redline tool

[krw]

We have a problem with the redline tool not being red. It starts out red when I draw the rectangle but switches to black after I have finished typing the text. In the attributes box the color is red but the redline appears black on screen. I created a new document and did not seem to have this problem. Is this a bug in this file or was a preference set incorrectly?

I am working on VWArch 10 on mac os 9.2, but the document was created on a computer using os 10.

[Guest]

The redlines are in a class called "Redlines".

Check to make sure that class hasn't had the pen color changed to black from red.

[krw]

The class pen color is red. I also tried to edit the group to make sure evrything is on the correct class. I have done all the basic checks.

[Robert Anderson]

krw, please send me a copy of a file exhibiting this behavior. E-mail to: randerson@nemetschek.net

[Robert Anderson]

The reason this document is exhibiting this behavior is that the "None" class in the document is set to have its graphic attributes used at creation. While the Redline object container is drawn in the Redline class, the individual pieces of it (the lines and text) are drawn in the None class. The explanation for this is long and doesn't bear going into here, but this is the way we do things by default. The easy fix for this is:

1. Open up the Classes dialog. Select the None class. Double-click it. Uncheck the "Use at creation" checkbox on the left. Close.

2. Regenerate your redlines by choosing the Organize/Scripts/Create Plug-in command and, when the window appears, simply click OK.

All your objects should now be properly drawn.

[krw]

thanks that worked. Is there a way to change the redlines objects so that all peieces ar on the redlines class not just in the container?

[Robert Anderson]

You can do this, since you're on a Mac, if you're willing to edit a resource, however it will not work only for the Redline object, it will cause all objects to have all their contained primitives (lines, arcs, polys, text, 3D stuff, etc.) drawn in the "container class" of the object.

I don't personally recommend this -- it's MUCH easier simply to turn off attributes-by-class on the None class, as I have already recommended -- and there are philosophical reasons not to do it also. For example, if you do a worksheet to count all your objects in the "redline" class, what do you want: the number of redline objects, or the number of primitives making up redlines? I contend the former, and that is why we do what we do.

If you must do this, open up the resource file 'IP resources.rsrc' found in your Plug-ins folder, and change the string in resource ID from 'FALSE' to 'TRUE'. The assumption is you know how to edit resources using ResEdit. All the usual caveats regarding editing resources apply here (keep a copy of the original file, and if you're caught, NNA will disavow any knowledge of your existence, etc.) Once you do this, all plug-in objects will draw all their primitives in the class to which they've been assigned.

[Robert Anderson]

Sorry -- in the previous post I meant to say "Resource ID 11002".