Align Your Dynamo Nodes Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Developers
1

Hi all,

I’ve written a script to let users align their nodes using keyboard shortcuts.

I can get pretty OCD about making sure my Dynamo definitions are clear, minimising crossed wires and aligning nodes wherever appropriate - but I wish there was a simple keyboard shortcut to help align Dynamo nodes instead of having to constantly right-click, select align and so forth.

I used a piece of productivity software called AutoHotKey (which is free, open-source and under a GNU license) to automate this process using a short script (attached). Just right click, run with AHK and use the following commands to align your nodes:

Ctrl + Shift + Right :: Align Nodes Right
Ctrl + Shift + Left :: Align Nodes Left
Ctrl + Shift + Up :: Align Nodes to the Top
Ctrl + Shift + Down :: Align Nodes at the Bottom

Align Dynamo Nodes.txt (519 Bytes)

Installation Instructions

Visit https://autohotkey.com to download AutoHotKey (3MB) for free.
UPDATE: Some users are reporting the AHK website is down, please see below post for download mirrors
Install the software; please note there is no actual AutoHotKey program with a user-interface. If you open the program all you will see is a help file.

Run Instructions

All you need to do is right-click on the text file (downloaded from link above) and run with AHK. A green H icon will appear in the bottom-right of your taskbar and you’re good to go. Open Dynamo, press one of the shortcuts described above and start aligning those nodes!

To Run On Startup

With a little know-how, this script can be configured to run automatically on startup.

AHKStartup.PNG972×219 17.2 KB

Hopefully one day Dynamo will ship with these shortcuts built-in, until then hopefully some of you will enjoy using this workaround!

2

Great stuff!

3

This is really awesome! Great share @oliver.green!

4

Am I the only one having issues with the https://autohotkey.com/ link?

5

Seems to work for me! What happens when you click it?

6

Cant tell if it’s a firewall thing but it’s probably on my end then. I get a host error “gateway not found.”

7

Same here.

8

So strange… it sometimes works sometimes doesn’t:

image.png970×27 11 KB

Luckily a quick Google search will pull up a few other reputable sites to get it from:



9

Sweet! I’ve been using way too much alt+e+a+t and alt+e+a+r. This will be a nice addition.

One quick question though - is it possible to make a Distribute X and Distribute Y as well or is this a no-go due to how Autodesk has coded that menu? (alt+e+a+x does nothing as best I can tell).

10

Sadly it does look like they’ve mapped the same accessibility keys twice (X and Y). I’m also having trouble using arrow keys to navigate the sub-menus… perhaps we put this one on hold for the time being :wink:

11

Ok. I may give it a stab if I find the time. :slight_smile:

12

The cnet link worked and now everything seems to be in place. This is going to be super convenient. Thanks!

13

Got it working. Pretty sweet!

14

Looks like the team is planning to add more short cut, see this github wish:

Align Tools
– If More than one node is selected, then:
— Left Align: Selection + A
— Top Align: Selection + W
— Right Align: Selection + D
— Bottom Align: Selection + S

15

That’d be awesome - consider this a sneak preview, I guess :wink:

16

This is really awesome and useful stuff! Thanks a lot! :star_struck:

17

So has this happened? Was there any progress made on this topic?

18

Not sure, but the dynamite plugin from the Beyond AEC hackathon in Boston last October comes to mind now…

19

Hello, sry i don’t get it, I use Revit 2019. do you have pic for every step? thx