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Keyboard & Mouse Shortcuts

ReciPro wires many functions to key combinations and to mouse buttons combined with modifier keys — things that are not visible on a button or a menu. This page collects them all in one place. Each window's own page also repeats its shortcuts near the top.

F1 works in every window and opens that window's page of this online manual.


Application-wide shortcuts

These are installed by the main window but stay active while the Structure Viewer, Stereonet, Diffraction Simulator, Spot ID, and Calculator windows are focused.

Shortcut Action
CTRL+SHIFT+D Toggle the Diffraction Simulator
CTRL+SHIFT+V Toggle the Structure Viewer
CTRL+SHIFT+S Toggle the Stereonet
CTRL+SHIFT+T Toggle Spot ID
CTRL+SHIFT + arrow keys Rotate the crystal one step in that direction (hold two arrows for a diagonal)
Double-tap CTRL Toggle the Calculator
CTRL+SHIFT+R Toggle the selected crystal's Reserved flag
CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+C Capture a screenshot of the GUI (developer tool; enable Capture GUI Components first)
Hold CTRL while ReciPro starts Start with OpenGL disabled (recovery for graphics problems)

Shared interaction models

Almost every interactive view in ReciPro belongs to one of three families. Knowing the family tells you the drag/zoom behaviour without memorising each window.

3-D OpenGL views

Used by the Structure Viewer, Rotation Geometry, the Stereonet's 3-D sphere, Electron Trajectory, and the EBSD geometry / master-pattern views.

Action Result
Left-drag Rotate — trackball near the centre, in-plane roll near the edge
Right-drag up/down, or Mouse wheel Zoom
Middle-drag Pan (only where enabled)
CTRL + Right-drag up/down Change the camera distance (perspective mode only)
CTRL + Right double-click Toggle orthographic / perspective projection

Individual windows may switch pan or zoom off (for example, Electron Trajectory and the EBSD 3-D views have panning disabled).

Diffraction-pattern views

Used by the Diffraction Simulator pattern, the EBSD Kikuchi pattern, and the 2-D Stereonet. The key difference from the 3-D views: dragging rotates the crystal itself, not just the camera, so every linked window updates together.

Action Result
Left-drag near the centre Tilt the crystal
Left-drag the outer area Spin the crystal about the view/beam axis
Right-click Zoom out
Right-drag a box Zoom in to the selected region
Middle-drag Pan

There is no mouse-wheel zoom on these views.

Image views

Used by the HRTEM/STEM result panes, the Spot ID v2 image, and the EBSD 2-D master pattern.

Action Result
Left-drag / Middle-drag Pan
Mouse wheel up / down Zoom in (×2) / out (×0.5) at the cursor
Right-drag a box Zoom in to the selected region
Right-click / Right double-click Zoom out (×0.5)

Per-window reference

0. Main window

Open page → · plus the application-wide shortcuts above.

Shortcut Action
Left-drag the orientation widget (bottom-left) Rotate the crystal
Right double-click the orientation widget Copy the widget image to the clipboard
Single-click / double-click a function button Toggle that window / force it to the front
Right-click a crystal in the list Context menu (Rename / Duplicate / Delete / Export CIF…)
Double-click the Current Index label Show / hide the max-UVW box
Drop a file Load a crystal list (.xml, .cdb2) or a crystal (.cif, .amc)

1. Crystal database

Open page →

Shortcut Action
ENTER in a search field Run the search
Click a result row Load that crystal
Click an element in the periodic-table popup Cycle its filter: ignore → must include → must exclude

2. Symmetry information · 3. Scattering factor

No special key/mouse combinations — only F1 and the Copy buttons. Symmetry → · Scattering factor →

4. Rotation geometry

Open page → — six linked 3-D views; rotating any one rotates all six together. The small Axes / Objects views have zoom and pan disabled.

5. Structure viewer

Open page → — main view is a 3-D view.

Shortcut Action
CTRL+SHIFT+C Copy the rendered image to the clipboard
Left double-click an atom Show coordinates, nearest-neighbour distances, and bond angles
Left-drag the crystal-axes gizmo Rotate the model (no in-plane spin)
Left-drag the light gizmo Change the lighting direction

6. Stereonet

Open page → — the 2-D net is a diffraction-pattern view; the optional 3-D sphere is a 3-D view.

Shortcut Action
Left double-click the net Switch between Plane and Axis projection
Move the mouse over the net Read off the (hkl)/[uvw] under the cursor

7. Diffraction simulator

Open page → — the pattern is a diffraction-pattern view (no wheel zoom).

Shortcut Action
Left double-click a spot Show reflection details (index, d, structure factor, excitation error)
CTRL + Middle-drag Move the detector centre (when the detector area is shown)
Right double-click the status bar Copy a text summary of the current settings
Right double-click a lit layer button (Spots / Kikuchi / Debye / Scale) Blink that layer on and off
Left double-click the stereonet — TEM holder window Set the holder tilt to that point
Arrow keys — TEM holder window Step the holder tilt (tick Arrow keys first)
Drop .prm / image — Detector geometry, or .txtDynamic compression Load that data

8. Electron trajectory

Open page → — a 3-D view with panning disabled.

9. HRTEM / STEM simulator

Open page → — result panes are image views and pan/zoom together.

Shortcut Action
CTRL+C (image grid focused) Copy the image(s) to the clipboard as a metafile
CTRL + Right-drag a box Select a rectangular area
Left double-click a pane Maximise that pane / restore the grid (multi-pane layouts)

10. Spot ID v1

Open page → — the image is reference-only (not interactive).

Shortcut Action
Double-click a row in the results list Select that crystal and rotate it to the matching zone axis

11. Spot ID v2

Open page → — the image is an image view with spot editing on top.

Shortcut Action
Left double-click the image Add a spot (peak-fitted)
CTRL + Left double-click Add a spot and mark it as the direct (000) beam
Left-click a spot Select the nearest spot
CTRL + Right-click a spot Delete the nearest spot
CTRL + arrow keys Nudge the selected spot by one pixel
Double-click a spot's row header Zoom to that spot (×2)

12. EBSD simulation

Open page → — the Kikuchi pattern is a diffraction-pattern view; the 3-D views are 3-D views (pan off); the 2-D master pattern is an image view.

Shortcut Action
Double-click the Kikuchi pattern Pick the detector sub-cell under the cursor and show its statistics

20. Macro

Open page →

Shortcut Action
CTRL+S Save the editor text back into the selected macro-list entry
F10 Advance one step (during step-by-step execution)
Double-click a row in the function-help list Insert that function's signature at the caret
Drop a .mcr file Load it into the editor