Commands

Abbreviations

Command: By the “command” is meant the string used to run some actions from the SCIA Spotlight. Commands usually contain dots, e.g. “Structure.1d.Beam” Other properties like the command names/short name/... are in regular text and the commands can also be found in the SCIA Spotlight using the regular text forms.

Hotkey: By the “hotkey” is meant string used which is shorter substitution to full length command. Some commands does not have corresponding hotkeys. See full list of commands.

Use of commands

Installation

Commands and hotkeys are available immediately after the installation of the SCIA Engineer. It is not necessary to install anything special neither to do any changes in the settings.

Each command may be started again without its selection. Use key "Enter" when the command is finished, and the command is started again automatically. It is possible to define another key than "Enter" to repeat the last command.

Protection

Commands and hotkeys belong to general functionality. They are not protected by any module and are available for all users. However the user is still able to run actions supported by his licence only. E.g. a user which does not have nonlinearity in his licence cannot start inserting of “Nonlinearity 1D”.

Customization

Commands

Commands are defined by SCIA and cannot be changed by the user.

Hotkeys

SCIA defined already some default shortcuts/hotkeys, but they can be changed (customized) by users.

Simply click on the field at the end of a command, press the hotkey that you want to define and press the Enter-button.

When a hotkey is already defined to another command, a message is given to the user to warn him that the other command will lose the hotkey.

Some hotkeys are fixed in the software (e.g. Del).

 

Functionality coverage by commands

General

Most commands are available only in an open project. If there is not any project opened then the SCIA Spotlight can only be used for some Open commands.

Actions available via commands

Commands and hotkeys cover major part of available actions within SCIA Engineer. Following types of actions are covered by commands:

• actions started from the input panel, main menu or toolbars
  • inserting of entities (structural members, supports, loads, libraries ...)
  • running of calculation
  • displaying of results and checks
  • modification of entities (copy, move, rotate, ...)
  • changing of view (view point, zoom, view parameters, ...)
  • actions duplicate with action started from the tree (calculation, libraries, ...)
• starting of various managers and tools (galleries, Engineering report, …)

Actions not available via commands

It is not possible to execute certain actions during a running action but some options are available while running a command, e.g. change a snapping setting or the coordinate system is possible during the input of a 1D member, but modify command (move, copy,...) and other actions are not available during this command (in the main menu you can see that these commands are greyed out).