Customize menu > Preferences > Preference Settings dialog > Viewports tab > Mouse Control group > Stroke
Strokes are a way to assign command shortcuts to mouse or tablet drag patterns. For many operations, strokes are more convenient than keyboard shortcuts because they can select an object and apply a command to it.
For example, you can assign Arc Rotate to a downward stroke. When you draw this stroke, the software changes to Arc Rotate mode. You can assign a circular stroke to the Hide Selected command so that it both selects the objects and then hides all the objects in the bounding extents of the stroke pattern.
You can use strokes in two ways:
If you have a middle mouse button, you can define and use strokes by specifying the Stroke option for the middle mouse button in the Viewports tab of the Customize menu > Preferences dialog.
To define and use strokes with the left mouse button, use the Strokes utility and turn on Draw Strokes.
The same stroke pattern can perform four different functions by holding Shift, Alt, or Shift+Alt when drawing the stroke:
To define and use strokes with the middle mouse button:
Choose Customize menu > Preferences > Preference Settings dialog > Viewports tab.
In the Mouse Control group, turn on Stroke.
You must turn on this option for all Stroke functions to work with the middle mouse button.
Hold the middle mouse button and drag in a viewport to make a stroke. If the stroke hasn't been defined, a dialog appears where you can click Define to define the stroke. If the stroke has already been defined, the corresponding function is executed.
See Defining Strokes for information on defining and editing strokes.
To define and use strokes with the left mouse button:
Choose Utilities panel > Utilities rollout > More button > Utilities dialog > Strokes.
Hold the left mouse button and drag in a viewport to make a stroke. If the stroke hasn't been defined, a dialog appears where you can click Define to define the stroke. If the stroke has already been defined, the corresponding function is executed.
See Defining Strokes for information on defining and editing strokes.
Example: To assign Object Properties to a stroke:
Hold down CTRL, and drag from top to bottom and then back up to the starting point.
The Define Stroke dialog appears, and the name of the stroke is "HKKH."
Note: Depending on how you drew your stroke sequence, it might be defined by different letters. This is fine, as long as you use the same sequence to enact the stroke after you have finished defining it.
If an alert appears, you've either drawn the stroke incorrectly, or this stroke has already been assigned. Continue with the following steps to replace the defined stroke.
Choose the Properties command from the Command To Execute list.
The option enabled is Single Object At Start Of Stroke, because that's the logical choice for the Object Properties command.
Drag vertically down and back up over any object in the scene to display the Object Properties dialog for that object.
Example: To assign Hide Selection to a stroke:
In the alert that appears, click Yes to redefine the stroke and display the Define Stroke dialog.
The name of this stroke is HK.
Note: Depending on how you drew your stroke sequence, it might be defined by different letters. This is fine, as long as you use the same sequence to enact the stroke after you have finished defining it.
Load a scene containing several objects, and select two or more objects.