topic Re: View name or ID request in Libraries & objects

View name or ID request

Erich — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:59:03 GMT

I am hoping to revise my zone stamp to allow it to move to different x/y locations depending on the current saved view (ie floor plan, finish plan, electrical plan, etc) so that it can be moved out of the way of notes and symbols in one view and not affect the others.

In theory, this is fairly easy, however to do this I need to find a way to reference a saved view name or id. Looking through the GDL manual it does not appear that to be a request that can be used for this but I am hoping I am wrong. Does anyone know of a method? Can this be done?

Thanks

Re: View name or ID request

David Larrew — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:11:37 GMT

I haven't studied all of the new command structures that were added in AC13 yet, but AFAIK there isn't an easy way to do this...

In the past, I have managed to use some of the Model View Options and/or scale factors to change the appearance of the Zone Stamp. I have been asking for the ability to request and/or call Layers and Layer Combinations forever. Still waiting.

Re: View name or ID request

Erich — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:48:15 GMT

David,

Yes, I too have adjusted object and stamp appearance based on MVO options or scale but not based on a saved view. I will play with it some more this weekend and see what I can come up with. I am beginning to think that perhaps autotext might offer a means to address this. Has anyone done this successfully?

Re: View name or ID request

Anonymous — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:58:15 GMT

It can be done thanks to the new LibraryGlobals.
1 Create a new libraryglobal "YourLibraryGlobalName"(choose subtype Drawing symbol/Library Global Settings).
2 Make a parameter for instance BooleanUseOffset, write a UI in the library global.

UI_INFIELD{3} "BooleanUseOffset", 10, 10, 265, 18,
7, "", 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0,
1, `Use offset`, 0,
2, `Use offset`, 1

3 Then in the zone you create your offset script.
Before that you write this:
success = LIBRARYGLOBAL ("YourLibraryGlobalName", "BooleanUseOffset", reqBooleanUseOffset)
IF success > 0 AND reqBooleanUseOffset THEN

!here comes your offset script

ENDIF

So now when you set the offset on in the Model View Options Combination you will get the offset, and otherwise the original position. Note that this way you can only modify the offset when it is turned on in the MVOC.

Re: View name or ID request

Erich — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:27:47 GMT

Yeah...but I am using AC 12 not 13.

Re: View name or ID request

Anonymous — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:39:40 GMT

In case of AC 12 you can abuse the Story view point type, which is the predecessor of the Library Global. No need to create a libraryglobal, just do a request in the zone.

success = request("Floor_Plan_Option", "", reqBooleanUseOffset )
IF success > 0 AND reqBooleanUseOffset THEN

!here comes your offset script

ENDIF

Advantage of this request is that is stored with each view. I hope this will work for you.

Re: View name or ID request

Erich — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:28:46 GMT

As I understand the Floor_Plan_Option, and I have used it for a number of objects previously, it will only work with the Story Viewpoint Type under the GDL Options of the Model View Options. This works great if you need a different view of the object in a ceiling plan view as opposed to a floor plan view. However, if you have two different floor plan views (say a finish plan and an electrical plan) then this does not work.

Mostly I was hoping against hope that there might be an option I have missed.

Re: View name or ID request

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:42:20 GMT

Erich

I have created something similar here for and have used a mix of CONSTR_FILLS_DISPLAY, WINDOW_DOOR_SHOW_DIM and FLOOR_PLAN_OPTION. This has given us the ability to have 4 different plan locations from the one object.

This is the guide I use in the 2D script.
!!!!CON_FILLS_DISPLAY GUIDE!!!!
!4 = Brochure Plan
!6 = Floor Plan
!1 = Elec Plan
!6 = Sketch + Ceiling Plan (floor_op = 1)

Re: View name or ID request

Erich — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:51:50 GMT

Kristian,

Interesting thought for a work around the problem. While it is not universal, it could work for the way we set up our drawings with some consideration.

Thanks for the idea.

Re: View name or ID request

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:42:01 GMT

Erich

Yeah it certainly isn't a universal solution but our company is lucky in that we have a very refined company template so it gives me the ability to create library parts like this knowing it is going to work on every project!

No worries at all, good luck.

Re: View name or ID request

ztaskai — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:38:33 GMT

Hi,

There's no direct support for creating view dependent displacement - but I think I have a workaround in v13. You define a view class parameter in your library global object. This can be anything but I advise you to pair it with positive integer numbers starting from 1. This way you can request this value in your stamp objects and use it as an index in a coordinate array.

Something like this is on my mind:

dummy = LIBRARYGLOBAL(yourobject, yourIntParamName, iViewClass)
...
hotspot2 0, 0, ..., xOffsets[iViewClass], ...
hotspot2 -1, 0, ..., xOffsets[iViewClass], ...
hotspot2 xOffsets[iViewClass], yOffsets[iViewClass], ..., xOffsets[iViewClass], ...
hotspot2 0, 0, ..., yOffsets[iViewClass], ...
hotspot2 0, -1, ..., yOffsets[iViewClass], ...
hotspot2 xOffsets[iViewClass], yOffsets[iViewClass], ..., yOffsets[iViewClass], ...

There is one important thing though. You have to communicate the difference between the two kind of dragging of zone stamps to your users. The 'built-in' drag moves the stamp in all views and the 'editable-hotspot-based' drag moves the stamp in the active view category only. It's easy to mess up but can be used with some extra care.

Regards,
Zsolt

Re: View name or ID request

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:55:51 GMT

Zslot

That is pretty much the same idea I had for 13 but as Erich said they are still on 12!
13's new model view options for library parts will open up so many options for exactly this sort of stuff.
I'm looking forward to getting in and having a serious play with it all!

Re: View name or ID request

Erich — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:14:21 GMT

Zsolt,

That is great to hear, that will work quite well, at least once we are able upgrade. Thanks for the feedback it gives us something to look forward to.

Until then I will just have to make do with the work around.

Re: View name or ID request

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:53:47 GMT

Maybe it too late since you are upgrading to 13, but I thought of a nice way to get the zone marker offset.
Instead of moving the zone marker you LABEL the zone. The label can extract any information of the zone. It is placed on a layer, so you can use layer combinations. To avoid double markers you can turn off the zone-marker with the MVOC.

Re: View name or ID request

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:30:23 GMT

Hello,

I think this not possible- the zone is some kind of label itself

Neither requesting "ASSOCLP_PARVALUE" works on zones.

Master wrote:
Instead of moving the zone marker you LABEL the zone. The label can extract any information of the zone.

Re: View name or ID request

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:40:35 GMT

There is this code with which an object (or a label) can request information of the zone it is in. Ok, it cannot request all parameters but it can request the name/category/code/name/number.
(I was creating a new label, so I got a bit carried away )

REQUEST ("Zone_relations", "", category_name, code, name, number)

Re: View name or ID request

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:52:57 GMT

Hello,

Yes those are the extractable infos and only works inside the zone.

Would be fine if could be placed outside the room.

Re: View name or ID request

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:12:09 GMT

Yes, they only work when the middle of the object is inside (or close to) the zone.

But . . . you can place a hotspot-object with only a hotspot or so inside the zone, let that put the zone information in a parameter and then label that hotspot-object. That label requests that particular parameter of the hotspot-object.
A bit far-fetched but it might work.

Re: View name or ID request

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:21:54 GMT

The other option for moving a label outside of the zone is to push the zname to a parameter and then have an if statement for if the zname = "" then the text output = your parameter.
That's my work around anyway!