Most efficient unit production control group model?

Question

I consider myself a fairly noobish Terran player, but have noticed my control group strategy in SCII change from...

CC on 0 (which was how I used to play BW, I guess); to...
CC 1, rax 2, factory 3, starport 4; to...
CC 1, all other production buildings 2 (since one can now tab-select to different types of building in a selection)

What is the most efficient strategy for being able to produce units quickly without changing your field of vision, yet still keeping hotkeys open for battle groups? I have a hunch it's option 3 since I've actually started thinking about it now, but it's not like they teach you this stuff in the tutorials.

Does this change for the other races as well?

Answer 1

Very popular recommendation about keys is: develop those that works best for you and use it. Some people has long finger and there are not problem for them to use '0' widely. Other assign unit groups into 7-0 numbers but use 'P' (patrol) command instead of 'A' (atack).

Personally I prefer in SC2 (it allows to have bigger groups than SC/BW) to have:

1. 1 - for main ground forces;
2. 2 - for secondary ground forces group;

3. 3 - for air units;

   EDITED: assigning units into 1-3 keys allows me to quickly press 1-a-2-a-3-a when necessary to attack with all groups. Or just 1-a-3-a if I don't have the 2nd group or want it to stay in place.

4. 4 - for CCs/Nexuses, for Zergs - for Queens;

   Allows quickly order SCV/probes with clickin 4-e-e or 4-s-s (usually I book for 2 such units); also is useful to have queens in group to cast additional larvas quickly: 4-v-v-v

5. 5 - for Barracks/GateWays - 1st tier unit buildings, for Zerg - Hatcheries
6. 6 - for Factory/Robotics Facility - 2nd/3rd tier ground units;

7. 7 - for StarPort/StarGate - air units;

   with 5-7 is easy to book any units, usually their shortcuts are on the left part of keyboard.

8. 8 -

9. and 9 - are usually used for upgrading facilities: forge, armory, engineer, evolution chamber.
10. 0 - I usually use for command center when I need to scan.

Further F-keys assignement I plan to use to bind locations: main, natural, enemies natural, main battle ground - that will be changed often.

Answer 2

The upcoming patch will deliver the ability to customize hot keys, then you could use your F-keys for buildings and your number keys for units or something similar instead of having to move your fingers all over the keyboard.