Text within symbol to report symbol name

[Ioannis.K]

Hi, we have a set of symbols and we are trying to have a text object within them to report their name (the name of the symbol they exist within).

 

We could make this work with a data tag that is created outside the symbol and then linked to it, but this means that it does not belong to the symbol itself.

 

We could also make this work with creating a record format, link text to record etc. but that's a workaround and not directly linked to the symbol name field.

 

 

Is there a way of doing this neatly?

[Mike T]

As each instance of a symbol is identical, you would just manually enter the name of each symbol into a text object contained within the symbol components. No reporting  or "clever" referencing should be necessary... Unless I've misunderstood?

[Ioannis.K]

Thank you @Mike T Yes this could work, but it doesn't have the functionality we are after and it doubles up information: typing a symbol name and then re-typing the text into the symbol, which carries some margin of error.

 

Having text within the symbol that reports properties of the symbol can be useful beyond just reporting its name, so keen to know if possible.

[Pat Stanford]

I do not believe it is possible using Symbols. It is definitely possible using Plug-in Objects.

 

Link Text to Record combined with using the Data Manager to store the symbol name in a record is a possibility, but I don't know if the Data Manager has the capability or not.

[Tom W.]

48 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

Link Text to Record combined with using the Data Manager to store the symbol name in a record is a possibility, but I don't know if the Data Manager has the capability or not.

 

It does but in my test the text doesn't display in the symbol instance unless I give the symbol a 'nudge' e.g. move it or edit it in any way. The Data Manager will add the Record to the symbol on insertion + automatically fill in the field with the symbol name but the linked text is blank until I do a Move 0,0...

[Jesse Cogswell]

I wrote up a plug-in object that will do this.  I call it a "Parent Reporter."  It will determine the name of its parent and will create a text object reporting it.  If you drop it on a design or sheet layer, the text will name the layer.  If you drop it in a viewport annotation, it will report the name of the viewport.  And, important to this topic, if you drop it in a symbol, it will report the name of the symbol.

 

The font, style, and size of the text can be changed by selecting the object and using the Text top menu.  There is also a checkbox in the Object Info Palette that will allow you to wrap text and set a text width.

 

Only things to note are that if you use one of these at the time of the symbol creation (selecting geometry and Parent Reporter and using Create Symbol), you will need to edit the symbol and reset the Reporter object by either moving it, or by cycling the Wrap Text OIP setting before it will read the symbol name properly.  Same goes for renaming the parent (layer, viewport, symbol), you will need to reset the object.

 

 

You can download the attached Parent Reporter.vso file to your Vectorworks user folder in the plug-ins directory and add it to your workspace.  It can be found in the JNC category under Tools and will work with any version of Vectorworks 2019 or newer  If you need any assistance, please feel free to ask.

Parent Reporter.vso

[Ioannis.K]

Thank you all for your answers! But hey, the big thanks goes to Jesse for the plug-in object he shared.