“Being an Industrial Designer, I need to access more than 7-8 software which includes Solidworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, Keyshot, Indesign, etc. on a daily basis and yes few games also. So, I experienced two issues from which this device comes to its existence.
Scattered Keys - The complete hand travels over the keyboard in search of a key that exists at the opposite corner like ESC and ENTER key. Similarly, there are more than 15 keys that I use only in Solidworks and those are scattered all around the keyboard. So, instead of changing my keyboard preferences, again and again, I looked for a mini keyboard that can be customized according my needs. After having some research I found plenty of designs and codes which can do this task easily. But as soon as I jumped on the second issue, I found that none of the design can eliminate that.
Different Functions - The second issue was when I switch the program, most of the keys swap their functions like Adobe Photoshop is doing zoom with ALT+Scroll but when I go to Adobe Acrobat, zooming is done by CTRL+Scroll. Similarly, I don’t want most of the keys in Keyshot which I usually use in Solidworks. And, I never use arrow keys in Solidworks which are extremely required while gaming.
So, I decided to build a HotKeys keyboard with a Rotary Knob and a cheap LCD to alter between different programs with dedicated key mapping.
This Instructable is to simplify workflow and enhance productivity.
Let’s hope you enjoy it and let’s begin!”