Graphic Legend summarise symbols

[DBLD]

Hi, I am creating a graphic legend to show the stage decks I have used. Currently it is showing a quantity of one for each deck, rather than saying quantity of two for matching decks. Does anyone know how to get it to summarise the quantities?

 

[DBLD]

It also comes out like this:

 

[DBLD]

I got this working by adding a purpose note to each deck and reporting by purpose.

 

I would be interested to know if there is another way around this.

[Pat Stanford]

Probably. I think it is a matter of how you define the legend.

 

 

The above gets me a single cell for each deck size. 

It is going to take some extra work to be able to separate out the decks that are different heights and the ones that have casters from the ones that don't.

[DBLD]

Copy that, thanks for your insight Pat. I got a similar result as you with a single cell for each deck size. It is the combined deck size, heights and casters that is really useful for me.

[Buhbuhbryan]

HEY @DBLD! 

Could be a good use case for the Data Manger (Found by going to Tools>Data Manager). Lots of cool ways to combine data using custom functions. You could essentially mash-up the fields you are after to get reportable values needed for the Graphic Legend Criteria. 

I'm happy to go more in depth, but here is a basic example:

Let's say you want to count up the decks that are the same size, height, and have casters. What you really need is one field in a record attached to those objects that can summarize these three pieces of info and then be used to sort them out. This can be accomplished with a custom record attached to the decks that has the following 4 fields:

 

Deck Info Record

Deck Size (Example Value: 600mmx2400mm)

Height (Example Value: 900mm)

Has Casters (Example Value: TRUE)

Summary (Example Value: 600mmx2400mm , 900mm, TRUE)

 

The first 3 fields are easy and can either be entered manually in the case of symbols with records attached or pulled from the Stage Deck parameters using some basic functions. 

 

The 4th field is where the Data Manager really comes into play and allows you to use a custom formula to automatically combine the other 3 fields. That formula would look something like: =CONCAT('Deck Info' . 'Deck Size' , 'Deck Info' . 'Height' , 'Deck Info' . 'Has Casters') in the example above this would populate the value
"600mmx2400mm , 900mm, TRUE" into the Summary Field. 

 

So once we've finished nerding it up we are actually left with a super cool automated system for sorting out stage decks! All we have to do now is change the Graphic Legend's "Define Custom Source" settings to Report By: the Summary field of the Deck Info record. From now on in the Graphic Legend, only decks that have the same size, height, and casters will be counted together because those objects will have identical Summary fields. 

 

I don't know how much of this is new information. But if its something you are interested in setting up, please let me know and I'd be happy to throw together a mockup.

Cheers!