topic Re: AC11: IE Marker in Libraries & objects

AC11: IE Marker

Laura Yanoviak — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:42:22 GMT

I'd just like to verify something before I embark on another GDL adventure...

It doesn't look like the Marker I want (see attached) is possible with the provided IE Markers in AC11 -- true? Typically, we will want to have one common Marker for each IE group, the Drawing ID being inherited from "The first placed drawing of the viewpoint" (all elevations of a room treated as a single drawing).

With the "One common Marker..." selected, the choices are limited to "Outer Text" and "Inner Text"; only with "Individually..." selected do you have the choice of "First Row Text" and "Second Row Text" (I do realize these are two different Marker objects). Am I missing a setting somewhere, or am I going to have to create my own Marker???

Re: AC11: IE Marker

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:51:05 GMT

I think you are in for some GDL editing. I will be working on some of these myself next week so I may be able to help you out a bit. The firms I work with reference the IEs by room number rather than drawing number but it should be adaptable to using the drawing number of the "first" elevation in the group. It may require a dynamic hotspot to tell the marker which elevation is "first". There may be other tricks but I can't think about it until next week. (I'm making stairs right now.)

Re: AC11: IE Marker

TomWaltz — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:03:35 GMT

I had the same problem. I ended up writing my markers almost from scratch. (all 3 of them, one for "single", one for "individual", and one for the elevation tool to link similar rooms to the same IE since GS decided we don't need to do that)

I used one of the AC variables to figure out which one was IE #1 in the set of elevations then labeled that A (#2 was B, #3 was C, and so on).: These are a few snippets:

	TextArray[1] = AC_MarkerText_3	! Top
	TextArray[2] = AC_MarkerText_5	! Right
	TextArray[3] = AC_MarkerText_7	! Bottom
	TextArray[4] = AC_MarkerText_9	! Left

It's an array because I have a FOR/NEXT loop that places each of the 4 arrows with the text, and the counter is used in the array index.

The real magic:

	sInnerText1 = "<MARKERDRAWINGNUMBER_R>" + AC_DrawingGUID_1
	sInnerText2 =  "<MARKERSHEETNUMBER_R>" + AC_DrawingGUID_1

The real pain is that the IE can have its number and names set on the fly, so you almost have to enforce serious standards in which fields are used in the IE tool. The parameters are slightly different depending on which one you use.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

Laura Yanoviak — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:12:19 GMT

Thanks, guys. I'll give it a go and see how far I can get -- LJY.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:56:32 GMT

TomWaltz wrote:
I ended up writing my markers almost from scratch.

I find it is always easier to write markers from scratch. The ones the come in the library are so complicated (and uncommented) that they are a real pain to edit. I find that a custom symbol or marker that does just what I want it to takes only a few dozen lines of code, compared to a few hundred for the all purpose GS parts. This also makes for MUCH easier maintenance in the future.

Remember to comment your code well!!! What seems obvious as you write it will become mysterious when you reopen it a year from now.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

Laura Yanoviak — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:52:37 GMT

Another issue, still with the IE Markers as provided with AC11:

When grouping less than 4 (or more than 4) elevations with a single marker, the arrows from the marker head disappear!

Re: AC11: IE Marker

TomWaltz — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:04:30 GMT

Yeah, I noticed that. According to Tech Support, they could not find a good way to make a single marker with off-orthogonal views.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

Laura Yanoviak — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:35:42 GMT

More Observations (still with the IE Markers as provided with AC11 -- I managed to create my own Marker object (fairly easily) by customizing this one `Interior Elevation 1 11`-- and still regarding the "One Common Marker..." option):

The "Inner Text" will display as either one entity or two entities ("First Row" and "Second Row"), depending on what (and how many) text parameters are turned on.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

Laura Yanoviak — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:38:30 GMT

Note that if you have all 3 text parameters turned on, the first 2 are combined on the "First Row":

Re: AC11: IE Marker

Laura Yanoviak — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:42:08 GMT

The last 3 AutoText options do not seem to affect the "Inner Text" settings -- they only affect "Individually..." placed Markers and the individual Viewpoint names within the Project Map.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

Laura Yanoviak — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:55:25 GMT

When modifying the Marker for my needs, I basically replaced the "First Row" of "Inner Text" as Tom suggested (plus I got rid of a bunch of stuff I didn't need and customized the Interface Script (see attached):

TomWaltz wrote:
The real magic:

	sInnerText1 = "<MARKERDRAWINGNUMBER_R>" + AC_DrawingGUID_1
	sInnerText2 =  "<MARKERSHEETNUMBER_R>" + AC_DrawingGUID_1

The Marker seems to reference the North or "Top" placed drawing first, followed by the East or "Right" if the North is missing, followed by the South if both North and East are missing, etc.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

TomWaltz — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:13:59 GMT

In case you want an interior elevation marker that tells you what all those AC_DrawingText variables are:

Re: AC11: IE Marker

kevin b — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:44:51 GMT

TomWaltz wrote:
Yeah, I noticed that. According to Tech Support, they could not find a good way to make a single marker with off-orthogonal views.

But that doesn't explain why it doesn't work with 2 or 3 orthogonal views. Seem like a bug to me.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

TomWaltz — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:17:36 GMT

kevin wrote:
TomWaltz wrote:
Yeah, I noticed that. According to Tech Support, they could not find a good way to make a single marker with off-orthogonal views.
But that doesn't explain why it doesn't work with 2 or 3 orthogonal views. Seem like a bug to me.

I thought so too, but GS claimed it was "by design"

Re: AC11: IE Marker

kevin b — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:28:45 GMT

Doesn't make sense, especially given that it looks like you can put in the rectangle, get all four views and 4 points on the marker and then select the individual line (or lines) for the views you don't need and delete them. The symbol then remains with only the remaining 2 or 3 views you want. IF the marker works with less than four, why can't it work just defining 2 or 3 to begin with instead of having to go back and delete. That smells like a bug to me.

I'll buy the couldn't figure out what to do for non-orthogonal views and/or more than 4, but if there's a workaround like I described, that's a bug in my book.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

TomWaltz — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:46:07 GMT

kevin wrote:
Doesn't make sense, especially given that it looks like you can put in the rectangle, get all four views and 4 points on the marker and then select the individual line (or lines) for the views you don't need and delete them. The symbol then remains with only the remaining 2 or 3 views you want. IF the marker works with less than four, why can't it work just defining 2 or 3 to begin with instead of having to go back and delete. That smells like a bug to me.

I'll buy the couldn't figure out what to do for non-orthogonal views and/or more than 4, but if there's a workaround like I described, that's a bug in my book.

Yeah, they thought counting to two involves the numbers 3 and 4 once in a while..

I also like the "Browse" button that cannot be activated.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

Stress Co_ — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 23:02:56 GMT

kevin wrote:
Doesn't make sense, especially given that it looks like you can put in the rectangle, get all four views and 4 points on the marker and then select the individual line (or lines) for the views you don't need and delete them. The symbol then remains with only the remaining 2 or 3 views you want. IF the marker works with less than four, why can't it work just defining 2 or 3 to begin with instead of having to go back and delete. That smells like a bug to me.

Does it work? When I delete 2 views.... the IE Marker's inner text no longer shows the referenced layout number. Is this a bug... or do I need to adjust a setting??
The 2 views are on a layout sheet.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

James Murray — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:21:15 GMT

Stress wrote:
Does it work? When I delete 2 views.... the IE Marker's inner text no longer shows the referenced layout number. Is this a bug... or do I need to adjust a setting??

My experience is that when the top, always the top, view is turned off, the layID fails to resolve. I let them know. IEs are still very buggy IMO.

My workaround is to use multiple single-sided IEs with the markers stacked. Real convenient. I believe this is similar to the Tom Waltz pre-11 method.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

Stress Co_ — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:13:51 GMT

Thanks James.
I had not noticed, but your exactly right.
It only changes when the top view is deleted.
I switched to manually indicating the sheet #'s, but will try your (& Tom's?) workaround.

Re: AC11: IE Marker

James Murray — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:04:02 GMT

Not fixed in 1086.

You'd think a new tool that failed utterly in a plurality of cases would get more urgent attention.

Remind me, why should I upend my workflow every twelve months?

@#$%