The Option Key

The Option key is used for many things in PowerCADD. We'll introduce you to just a few of them here.

Setting a Tool's Defaults
Many of the tool icons contain two dots (..) in the lower right corner. Selecting these tools while pressing the Option key will display a dialog box. In the dialog box, you can set the behavior of the tool.

For example, the WildTools Line tool has two dots in the lower right corner. Hold down the Option key and select the tool, and the following dialog will appear:

Holding down the Option key when you select the tool brings up the tool's dialog.

In this case, you can select how the Round Rectangle tool behaves.

Many tools are customizable in the way they work, and this is the way you set the behavior of the tool.

If the Option key is not held down when you click on the tool, no dialog box will appear and the tool will be selected using the last dialog settings.

Menu Commands with Two Dots
You already know that a standard feature of the Macintosh interface is that three dots (...) after a menu name (such as Save As...) means that a dialog box will appear if you select this menu command.

In PowerCADD, many menu commands have two dots (.. as in Clear..) after the menu name. This means that if you hold down the Option key as you select the menu command, you will bring up a dialog box that will give you choices to make, while if you do not press the Option key, then no dialog will appear and the command will be executed immediately.

Option Key with Tools
Many of the tools in PowerCADD and WildTools have additional drawing methods or actions if you press the Option key. For example, most of the tools will draw from center if you press the Option key.

In other cases, if you press the Option key before clicking in the drawing, the tool will do something different. In the case of the Needle tool, you do this to pick up attributes (colors, line weights, etc.) from objects. In the case of the Offset Line tool, the tool will offset lines in both directions.

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