forum.datacad.com

Question: when doing a Batch Plot (to PDF) the Layer Manager does a lot of "flashing" and refreshing - why is this?

Related question: in the path dialog in the batch plot to PDF, why does it look different than almost every other folder tree-type dialog box in DataCAD?

Neil Blanchard wrote:Question: when doing a Batch Plot (to PDF) the Layer Manager does a lot of "flashing" and refreshing - why is this?

Because Datacad is changing views and toggling layers on and off for each view. You'll see the layer light bulbs change with each view that is printing.

Neil Blanchard wrote:Related question: in the path dialog in the batch plot to PDF, why does it look different than almost every other folder tree-type dialog box in DataCAD?

Testing a few, it looks just like the Symbol Browser & Wall Type folder dialogs to me. Which dialog does it look different from for you?

You're right - the dialog for the SB looks like that. It is the triangles (that show the subfolders and files in a tree, that is different than Windows dialogs. They behave differently in digging down into the folder structure, and for whatever reason, I was noticing this in the Plot to File dialog.

On the first question, I'm wondering if the LM can be "supressed" during MSP plotting; if only to cut down on CPU demands. Plotting sometimes takes a lot of "effort" and maybe this could speeds it up, somewhat?

I think the triangles are the newer windows format, at least for win7, I starting with Vista & not sure if it changed again on 8. The +/- was from the previous gen dialogs. I want to say it changed in the .net3 era maybe? If you open windows explorer on Windows 7 you'll see that the navigation on the left uses the triangles. If I recall correctly depending on the IDE, in Visual Studio I think when starting a new program you select the target OS(s) and depending on the setup, determine if the program will use native dialogs, or force specific OS compatible/mimic dialogs so some older programs can still use old style dialogs. It's been a couple years since I've programmed anything, so I am a bit fuzzy on the setup. Don't know if Dave is still using Delphi so it might be different in how it targets the OS's for dialogs. Maybe we can learn something today

Josh, maybe that is what happened? I am using Win7, but only noticed this recently. Sheesh, why do they have to keep changing things like this?

Try changing this key in the [General] section of the INI file:

Old File Dialogs=TRUE

Dave

Neil Blanchard wrote:Sheesh, why do they have to keep changing things like this?

It was 7 years ago . You can change to a Windows Classic theme to get the +/- back in most dialogs except those that force something else. I tried to see if there was a group policy to force just the old tree but couldn't find one. Might find one if you search a bit more online. I prefer the +/- also, but the arrows work the same as far as I can tell. I think they changed it to match what the menus show when a nested menu is available. Wouldn't want a +/- there. More consistent I guess.

And I'll stick with my XP Pro until they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Dave

When I browse to (some) folders in the Symbol Browser, the Layer Manager flickers rapidly, and looks like it is sorting, but it actually ends up as it was. It happens when I click on a folder in the SB Browse dialog, before I click Okay. It delays DataCAD for the few seconds it takes to do whatever it is doing.

What is going on?

Not seeing it here. What settings for things like view dependency or symbol scaling do you have on that might be affecting it? Where are you pulling the symbols from? Does it happen in all files? How about in a new base file with a bunch of layers added?

joshhuggins wrote:Not seeing it here.

Same.

The LM is persistent. I think Symbol Scale was on. I'll keep an eye on this.