Worksheets, Records and Door Symbols

[psychofish]

I'm having some weird problems with setting up worksheets based on door symbols in a floorplan. While playing around with this I stumbled across what could be bugs? I was wondering if this could be verified by anyone else, or addressed by the VW team.

When I attach a Door Record (either created automatically from the VA Create Record tool, or manually by me) to a door symbol, the record is deleted (without warning!!) if I click on any of the checkboxes in the Object Info Panel (ie. "General Settings", "Stile/Rail Settings" and so on). This is unacceptable behavior! That means, even if we were careful about attaching the Door Record to every door symbol in the plan, someone who edits it later could just easily remove the record without even noticing it.

Since we use the record data to generate the Door Schedule, it is imperative that that information stay intact... but unfortunately, the door symbol's behavior does not allow it to happen.

There are two workarounds which I've found.

The first is to create a Door ID tag symbol (my own, *not* the VA's ID Label Tool) and then link the record to that symbol. The end result is the same on the worksheet, of course, so there's no problem there.

The built-in ID Label tool also works (although not as well as I'd like) but here's where the behavior becomes even stranger. Let's say I use the ID Label tool to link to the door. Then, I delete the ID Label. For some reason, if I go ahead and edit the OIP for the Door at that point, it no longer destroys the record! Did the ID Label somehow "Fix" the door? Can anyone explain?

One other question is this. Suppose I change the size of the door. Can I get this change to reflect instantly on the Door Record?

Thanks!

[ 04-08-2005, 07:31 PM: Message edited by: psychofish ]

[Jonathan Pickup]

I understand your frustration, but I guess I?ve never noticed this because I use doors as symbols, I don?t usually leave them as plug-in objects.

When you are working on big projects, you will usually have a limited rage of door types, so making symbols is not so bad. using symbols also lets you put parts of the symbol in different classes so that the doors can appear different in the floor plan, electrical plan and reflected ceiling plan.

You can assign your door record to this symbol and not have to worry about the record changing.

[islandmon]

The Door PIO includes the default Record Fields. These can be manipulated in menu>organize>script>vectorscript plug-in editor>Door>parameters

The changes experienced by Psychofish occur during the string in-put within the PIO dialog. The fields do not change only the in-puts. And the PIO will default to the 'parameters' each & everytime it is called via Door Tool. Each Tool Call results in a new Door object ID# for the instance. Each ID# includes all the record fields as defaults unless they are changed via the PIO dialog.

[psychofish]

I want to leave the door as a PIO because while we are designing, we might want to edit some properties of a door (or a window) such as its dimensions.

I've discovered through further experimentation that if you check the box marked "On Record" in the "Data Settings" area of the object info panel, then it won't erase the record every time you change something in the panel. So far that seems like an acceptable fix to me, so long as someone remembers to check that box before attaching the record.