Small annoyance from the OIP

[FredM]

Alright. let's say that I enter a symbol and it appears in the drawing at z=0. I want to move it to z=48 so I do; now I hit the x key to get the 2d selection tool (or any other tool for that matter) and I am still in the OIP. I have to hit escape to get out. I know it's small, but when you are in a hurry, grrrrrrr. Are there any suggestions out there?

[mclaugh]

Assign a keystroke combination to the "Move 3D" command via the Workspace Editor (I use CMD-CTL-M) and move it that way.

[CipesDesign]

This is indeed a major annoyance, and I beleive it is on the "wishlist". Not sure exactly how it can (or should) be solved. For now "ESC" (or clicking in the drawing window) is the answer...

[MullinRJ]

Hi Fred,

That little annoyance prompted me to start writing Reshaper about two and a half years ago. It took about 10 years for me to get started (I must have a high annoyance threshold) but it was well worth effort. If you use it you will never over-type a data field in the OIP again.

It works like you think it should. Select an object, Open Reshaper (best done with a hotkey), Change your data, and hit ENTER. You're back where you left off, in the drawing and able to change tools or continue with the one you have. You also save that extra little mouse click needed to "energize" the OIP to change a value. (Hey, it adds up!)

As I said, I started to write Reshaper for that reason, but shortly thereafter the focus of Reshaper changed to enable VW to present all pertinent object data in one window. It is most obvious when editing 3D objects, like the 3D Symbol you mentioned. Not only can you position it in 3D space, but you can also see and set its rotation values, and its Flipped state.

For other 3D objects like Extrudes, 3D Polys, Meshes, Solids and PIO's you can also position them in the current view by selecting one of the standard 9 anchor points of its Bounding Box (BBox) and changing its 2D coordinate or use the Next Click option and have it snap to your next mouse click in the drawing. You don't have to worry about which axis is where, it's all about left, right, up and down relative to some point on the BBox, AND it's all in the current view. It could be simpler, but you would have to have someone else do it for you.

If you'd like to try an Evaluation Copy of Reshaper 12, please drop me a line at: mullinrj@aol.com. Include the last 6 characters of your VW serial number and I'll send you Reshaper and a Key to enable it for your machine.

Or, learn to click in the drawing after you change a parameter in the OIP. You should be able to master that in the next 10 years, I'd think. :-)

All the best,

Raymond

PS - Oh, the offer's still good, even if your name's not Fred.

[Gerard Jonker]

Hi Fred,

Never heard of a person called "Not Fred"

You can assign the Esc key to a second entry of the selection tool (so both the Esc and the X activate the selection tool. If you are on windows you have to ask some with a Mac (like me?) to do it for you.

It has taken me years to get used to the esc key, but ex AC people love me adding that to their WS.

Hi Raymond,

Good for you to plug your Plug-in. I love it and other people should, also, get a chance to see and use that fantastic piece of software.

Keep 'm coming!

Gerard.

[islandmon]

Ray, your link "mailto: ..." has an extra period in the address ... " mullinrj@aol.com. "

should be :

mullinrj@aol.com (Raymond J. Mullin <MullinRJ@aol.com>)

[FredM]

Thanks All. The name's Fred. Never heard of anyone called 'not Fred' either I think I am going to post in the wishlist section. One way I've thought of that might work,without an extra program, is make the OIP mouse sensitive. When you move the mouse cursor over any part of the OIP it is activated and ready for insert. Then you can type your info in and when you move the mouse away it is de-selected. Possibly an OIP preferences check box or something like that.

[fsung]

Skip the OIP and use the object's Properties pallet instead:

right-click (control-clicking for those with one-button mice) on any object with editable properties;

select "Properties" in the pop-up menu;

enter the desired changes in the Properties pallet and hit "Enter" or click "OK" to exit.

Much more efficient because you don't have to scroll from the object to the OIP, and the object's first editable field is already highlighted. You don't even have to select the object before right-clicking: just right-click on it and go.

Works for any object with editable properties, i.e., lines, 2/3d polygons, walls, symbols, plugins, viewports, callouts, dimension strings, etc.

Also, unlike scripts and add-ons, there's no possibility that the changes in a future version of VW will break the script/add-on's behavior.

[Edited for punctuation.]

Edited April 13, 2007 by fsung

[MullinRJ]

right-click (control-clicking for those with one-button mice) on any object with editable properties;

select "Properties" in the pop-up menu;

enter the desired changes in the Properties pallet and hit "Enter" or click "OK" to exit.

That will get you part of the way where Reshaper will take you, but it only addresses the annoyance part of typing in the OIP. You still only get to see the same fields you see in the OIP, not the plethora of extra attributes accessible with Reshaper.

And there's NO Rotated Rectangle support anywhere in VW (yet) - just in case you wanted to compare your apples to my apples. ;-)

Raymond

[pgym]

And there's NO Rotated Rectangle support anywhere in VW (yet) - just in case you wanted to compare your apples to my apples. ;-)

Unless I miss your meaning, I believe the "Rotate" tool allows you to rotate rectangles just fine.

As long as we're comparing apples to apples:

additional cost of fsung's solution: $0;

additional cost of Raymond's solution:

[ccroft]

Ray's talking about being able to EDIT a rotated rectangle like you can an un-rotated one.

[pgym]

Ray's talking about being able to EDIT a rotated rectangle like you can an un-rotated one.

Um ... last time I checked, rotating a rectangle converts it to a polygon, which can be edited with the 2d reshape tool, just like any other 2d object.

[Ray Libby]

"Like a rectangle", change the size of the side of a rectangle in the OIP, not the bounding box.

[mike m oz]

Try Reshaper - it works.

It adds quite a few capabilities and is well and truly worth the modest price.