Edit symbol by handle

[Peter Vandewalle]

Hi folks,

 

I'm looking into a way to edit a symbol known by its handle.

I have a plugin that duplicates a symbol. Now I'd like to edit that symbol by doubleclicking the PIO in the drawing...

[Pat Stanford]

I don't think the functionality you want exists, but please give us a better description of what you are trying to do and perhaps we can make some recommendations.

[Peter Vandewalle]

I have a PIO that does something similar to duplicate array, but parametric.

I also have a command that starts from a selected 2D or 3D object and turns it into a Serial Duplicate PIO. 

The duplicated object source has to be a symbol because I can’t use the profile group in a point plugin.

I’m trying to make a doubleclick on the object edit the symbol content. I tried the EditObjectSpecial, but that doesn’t seem to work...

[Julian Carr]

Try using:

 

EditObjectSpecial(SymHandle, 4);

 

Using 4 as the second argument will just jump you straight into the symbol based on whether the view is Top/plan or not - no dialogue. Curious. Why can't you use the profile group?

[Peter Vandewalle]

Hi Julian,

I tried the editobjectspecial(h, 4) and got an error. Apparently it doesn’t work from within a PIO.

And about the profilegroup, it doesn’t seem to be possible to get the content from that group in a point PIO.

[Julian Carr]

Not surprising I guess (editobjectspecial). I use profile groups in WinDoor to store symbols. Here's a code snippet:

 

    { put symbol instance into profile group }
    
    Symbol(SymName, 0, 0, 0);
    hSym := LNewObj;
    h1 := GetCustomObjectProfileGroup(ghParm);
    IF h1 = Nil THEN Flag := SetCustomObjectProfileGroup(ghParm, hSym)
    ELSE BEGIN
        h2 := FInGroup(h1);
        IF (h2 <> Nil) & (GetTypeN(h2) = 15) THEN BEGIN
            DelObject(h2);
            SetPref(9871, True);
            Flag := SetParent(hSym, GetCustomObjectProfileGroup(ghParm));
            SetPref(9871, False);
        END;
    END;
 

 

[Jesse Cogswell]

I had a hard time doing this for a PIO I was writing last summer.  EditObjectSpecial seems like the logical procedure, but I could never get it to work.  Joshua Benghiat shared a little snippet that worked like a dream: SetObjectVariableInt(<handle>,9743,0).  It's one of those things that doesn't appear in the function reference, so without special knowledge, it seems impossible.

[JBenghiat]

EditObjectSpecial only works for PIO's, and I believe mode 4 will give you the profile group.

 

Which ties into Julian's suggestion - any PIO can have a profile and path group as a sort of auxiliary storage. Path-based PIO's will use these automatically, but point-based PIO's can have them as well. In fact, if your PIO ultimately converts the symbols to a group, placing a copy of the symbol in the profile group will protect it from getting purged.

 

And assuming that you've jumped in to event based PIO's, 

    kObjOnSpecialEditID        = 7;
is the event for the double click, and 

    kObjXPropSpecialEdit        = 3;
    kCustomSpecialEdit        = 1;
are the extended properties you need to set in the init event

[Peter Vandewalle]

Thanks all, you rock!

SetObjectVariableInt(hSymbol, 9743, 0) did it.

 

We found an old post by @klinzey about this. @klinzey: Do you know where can we find this value?

[Matisse]

Found this post this am.  It is probably obvious for most people, but it took me a while to figure out to change the "0" to "4" to edit 3D.

SetObjectVariableInt(hSymbol, 9743, 4);

 

m