the offset tool acts differently when i’m in sketch mode and when i’m not.
in sketch mode i can use the shortcut (O) to turn on the offset tool and with each keypress i switch between modes (single/loop). this is similar to other tools like rectangle (R), spline (I) or polygon (G). but unlike these tools the offset tool doesn’t turn on sketch mode.
in normal mode (i don’t know what’s the terminology you use) i can also use the shortcut (O) but instead of switching to sketch mode i end up with a similar UI to tools like union or subtract. this is not a huge problem (still confusing) but pressing the shortcut again doesn’t do anything. i need to click onto the tool icon to switch modes or i can do a nasty workaround like ESC, R (or any other tool that does switch to sketch mode) and O again to use the offset tool in sketch mode and this way i can use the shortcut to switch between modes.
as far as i see this is the only tool that doesn’t turn on sketch mode. i understand that this tool also works on faces and it’s listed under the 3D/body tools in normal mode but even on faces it creates sketches only (just like in sketch mode) so i don’t understand why it doesn’t behave like all the other 2D/sketch tools.
p.s.: by the way the 3D/body tools could use the same logic of switching modes with subsequent keypresses as the majority (or maybe all) of the tools have zero or one option to change. like pressing ⌘U turns on the union tool but there is no shortcut for the one and only option there. pressing ⌘U again would be perfect to turn keep originals on and off. especially because i still need to click twice to change that one checkbox.
That’s indeed a known limitation of the Offset tool that has a bunch of weird deep technical reasons that I won’t bore you with. As we are working on multiple things that’ll change how it works as part of the parametric feature set we decided to focus on that effort instead of investing into fixing this particular workflow.