the number pad]: Show sketchbook (same as F8)
Alt+Z: Suspend (or reactivate) hotkeys (to enter appliqué text etc. without triggering the commands)
If you already have AutoHotkey or are curious about the source code, download the script here. But even without AutoHotkey, you can run the script as a stand-alone executable. Whichever version you download, just double-click on the file to run it. The commands should only fire in EQ6 (unless you’re looking at a web page with “EQ6″ in the title; I’ll fix this when I have a chance).
The key commands are free to use and adjust to your own preferences. PatchDraw tools are top on the updates list, along with better commands for starting fresh blocks and quilts—I’ll upload new versions whenever I have ‘em.
Hopefully other people will find the shortcuts useful—just being able to switch worktables without the mouse gives me a practically unholy delight every time!”
Although EQ can’t tech support the AutoHotKey solutions that Feed Dog as provided us, we felt it was a pretty cool idea to share. Thank you for the awesome tips Feed Dog! Great work.
