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Link text to symbol name


Urbanist

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Please tell me that this can already be done, but if not it should be immediately implemented Due to retirement  I'm a few releases behind in doing actual work with VW and can't just now bothered to find my dongle, launch VW 2017 and check. I'm somewhat  a database person myself, have created and used databases in my work since the early 1980's (starting with dBase II on CP/M) and have created quite complex applications and business systems with FileMaker Pro. in VW, I have encouraged the use of the database functionality  to users when training, but the user interface would certainly win a prize in the category of most awkward and user-unfriendly UIs. 

 

When I show the dialog "Link text to record" serious trainees leave the room and the humorous ones ask "Do I insert a CD now?" 

 

At the moment I have a prospective new user possibly in need of training, a colleague of an existing training & custom development client of mine, and also a young friend who may start her own domestic interior design business. I would dearly like to persuade her to overspend (in comparison to Ketchup or whatever they call it), but she would faint if I showed how to tag furniture items etc. in a useful way with the VW I know. I've known it for quite a while: if my memory serves me right, I originally bought MiniCAD 3.15 on a 3.5" diskette in 1987 or thereabouts.

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I can think of more than a few uses for this. Would be great to link to other symbol data like say class or layer name as well.

 

Still, that said 2017 data interface got a big clean up is much easier to use now without the data you need without being lost in a sea of meaningless other records.

Now if the killed the data tab and moved the new compact presentation on to the main shape obj info palette it would be even better.

Edited by Matt Overton
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On 9/6/2017 at 2:59 AM, Matt Overton said:

I can think of more than a few uses for this. Would be great to link to other symbol data like say class or layer name as well.

Excellent! I have lectured to dozens of VW users and prospective users about the dichotomy of implicit and explicit data and their uses in advanced CAD. The access and usefulness of explicit data is nowadays VW quiite good (close to geographic information systems) and implicit data can be efficiently reported. So far so good, 

 

Some of the more than few missing tagging capabilities are a/y/z -location. A few of years ago I wasted several days scripting a PIO to a prospective new user (a surveyor) just to show the x/y -locations of points measured on site. The funny coordinate system and strange non-geographic angles did not help! The PIO worked, but the surveyor disappeared as he obviously wanted a simple, built-in and free> mechanism. 

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Oddly enough this functionality exists in VW in the form of the Label Legend in VW Spotlight. Label legends will report the X/Y/Z location as well as the symbol name and a lot more to do with the spotlight PIO tool as well. It would be really useful if they could add this functionality to other symbols as well.

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4 hours ago, markdd said:

Oddly enough this functionality exists in VW in the form of the Label Legend in VW Spotlight. Label legends will report the X/Y/Z location as well as the symbol name and a lot more to do with the spotlight PIO tool as well. It would be really useful if they could add this functionality to other symbols as well.

 

YES.  And you can have different text formats and fonts for each element of the label!  And they work in 3D!  I'd like to see the Spotlight label legend work with doors, windows, space objects, regular symbols, drawing labels…

 

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10 hours ago, markdd said:

Oddly enough this functionality exists in VW in the form of the Label Legend in VW Spotlight. Label legends will report the X/Y/Z location as well as the symbol name and a lot more to do with the spotlight PIO tool as well. It would be really useful if they could add this functionality to other symbols as well.

 

Curious! Of all disciplines I can think of, the geographic location of items seems to be least relevant to showbiz lighting and gear. I find it hard to believe that there are surveyors on site placing Super Troopers for Cats or Phantom of the Opera, but who knows, Sir Andrew is reported to be quite particular. 

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You'd be very surprised how picky we get about the location of lighting fixtures and projectors. :D

 

I don't want to hijack the thread.  Urbanist, you are right that the way we link text to record is clumsy.  But as someone who uses all 3 modules of VW (with Landmark being the one I use the least) on a daily basis I miss the Label Legend when I'm not working on a show.

 

The Label Legend is a little clunky, but really versatile.  The genius in the Label Legend is its ability to position of multiple data points relative to the symbol to which they belong.

 

There are typically 4 to 10 pieces of data in the label for each fixture.  My little shows rarely go above 400-500 fixtures, but they always seem to be right on top of each other.  So getting each piece of data organized so that it's position relative to the symbol, any container the data might be in, and the font and formatting of each data point make it legible to the electricians who have to hang it, the rental house that supplies the equipment, etc, etc.    

 

It's a pretty cool piece of coding.  It dynamically adjusts every instance of the label depending on the 2D geometry of the symbol it's applied to and then each data point on each instance has an individual handle so you can make adjustments for odd situations.  You can customize what fields in the record format you want to appear in the label.  And you can have as many different label layouts as you want.  Each data point can be classed so you can format viewports for different collaborators.

 

If only we could use Label Legends on doors, windows, skylights, space objects, plants, load centers, utility access points, electrical devices, HVAC components, etc…

 

It's the one thing Architect and Landmark should definitely steal from Spotlight.  

 

In return I want Spotlight and Architect to have the cool Plant Line command.  And maybe the bulldozer tool.  I think Spotlight users would enjoy a bulldozer.

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On 9/8/2017 at 6:36 AM, michaelk said:

The Label Legend is a little clunky, but really versatile.  The genius in the Label Legend is its ability to position of multiple data points relative to the symbol to which they belong.

 

[...]

 

It's a pretty cool piece of coding.  It dynamically adjusts every instance of the label depending on the 2D geometry of the symbol it's applied to and then each data point on each instance has an individual handle so you can make adjustments for odd situations.  You can customize what fields in the record format you want to appear in the label.  And you can have as many different label layouts as you want.  Each data point can be classed so you can format viewports for different collaborators.

 

If only we could use Label Legends on doors, windows, skylights, space objects, plants, load centers, utility access points, electrical devices, HVAC components, etc…

 

It's the one thing Architect and Landmark should definitely steal from Spotlight.  

 

In return I want Spotlight and Architect to have the cool Plant Line command.  And maybe the bulldozer tool.  I think Spotlight users would enjoy a bulldozer.

It would be a small price to pay to get the Label Legend :-)

But yes, it would be really nice to have in Landmark as using the stake tool to show x/y coordinates etc. is a bit clumsy for general use.

 

So +10 from me for this.

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In worksheets, scripting and marionette we can get access to many internal data records. Anything in the OIP, and most anything else should be able to be linked to text in a symbol. Or even text randomly placed on a layer. (Sure the specific object name, record and field must be called out.)

 

CAD is one giant database. Let us display the text!

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