topic Hiding the leader of an associative label in Libraries & objects

Hiding the leader of an associative label

jshuether — Wed, 17 May 2006 06:24:53 GMT

Is there anyway to hide the leader on an associative label?

I typically place the fixture type # next to all of the light fixtures on the reflected ceiling plans (F1, F2, F3, etc). Rather than scripting in "text2" in all of my light fixture objects, it would be so easy to use the associative label tool.

Turning off the associative label leader would also be helpful indicating partition types, because I could use a traditional partition type symbol (yes, there is a workaround by setting the arrow size to "0").

Scott

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Anonymous — Wed, 17 May 2006 06:39:51 GMT

There is a way though I don't remember it exactly (to late in the evening to launch AC right now). There is a check box to "Use Symbol Arrow" or such. If the symbol has no arrow then it will use none.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

jshuether — Wed, 17 May 2006 06:52:03 GMT

Yes! Found it. Thank-you, Matthew.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

jshuether — Wed, 17 May 2006 17:59:05 GMT

Actually, I still can't easily do what I want with the associative label tool. When you select "ID" for the label, it grays out the "Symbol Label" section of the object menu and won't allow you to click on the "use symbol arrow." I do have a simple text label that uses object IDs that I use with the associative label; however, the associative label still places hotspots where the end of the leader would be if I used the label tools leader, even though the leader of the label tool is not shown. There are two problems: The initial placement of the Symbol Label is haphazard--today it is 2'-3 27/32" up and 1'-7 11/16" over from the center of the object I am trying to label, tomorrow, the location might be different. When I drag the Symbol Label into position, it drags the hotspot of the label tool leader off of the symbol still 2'-3 27/32" below and 1'-7 11/16" over. The second problem is that I can't "stretch" the location of my Symbol Label (like you can with the label tool) without first turning on the label tools leader by clicking off "use symbol arrow."

What an effing mess of a tool. It looks like I'll just have to copy/paste "text2" script into all of my objects.

Scott

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

TomWaltz — Wed, 17 May 2006 18:18:50 GMT

jshuether wrote:
What an effing mess of a tool.

It's such a shame. The Label Tool has so much power, but the Label Objects that come with Archicad are all supremely weak and do not show off any of its capabilities.

There is actually an array you can get through GDL to move the Label to a logical spot (0,0, relative to the element's center point). I did it once but cannot find it right now. It REALLY helped control the label tool!

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Aussie John — Thu, 18 May 2006 01:30:16 GMT

make a label object.
put in
EDIT::text2 0,0,Glob_ID

save into your library

Choose the label from the list in the info box.
make sure use symbol arrow is checked is in the label settings

This is the only way I know to do what wish.

As Tom says this put the text at the position if it had a leader which is very annoying. If someone can chime in how to set this at the origin of the object- please do!!!

I love the concept of the label tool and am sad that v10 appears to be leaving it withering on the vine. COME ON GS finish the feature pleaaaaaase.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Barry Kelly — Thu, 18 May 2006 02:14:23 GMT

TomWaltz wrote:
There is actually an array you can get through GDL to move the Label to a logical spot (0,0, relative to the element's center point). I did it once but cannot find it right now. It REALLY helped control the label tool!

Is this the array you are thinking of - its called "offset"?

Add this to the script just before the text and you should have a stretchy hotspot to move it around.

hotspot2 0,offset[1][2],unID,offset[1][1],1+128 : unID=unID+1
hotspot2 -1,offset[1][2],unID,offset[1][1],3 : unID=unID+1
hotspot2 offset[1][1],offset[1][2],unID,offset[1][1],2 : unID=unID+1

hotspot2 offset[1][1],0,unID,offset[1][2],1+128 : unID=unID+1
hotspot2 offset[1][1],-1,unID,offset[1][2],3 : unID=unID+1
hotspot2 offset[1][1],offset[1][2],unID,offset[1][2],2 : unID=unID+1

add2 offset[1][1],offset[1][2]

text2 0,0,Glob_ID

Hope this helps.
Just something I played with once to try to get the roof lable to work better.
I still don't use lables though.

Barry.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Anonymous — Thu, 18 May 2006 02:16:01 GMT

Aussie wrote:
make a label object.
put in
text2 0,0,Global_ID

John,

The correct code is:

Text2 0, 0, GLOB_ID

(caps optional)

The label tool continues to be my pet peeve and is one of the biggest missed opportunities considering how little effort it would have been to get it right. Rather than a great tool with tremendous power to automate the annotation process we have a promising demo of a feature that is barely usable.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

jshuether — Thu, 18 May 2006 02:42:31 GMT

I've tried the offset array with graphical hotspots, it still doesn't get rid of the hotspot created where the end of the label tools leader would be located.

I have been scripting the graphical hotspot array and text2 command into all of my light fixture objects today since the label tool won't do what I want.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Aussie John — Thu, 18 May 2006 02:49:41 GMT

Matthew wrote:
John,

The correct code is:

Text2 0, 0, GLOB_ID

.

Ooops too quick with the typing

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Frank Beister — Tue, 23 May 2006 00:12:28 GMT

It should be the global LABEL_POSITION, what you are looking for. It's an array with mystic coordinates in 2 columns (x/y) and 3 rows. See the following bitmap. That's no official documentation, but my own research. Open for corrections.

With this information you can calculate the position of the label. Together with the position of the main element you can (maybe) reach your aim.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

jshuether — Tue, 23 May 2006 00:24:04 GMT

Thank you, Frank. I saw the LABEL_POSITIION parameter in the GDL manual, but the description gave no explanation of the array. Your graphic clears this up. I will try to use this to my advantage.

Scott

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Aussie John — Tue, 23 May 2006 03:17:39 GMT

my theory why there is no documentation on this is because GS doesnt understand how it works either.

I can get the label to go to the origin with

add2 symb_pos_X-label_position [1][1],symb_pos_y-label_position [1][2]

but falls into a heap if I try to rotate it.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Anonymous — Tue, 23 May 2006 06:18:26 GMT

F. wrote:
With this information you can calculate the position of the label. Together with the position of the main element you can (maybe) reach your aim.

Thank you Frank.

I had come to a similar conclusion about the mystery of the LABEL_POSITION array values, but not so clearly and concisely (I got what I wanted but didn't spend the time to sort out how it worked). This will be a great help in future battles with the accurséd label tool. Thanks again.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Frank Beister — Tue, 23 May 2006 20:26:54 GMT

2 more:

If you work with AC9 youhave to install latest patch, because there's an error with the globals for arrays before.

There is no mirroring of labels. Means: AC transforms position and rotangle if you mirror them in the plan.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

TomWaltz — Tue, 23 May 2006 20:32:23 GMT

This is the link I was looking for:
http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/archiguide/generalparameters.html

about half-way down (search for LABEL_POSITION)

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:42:33 GMT

I dont know GDL.

I looked at the GDL Ref Guide. Now i know i don't WANT to know GDL.

I DO want to know how to position my associative label with predictability.

Is this too much to ask?

I have wasted a lot of time on labels this week. Any help is appreciated.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 08:49:05 GMT

F. wrote:
There is no mirroring of labels. Means: AC transforms position and rotangle if you mirror them in the plan.

This plagues the ordinary text labels as well (or something like this) just changing the text alignment/justification sometimes (but not always) flips the direction of the horizontal leader (relocating the text as well). WTF?

Every time I use the label tool I am reminded of how much I hate it (as much for its unrealized potential as for its gross misbehavior).

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 08:55:55 GMT

LINZ wrote:
I dont know GDL.

I looked at the GDL Ref Guide. Now i know i don't WANT to know GDL.

I DO want to know how to position my associative label with predictability.

You definitely don't want to know the GDL of the label tool. Even those of us who know it don't really know it. This is a tool that was created from a bad spec a long time ago and never fixed.

Is this too much to ask?

I have wasted a lot of time on labels this week. Any help is appreciated.

My suggestion is to use text and lines/arcs/splines (your choice) and forget the label tool. They are boring and a little tedious but they are reliable and always do as they are told. The label tool is a tempting little vixen but she'll always leave you frustrated and unfulfilled.

Re: Hiding the leader of an associative label

Frank Beister — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:40:09 GMT

One trick with label programming is: Don't do any transformations to position your content.
AC calculates the dimensions of the label block and after it has all these 2D informations it positions according to label arrow, position and allignment. Sometimes you have to refresh content (by going to settings dialog) or to rebuilt the screen. Since I gave up individual positioning all works better. 😉

One problem is still scale independance. Needs most rebuilt of the labels.