'Find Text' that actually finds and shows text.

[DSmith2300]

I have a blizzard of tree ID numbers to sift through on a large plan and it would be helpful if the 'Find and Replace' function would highlight the text that it claims it finds. 

Instead it moves the focus off to some random place away from the drawing and says "one occurrence of the text was found or changed".

 

This seems to be the equivalent of a shop assistant saying "yeah we have one of those" and walking away without further explanation as to where to find said item.

I know "X" exists, but I want to know WHERE.

 

Could this 'function' be possibly made, uh... 'functional', please?

 

[michaelk]

Have you tried a worksheet?  It not only displays all the data but navigates to the object in question really well.

[DSmith2300]

On 8/31/2022 at 1:38 PM, michaelk said:

Have you tried a worksheet?  It not only displays all the data but navigates to the object in question really well.

Even if it's just a bit of plain text?

[michaelk]

Just so I understand:  You're not using the data attached to the plant object?  You have floating text boxes?

 

If you're using the data attached to the plant object, using a worksheet to change the data is trivial.

 

If you're using text objects it's trickier.  (and you should consider using data and tags 🙂) 

[DSmith2300]

To be clear;  frequently I am handed a .dwg with surveyed trees, already with their tree ID# floating around as text.

Sometimes there are a few hundred.

 

You see the problem...

[michaelk]

Yes. I’m familiar 🤣

This thread has worksheet that finds text objects and returns the text. 
 

making it editable might be possible (?)

 

[michaelk]

@DSmith2300 this can probably be written better.  But I've always thought that a script that works ugly today is better than a pretty script next week.

 

@Pat Stanford might be able to find the holes in my logic here.  But this works.

 

From the attached file import into your file [or better yet, a copy of your file] the worksheet "Crazy Text Worksheet" and the script palette WS Text.

 

Recalculate the worksheet.  If it gives you a warning about executing scripts, say Yes Always.

 

In the left column you should see the text of every text object in the drawing.  If this is too unwieldy, edit the criteria to only certain layers or classes or is currently selected or whatever.

 

The second column is blank.  In the that column type in the text you want it to be.  It will change the text on the drawing and go to blank again.

 

Let us know if this works.

 

 

Get Text v2022.vwx

[Mark Aceto]

Sounds like the beginning of a pretty powerful workflow using a custom record and data manager mappings… 

[Jeff Prince]

17 hours ago, DSmith2300 said:

To be clear;  frequently I am handed a .dwg with surveyed trees, already with their tree ID# floating around as text.

Sometimes there are a few hundred.

 

You see the problem...

 

Perhaps the easiest solution to your problem is to request the point file from the surveyor in .csv format.  That's what they used to create their plan in all likelyhood.

 

This would enable you to use Vectorworks  "import tree survey" function and give you far greater control over the graphics and text used to depict the trees on plan.

I do this all the time with great success.  Further, you can browse their point file with a spreadsheet program and clean the data up to suit your purposes a lot faster than in Vectorworks.  Surveyors commonly collect the 3d position of a tree along with some data like caliper size and species that can be much more valuable than a simple 2D drawing.

[DSmith2300]

4 hours ago, michaelk said:

 

 

From the attached file import into your file [or better yet, a copy of your file] the worksheet "Crazy Text Worksheet" and the script palette WS Text.

 

Wow! Many thanks Michael!

I'm sadly excited to use this.

 

 

[DSmith2300]

1 hour ago, jeff prince said:

 

Perhaps the easiest solution to your problem is to request the point file from the surveyor in .csv format.  That's what they used to create their plan in all likelyhood.

 

Thanks Jeff. That's also a good solution. 

[DSmith2300]

Michael,

That script / worksheet was amazing.

Thank you so much!

 

I cannot code in the least, my brain just doesn't work that way, so I really appreciate things like this!

[michaelk]

1 hour ago, DSmith2300 said:

I cannot code in the least, my brain just doesn't work that way, so I really appreciate things like this!

 

My brain doesn't either most of the time! 🙂 

[Sam Jones]

6 minutes ago, michaelk said:

My brain doesn't either most of the time! 🙂 

You lie.  I know different.