Data tags are great, but sometimes I find the workflow too inflexible for annotating drawings. To get the right data you would like, you need to create the tag style and set it up in advance.
I wonder if as an alternative approach, there could be another mode of the Data Tag tool that when you select the object you wish to tag, all the available data is displayed and you can select the relevant fields you would like, bundling them into a new tag on the fly. You could then choose to have this as a style or leave it unstyled.
This means that when you are annotating things, there is minimal interruption. You don't have to stop to make a new style (or think in advance that a new style is required), and it's also much more flexible. Sometimes you don't need a new data tag style for every single thing (don't get me wrong though, the styles work very well for often tagged objects). As someone who looks after VW in a small office, you don't have to second guess all possible permutations of how colleagues will use it and set up a tag for them to use.
This was in my mind when annotating some steel beams recently, where on some pages you just want the "Steel Section", on others you may want to have the "Steel Section + Beam Reference Number", and on other sheets you may wish to have "Beam Reference Number + Section + Note such as *to Structural Engineer's specification*". I think it's a bit cumbersome to have three separate tags, or to go to the effort of making three separate tags when they may only be used once each.
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_James
Data tags are great, but sometimes I find the workflow too inflexible for annotating drawings. To get the right data you would like, you need to create the tag style and set it up in advance.
I wonder if as an alternative approach, there could be another mode of the Data Tag tool that when you select the object you wish to tag, all the available data is displayed and you can select the relevant fields you would like, bundling them into a new tag on the fly. You could then choose to have this as a style or leave it unstyled.
This means that when you are annotating things, there is minimal interruption. You don't have to stop to make a new style (or think in advance that a new style is required), and it's also much more flexible. Sometimes you don't need a new data tag style for every single thing (don't get me wrong though, the styles work very well for often tagged objects). As someone who looks after VW in a small office, you don't have to second guess all possible permutations of how colleagues will use it and set up a tag for them to use.
This was in my mind when annotating some steel beams recently, where on some pages you just want the "Steel Section", on others you may want to have the "Steel Section + Beam Reference Number", and on other sheets you may wish to have "Beam Reference Number + Section + Note such as *to Structural Engineer's specification*". I think it's a bit cumbersome to have three separate tags, or to go to the effort of making three separate tags when they may only be used once each.
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