forum.datacad.com

John Daglish wrote: Can the text and corresponding drawn rectangle or polyline (and with void) be linked such that when you do an identify both entities are highlighted?

Thanks for the suggestion John.

The existing macro uses a series of entity attributes to link the outline and text entities, and it would not be possible for the standard DataCAD identify logic to be aware of their relationship (although it should already identify the void as part of the outline). It would however be possible to have an identify function within the macro as you suggest, and I will look at including that in a future version.

I have been contemplating the linkage logic for the new version, and wondering if it might not be better to include all of the entities for a space as a symbol. There would be a few advantages of this including the ability to Identify the symbol, and also the ease of moving/copying/rotating it as a single entity outside of the macro. The main disadvantage I can see is that you could not use the normal polyline editing functionality (add/move/delete a vertex etc.), so those editing functions would need to be done via the macro (which in some ways is an advantage as the macro could recalculate as you edited instead of having to be subsequently called to do the updates) ...
Would be interested to hear from anybody that uses the macro as to their feelings regarding such a change.

A new version is under development, but it likely to take a while to come to completion (this is just a part-time hobby for me, and typically I spend less time on it over the Australian summer).

Regards,
David H.

A work around that I use for this is select the text or polyline by Group using any of the editing commands but not completing the edit.
ie, start the copy process and select the polyline or text by Group and everything will be highlighted. Escape out of the copy process and voila.

Noticed a couple items today.
Change Label contents, but existing labels do not update to new settings, even after selecting Update Labels.
Change Label Colors, but existing labels do not update to new settings, even after selecting Update Labels.
Ran File through the Repair function, labels no longer display.

Change Label contents, but existing labels do not update to new settings, even after selecting Update Labels.

If you add extra lines to the label in the settings then the 'Update Labels' will only update the contents of the existing label lines (it will never add extra lines). Did you add an extra line(s) when you changed the label contents?

Change Label Colors, but existing labels do not update to new settings, even after selecting Update Labels.

Update labels will never change the text format (only the contents). You can change the text format manually after the label is created and the macro will not change it back. If you want to change the colour of existing labels then will need to change them manually. This is documented in section 3.2.3 of the macro's Instruction Manual.

Ran File through the Repair function, labels no longer display

I have never used the Repair function myself previously, but ran a test file through it with the default options. I did not notice any change to the labels as a result. I would not expect any problems as the labels are just standard text entities (albiet with some perhaps non-standard attributes). Can you please email me directly with more details of this.

btw,
I have been working on a new macro with similar functionality to Space Planner for some time (I am not referring to it as a new version of Space Planner because it is pretty much an entirely new code base written in Delphi instead of Classic DCAL ). This new macro is progressing well although it will still be some months before it is ready for release. I have tried to take into account all comments/suggestions made about Space Planner, and will take your comments here on board and see if I can provide more comprehensive label update options.
You previously asked about stacked fractions in Space Planner. These have been implemented in the new version (with some complexity in the required code I might add!). One implication of stacked fractions is that the number of entities in a label can change if the dimensions of a space are changed. So I have already had to add logic to track all the separate entities and cater for a possible change in the number of entities in the label refresh logic that I have already written. I have not written the label update logic yet, but it will have to cater for the creation of new entities so will be much more comprehensive than the Space Planner update logic. The new macro also allows definition of label layouts using a symbol (which can have a pretty much unlimited number of entities, not just the 5 lines of text allowed with the in-macro configuration), so the whole layout may change drastically on an update.
I will try to fix any bugs reported in Space Planner, but am not planning to add any new features to the existing macro (new features will be added to the new macro ...)

Thanks,
David H.

I thought I knew you were rewriting it, so I just was reporting items as I found them.
I tried both adding a new line, and a new item to the 1st line, neither updated existing labels.
I'd forgotten there was an instruction manual, need to reread.

I'd forgotten there was an instruction manual, need to reread.

The manual can be accessed by selecting S9 from the macro main menu, then clicking the 'Show Instruction Manual' button. I'll admit that I personally probably fall into the broad 'read manual as last resort' category ... There are times when it is useful, but I don' expect that anybody (other than me) has read the Space Planner manual in its entireity !

I wrote:

If you add extra lines to the label in the settings then the 'Update Labels' will only update the contents of the existing label lines (it will never add extra lines)

That is true, but I should also add the following:
The labels of existing spaces will only be updated if the existing number of lines in the label exactly matches the number of lines in the current label specification. The label will not update if the number of lines is different.

I also wrote:

You can change the text format manually after the label is created

This is only true if you have the 'Sep Entities' settings enabled in the macro. If this option is not enabled then the label is created as attribute(s) of the space outline and not as text entity(s). I do not think there is an easy way at present to change the format of these attributes. I will see if I can easily provide a way to make limited changes (such as colour) to this attribute text.

I have updated the Space Planner web page (http://www.dhsoftware.com.au/planner.htm) with a FAQ section that answers some of the questions that have been raised recently.