2nd touchscreen monitor, use it for 'keyboard' shortcuts??

[gazz]

Seeing the Asus zenbooks with the 'screen pad 2.0' got me thinking how that could be a good idea... but i don't want to get a zenbook as all i read is this screen pad thing is pretty crappily implemented, especially if you are not using the shortcuts feature for office programs, i.e. only 4 user assignable virtual keys etc.


But i like the idea of on screen shortcut buttons you can label and press, for me it'd be very useful when in fusion 360, as there's so many keyboard shortcuts to remember, and often i want the mouse to stay where i positioned it whilst i activate a command to draw something there... so atm it's the CTRL SHIFT ALT plus key shuffle... and trying to remember which combo does what and often getting it wrong.

Does such software exist?
What i'd do is connect an old android tablet to the laptop using something like space desk, giving me a 2nd monitor with touch input, then have a panel of shortcuts i'd just drag over to the other screen... or maybe even an android app that can do this?

i really struggle with writing software.. arduino's is as far as i can get for basic things, so i can't simply write an app/program to do this, but maybe something already exists?

 

[gazz]

Figured it out.

Just discovered stream decks, which would be nice if i wanted real buttons to press... maybe another time. found out they have a version that runs on phones / tablets, but want a yearly subscription to use it.
nuts to that.

I then found 'Touch Portal'

A much cheaper way to do just what i want (as in free for a basic 4 x 2 grid, or $12.99 one off payment for the pro version... upto 128 buttons and lots more)

So i'm using an old ~7 inch android tablet, connected via wifi to my laptop, and i now have a screen of virtual buttons that i've set up to send key macro's to activate the various shortcuts in F360.

i'm a happy bunny.

 

[smogsy]

making a Shortcut program would take about 30 minutes for a developer, to design, build ,test & deploy

what sort of shortcuts would you want?
web links
app links
macros?

& what Operation system would it need to support?

because of most of this could be done in Web app depending on shortcut requirements or C# c++

 

[gazz]

Basically just keyboard shortcuts.

my current laptop needs the 'FN' key holding down to use the F keys, so a simple F6 to zoom to model is a pain with having to stretch my finger from the FN key and F6.

But it seems like the touch portal app is doing what i want, virtual buttons on an old android tablet that send the keystrokes to the laptop whilst im using fusion 360.

 

[FredFlint]

I have just created a windows WebSocketServer and android WebSocketClient to create a PC remote app. Been planning to do it for some time but got sidetracked. Its like a chat app for now, just need to do the mobile UI and create code to hook into the PC keyboard/mouse. I also tride using a html file web page to send data to the server and it worked fine in firefox.

 

[gazz]

At times i wish i could get my head round this programming stuff,

i've tried many times in the past, but it just dosent sink in, stuff like C programming knowledge would help me with arduino projects too,

but i am more of a mechanical person it seems, working with metal, wood, plastic (aka 3D printing) and all that is easy for me, but sometimes even learning all the available commands in a program is a challenge... like it's taken me like 3 years to get semi comfortable with Fusion 360.

 

[FredFlint]

I have now done a basic prototype of the app+server and it seems to work very well. Can send short cut, files, open files/links with default app.
I am working on the editor page so can store preset list of buttons and thats about 80% done.

Spoiler: image