data tag for curtains part 2

[Peter Telleman]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm looking into data tags to make our work easier and less time consuming. Let me sketch the situation, we draw trusses in the entertainment sector, and on those we (amongst other things) hang curtains. To make build plans we now use the callout tool to make text balloons where we type the amount and type of curtains that hang on a certain stretch of truss. As you can imagine, this is quite time-consuming. For hoists we use data tags, and especially because of the all eligible objects mode option, I had a thought of using data tags for curtains as well, to be able to add those texts instantly for all curtains.

 

With a ton of help from @Tom W., because I'm extremely new to data tags, we managed to make a data tag for curtains. My follow up on this is however, is it possible to have a data tag connect and display all curtains (maximum three) on a stretch of truss? As an example I've attached the test file which has the curtain tags in it, as you can see, the amount of tags make it very hard to see which goes where. So a tag that shows the drape count and type for the curtains in a stretch would be ideal.

 

Thanks for any input,

 

Peter

curtain tags.vwx

[Tom W.]

1 hour ago, Peter Telleman said:

My follow up on this is however, is it possible to have a data tag connect and display all curtains (maximum three) on a stretch of truss?

 

I don't think you're going to be able to do this because Data Tags return data from objects singular: you can't tag more than one object at once. You could do it with a Worksheet of course (or probably Graphic Legend) but it would need to be a new one for each group of curtains because they'd need different criteria.

[Peter Telleman]

@Tom W.

 

I fear I'm asking too much as well, but that would mean the labour intensive call out tool is our best option, since all work arounds are at least as time-consuming 😞

 

thanks for all your help.

[Mirko Guhr]

Hello @Peter Telleman,

 

unfortunately i can’t open your file because i only have VWX2023.

You both are, of course, already a bit deeper into your topic, so I can’t offer a direct solution. I do agree with Tom W. that it is not possible to connect a Data-Tag with multiple objects.

However, maybe an individual Marionette or script could help.

If you could save the file in 2023 and I could perhaps ask one or two silly questions afterward, I can give it a try 😉.

 

Best regards

[Peter Telleman]

@Mirko Guhr

 

Hi, Attached is my test file as VW2023. Good luck with it, I am very interested in possible solutions

curtain tags v2023.vwx

[Mirko Guhr]

To make sure I understand correctly, you’re looking for:

A way to display the attached curtains for each truss element and indicate where they are located on the truss (“left | middle | right”) along with the running meters.

Alternatively, to show the objects independently of the truss per “group of 3” since curtains often span multiple trusses.

 

Is it important to know on which truss each curtain is hanging (starts-ends-continues)?

Or is the goal just to have fewer data tags?

[Peter Telleman]

@Mirko Guhr

 

Hi Mirko,

 

I'm looking for a way to have the labels/data tags show the group of three curtains, and then contain the types and counts of all three curtains. In the test file, you will see a couple of curtain lengths along the truss, each curtain length has three curtains (front, center, and back), the data tags are now seperate for each curtain (which makes sense). I'm looking for a way to display type and drape count for each group of three, in a way that is automated, comparable to the eligible object mode you have with data tags.

[Mirko Guhr]

@Peter Telleman

I think I have some good news for you.

You have a database in the file “EntEquipUniversal”. Is it yours? And may I expand it? Currently, I have temporarily created my own. However, I prefer to have similar things in one place. Once I have your response, I will finalize it and send it over. Here is a first glimpse. The detailed instructions will follow in the final version

We can keep it as a script in the accessory manager, as it is currently. Then you can execute it via the script palette or directly in the manager with a right-click.

We can also create a menu command or, what I almost prefer, we can make a tool out of it, which could even be assigned to a key 😄.

We would also need a class where I can store the objects.

The short version: Select objects - run script - BoundingBox is generated - apply data stamp to the box - hide the box with “CTRL-B” in the background or class.

By hiding the class, the box disappears completely without affecting the data stamp.

Since it is a rectangle, it behaves a bit awkwardly with slopes, but that does not affect the script.

I would also add Front/Center/Back to the data stamp. I forgot to mention that quickly.

But more on that in the final version 😉.

[Mirko Guhr]

And the generated object doesn’t have to be a rectangle. I just found it quite charming because you can also change the color of the rectangle or control it directly via the class, and visually separate the individual groups better. Even if you want to measure the curtains on the rig later, the rectangle could be advantageous to make the seam more visible. But I think you understand what I mean.

We could also define a symbol that is displayed. I just need an object where I can store the data of the curtains so that the data stamp can pull from it. You can decide what you want.

[Peter Telleman]

@Mirko Guhr

That looks awesome, let's be honest, I don't understand half of what you're explaning, but the result you're getting is exactly what I want. And of course we could tweek the layout, an inside/center/outside is what we're already using, and I was thinking of maybe let the tag colour correspond with the curtain style colour.

So basically you're saying you made a script where you can select the three curtains, and then when you run your script it places a bounding box, on which you place the data stamp (the three seperate curtains), and if you make a class for the bounding boxes, you can hide these boxes. This does sound still quicker than typing info into callout boxes. Is making these scripts a thing in vectorworks (so I can look that up and learn things)?

Especially making this into a tool, which then can be assigned to a key sounds fantastic.

 

Is the script refering to the data tags I've put in initially? Because I see in your movie black curtains on both the outsides, where one side should be voile white. Obviously the hope would be that the script would read the curtains in the bounding box, removing the need to first place data tags.

 

Thanks a lot, this looks very promising!

Edited September 26, 2024 by Peter Telleman

[Mirko Guhr]

@Peter Telleman

If your DataTags had to remain, you could point your finger at me and laugh out loud. That wouldn’t bring any improvement.

The inner pages in the video are black because my human error is being showcased here, by myself 😄😄.

I assigned the text to the wrong field in the DataTag. I will leave a separate database after all. Then you won’t have any problems later if you need to do something.

Here is a short current video:

 

I will send the final data and instructions later.

[Mirko Guhr]

nur kurz zur Klarstelllung. Die Rechtecke sind komplett losgelösten von dem Vorhang. Es werden direkt die Daten aus dem Vorhang genommen und in der Datenbank vom erzeugten Rechteck abgelegt. Die Attribute können auch einfach über das Attribut-Fenster geändert werden. Allerdings verlieren sie dann die Verbindung zur Klasse. Ganz normales verhalten von Objekten. nichts spezielles oder so:

[Mirko Guhr]

And now I was too quick with typing. Shame on me 😞
 

Just to clarify: The rectangles are completely detached from the curtain. The data is taken directly from the curtain and stored in the database of the generated rectangle. The attributes can also be easily changed via the attribute window. However, they then lose the connection to the class. This is normal behavior for objects, nothing special or anything like that.

[Peter Telleman]

@Mirko Guhr

 

Macht nichts, ich verstehe ein bischen Deutch 🙂

 

It looks fantastic! My follow up question would be, would this also work on trusses, or would that need a new script? I'm very impressed, especially since I thought what I wanted wasn't possible.

 

Oh, and something else that I'm thinking up, sometimes people disagree on what is the inside and outside, is it possible to have the rectangles take over the colour of the pen colour of the curtain class (so pink for voile, green for sound velours, and blue for black curtains, we have a couple more)?

 

Thanks a lot (sehr vielen dank)

[Mirko Guhr]

I’m glad if it works for you 🙂.

I also briefly considered which side is which, but if the colors are fixed, it could work.

What information do you want from the truss? I have another idea that I want to develop a bit further.

I’ll briefly explain how the script filters, then you can tell me if it fits or if these values can change.

To find out which fabric is positioned where, I looked for a value that clearly indicates the assignment.

I have

 

used the main type of textile.

 

Value assignment:

CS Molton = Outside

PES + PA = Center

PES = Inside

 

Is it always like this? So, is a PES never outside?

The script is relatively simple. For example, if you mark two PES fabrics and run the script, only the value of the first PES fabric will be transferred to the database.

If the values are not always fixed, we need to find another solution.

[Mirko Guhr]

Regarding the color and assignment, I thought about it again.

In principle, the rectangle can simply be moved to the background or the class can be hidden, and the curtains become visible again.

One could also create a rectangle for each curtain that has the color. However, the generated rectangle would probably become a group with the database, and within the group, the rectangles with color. But the color would actually be obsolete because you can simply hide the rectangle… hmmm.

 

Isn’t the problem with the assignment more related to the dataTag? Because I don’t have an assignment to the color here.

The ideal state I imagine is:

That the field Inside, Center, Outside is colored the same as the curtain.

 

Or am I missing something?

[Peter Telleman]

@Mirko Guhr

For the position of the curtains, there is no set position, PES+PA is the only one that is ever in the center, but all are on both inside and outside. And sometimes the same curtain style is on both the inside and outside, for that same reason I was thinking of putting the colours of the styles classes in the rectangles, and then maybe forget the whole position mentioning.

For truss we need a symbol count per boundingbox (often multiple symbols) en trim height. I've attached an example of how we do it now.

 

very nice to learn more on subjects we don't usually work on 🙂

test truss example.vwx

[Peter Telleman]

@Mirko Guhr

 

For the colours I wasn't thinking about colouring rectangles in the drawing, but colouring the boxes where the text is in. So when you mentioned colouring the parts where it now says outside/center/inside, that sounds good.

[Mirko Guhr]

Is the color always 100% the same? So always pink/green/black?

Do you just manually change the color when the curtain is moved elsewhere?

So, it can also be that a style hangs both outside and inside with different pen colors?

 

But you also mentioned you have a few more. A few more styles or also colors?

[Peter Telleman]

@Mirko Guhr

No the colours are determined by the class of the style, to use the example, voile is always pink, black molton is alway blue, and sound velours is always green, we have a couple more styles (I've added my template)

09. Curtain Types 2024_V4 v2023.vwx

[Peter Telleman]

Also forgot the 2023 issue with the truss, so hereby a 2023 file

test truss example v2023.vwx

[Mirko Guhr]

@Peter Telleman

I think it’s Version 2024, please 2023

[Mirko Guhr]

lol 😁

[Mirko Guhr]

@Peter Telleman

Thanks for the template, I understand it better now. I’ll think about it some more.

In the truss example, no trim height is specified. But you would like to have it included, right?

And you label everything manually each time? That must be exhausting 😄.

[Mirko Guhr]

@Peter Telleman

Can you take one or two pictures of an entire truss project in top view?

I currently have the problem of how the script knows what is inside and outside. My first thought was to solve it with an additional click. So, mark - run script - click where inside is - script continues.

 

But I find that too error-prone. Therefore, I would like to create an object that is in the accessory manager. This symbol must be placed and essentially indicates the inside. When I run the script, it takes the position of this object and looks at where the individual curtains are in relation to it. This way, I can determine where inside and outside are.

Whether it works exactly like this is currently only in my head.

 

But either we have this object, or each style/color is clearly assigned to a position. But I think that’s impossible. Would this additional object be acceptable to you? The screenshots should roughly show me how the rigs are arranged. But in an emergency, you would have to move the “zero-point object.”

 

What do you think of the idea?