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Keyboard Shortcuts

Chip Hippo follows Electron's CmdOrCtrl convention throughout, so every shortcut listed here as Cmd also works as Ctrl on Windows and Linux. Most shortcuts are disabled while a text field has focus, and some are further gated on the current tool or simulation state — those conditions are noted alongside the shortcut.

Desk & simulation

Shortcut Action
Space Run / Stop the simulation (not while typing, or while a placement/wire/bus tool is armed)
Cmd+R Run / Stop the simulation
1–7 Press signal buttons 1–7, top to bottom — only while the circuit runs, and several at once (see External signals)
Tab Switch between the Breadboard and Schematic views (not while typing)
Escape Abandon a drag in flight, then unpin a probed net, then disarm the probe, then cancel a pending wire/bus, then cancel a placement in hand, then deselect — whichever applies first
Delete / Backspace Remove the current selection (a part, wire, bus, annotation, board, or a whole multi-selection)

Selecting & moving

These are mouse chords rather than keystrokes, but they are the modifiers the desk answers to. The Desk covers building a selection; Chips & Components covers moving one.

Chord Action
Shift-drag Rubber-band a selection — it replaces whatever was selected
Cmd-click Add one item to the selection, or take it back out (Ctrl-click on Windows/Linux; on a Mac Ctrl-click stays the context menu)
drag a part Re-seat that part alone, leaving every wire where it was
Option-drag a part Move it with everything plugged into it — the wire ends, and the legs of the resistors and LEDs, in the column-halves its pins occupy
drag any member of a selection Move the whole selection as one rigid unit
Option-drag a member of a selection The same, carrying everything riding any member of it
hold Option over a selection Ring every hole an Option-drag would carry, before committing to the drag (a selected part, or a whole multi-selection)
Option-drag a board Tear off the run of mated strips reachable forward (below/right) from the one you grabbed
Option+Shift-drag a board The same, running backward (above/left)

Tools

Shortcut Action
W Arm/disarm the wire tool
B Arm/disarm the bus tool
I or P Arm/disarm the probe tool (works even while the simulation is running)
M Disarm whichever of the wire/bus/probe tool is currently armed
H Fade the wires down to a stub at each end, and back (works while running — it only changes what's drawn)
1–8 While the wire tool is armed, pick a wire color
1–8 While the bus tool is armed, pick the bus width — 2–8 for that many bits, 1 for 16-bit

Placing & rotating parts

Shortcut Action
R Rotate or flip the part being placed or selected — see Chips & Components for the exact behavior per part type
F Flip an LED's polarity while its placement ghost is armed
Cmd+C Copy the selection — one part, a whole multi-selection of parts, or (if it includes boards) the whole sub-assembly
Cmd+V Paste a copy as a new placement ghost

View

Shortcut Action
Cmd+F Fit the desk (recentring it) — or the schematic, when it is showing
Cmd+Shift+F Zoom out to fit everything at once
Cmd+= Increase the interface text size
Cmd+- Decrease the interface text size
Cmd+0 Reset the interface text size (13 px)
Option+Cmd+= Zoom the desk in
Option+Cmd+- Zoom the desk out
Option+Cmd+0 Reset the desk zoom
Cmd+L Lock or unlock the desk against the scroll wheel
A Toggle the Logic Analyzer panel
Cmd+P Toggle the parts palette panel

Both scale shortcuts want the unshifted key. On a layout where + needs Shift, use Cmd+= rather than Cmd+Shift+= — the shifted chord is deliberately ignored, so it can't collide with anything else.

The two families above do different jobs. Cmd+= and friends change Chip Hippo's own text: toolbars, panels, menus and dialogs, in every window at once — the same setting as Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Editor font size. Hold Option as well and you move the desk camera instead, zooming the circuit, chips, boards, wires and all. Markings on the desk are printed on the circuit, so they follow the desk zoom rather than the text size.

On a Mac, Option+Cmd+= and Option+Cmd+- are also macOS's own Zoom shortcuts (System Settings ▸ Accessibility ▸ Zoom ▸ Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom). If you have that turned on, the system takes the keys first and Chip Hippo never sees them — use the zoom cluster in the bottom corner of the desk, or Cmd+F to fit, instead.

Files & editing

Shortcut Action
Cmd+N New Project (a blank slate, one empty desktop)
Cmd+O Open… (load a saved project)
Cmd+Shift+O Recent projects (the same menu a right-click on the toolbar's Open button drops)
Cmd+S Save the project to its file
Cmd+Shift+S Save As… (give the project a new file)
Cmd+B Toggle the build guide (Bill Of Materials) panel
Cmd+A Select All — every board, part and wire on the desk; in a text field, its text
Cmd+Z Undo
Cmd+Shift+Z Redo

App

Shortcut Action
Cmd+, Open Settings
Cmd+K Open the quick Keyboard Shortcuts popup
Cmd+/ Open the Chip Hippo User Guide (this guide)
Alt+Cmd+I Toggle Developer Tools