Tag Field reference

[kevin.hayward]

Although my specific problem is Spotlight related, I think this is a general task so posted here...

that said, I'm looking at Data Tags, specifically cable tags although this would just as relevant to doors in a building, wall finishes, floor coverings, border flowers etc.

There is a field for cable parts that, when populated, becomes one single line of text. To be honest, it looks ugly. I would like to be able to have a multi-line tag.

The tag definition in this case is:

#CableObject#.#UsedPartsOrdered#

Is there any way to control the output of #UsedPartsOrdered#? I'm guessing the command iterates through the returned records and concats them with a space, whereas I'd like to use a newline.

My larger question is, is there an in depth reference for tag fields? It is, essentially, a database query language and requires better references than https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2022/eng/VW2022_Guide/Annotation2/Creating data_tag_styles.htm#h and it's circular link:

Quote

Custom data tag example

The following example shows a custom tag for table objects. The tag has two static text objects. The two dynamic text fields are a table ID that is automatically incremented with each tag and saved to a record attached to each table, and the number of chairs, which is extracted from the table object itself.

See Creating data tag styles for details.

 

[Pat Stanford]

I don't believe there is currently a way to have wrapped text in a Data Tag. 

 

You might be able to use Worksheet Functions to manually split it, but the definition would be ugly as you would have to guess as to the maximum number of parts and include that many rows.

 

  

 

And this is going to give you a blank line for each "extra" substring at the end.

 

Perhaps a better way to do this would be to use a Worksheet and place an image of the WS instead of using a Data Tag.

 

 

[kevin.hayward]

Thank you for the response.

I managed to fake it a bit by explicitly setting text box Width and WrapText properties, but that only works for cable part names of a certain length so it doesn't really do what I want.

Quote

Perhaps a better way to do this would be to use a Worksheet and place an image of the WS instead of using a Data Tag.

One hates to sound churlish, but if I wanted to create a worksheet, that's what I would have asked. I will have a group of riggers in situ running cables, trying to work as quickly as possible and it takes time to cross check tables against plans. In addition there's the admin overhead of ensuring the plans and tables are properly cross referenced. Having tags on the plans reduces time and errors.

[kevin.hayward]

#WS_REPLACE('CableObject'.'UsedPartsOrdered', ' ', CHAR(13))#

[Pat Stanford]

Glad you found something that worked.  I don't use cable objects, you I don't have a good way to look at the data to make that recommendation. Screen shots or attached files are useful to help explain problems like this that are data format dependent.