Align Your Dynamo Nodes Using Keyboard Shortcuts

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.

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

11 Likes

Great stuff!

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

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

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

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

Same here.

So strange… it sometimes works sometimes doesn’t:

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



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).

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:

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

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

2 Likes

Got it working. Pretty sweet!

1 Like

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

1 Like

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

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

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

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

2 Likes

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