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jterry7484
Joined: 06 Nov 2007
Posts: 6
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 Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:40 am Post subject: New tool idea |
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I thought of a great tool that seems like it would be easy to implement into pcadd. A hyperlink tool. You would choose the tool draw a rectangle around an area you wanted to be the "button" and then a dialog would appear asking for the location. You could then choose either a file, a website, or a location on the current drawing page. Then whenever you clicked on the "button" pcadd would open the file, or Safari would open the link ..... etc..
The possiblities of uses are limitless........ I can think of lots of ways to use this.
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Peter Severin Carlsen
Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 75
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 10:40 am Post subject: |
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What are you trying to do that you can't do now? You might start with the problem you've encounterd and then explain how you want the solution to work.
This sounds on the surface like just another way to open a drawing or another way to cut and paste. It's clear to you, but I'm not sure what it could do for someone else.
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Peter Carlsen |
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jterry7484
Joined: 06 Nov 2007
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:16 pm Post subject: I'm sorry if I wan't clear. |
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Imagine opening a building elevation. There you would have a few section cuts like normal.... you could create a link attached to the section cut that would open the specific file that contains that detail. Sure you can go and find the file on your drive and open it that way, but suppose there is a colaboration with another person, they could look at the drawing see the section cut simply click on it and automatically open the appropriate file. Or suppose you want to include some documation from a website, you could attach a link that would carry you to that location on the web (using your browser of course).
For example, I draw cabinets primarily. Each cabinet has its own drawing, but then I have an "overall" drawing where I put everything together to make sure it works. Using this technique I could simply click on one of the boxes in the overall and it would open its "detailed" drawing.
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jasonlocher
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 612
Location: Austin, Texas
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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sounds like a request for viewports.
good luck!
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huc
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 660
Location: ::caddpower.com:: (Aurora, CO)
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 10:03 pm Post subject: Re: I'm sorry if I wan't clear. |
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| jterry7484 wrote: | | For example, I draw cabinets primarily. Each cabinet has its own drawing, but then I have an "overall" drawing where I put everything together to make sure it works. Using this technique I could simply click on one of the boxes in the overall and it would open its "detailed" drawing. |
Sounds like an extension to References to me...
After inserting a Referenced drawing into the master drawing, it sounds like a new menu item to "open reference" (in addition to Edit, Bind, Select) would do the trick.
in fact I can see that being pretty helpful since there could be a lot of times when the referenced drawing needs to be edited -- and having access to it in the Reference Menu just makes sense. After all, PCadd already knows the path to the drawing in order to load it anyway
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jasonlocher
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 612
Location: Austin, Texas
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| Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 9:40 am Post subject: Re: I'm sorry if I wan't clear. |
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| huc wrote: | | jterry7484 wrote: | | For example, I draw cabinets primarily. Each cabinet has its own drawing, but then I have an "overall" drawing where I put everything together to make sure it works. Using this technique I could simply click on one of the boxes in the overall and it would open its "detailed" drawing. |
Sounds like an extension to References to me...
After inserting a Referenced drawing into the master drawing, it sounds like a new menu item to "open reference" (in addition to Edit, Bind, Select) would do the trick.
in fact I can see that being pretty helpful since there could be a lot of times when the referenced drawing needs to be edited -- and having access to it in the Reference Menu just makes sense. After all, PCadd already knows the path to the drawing in order to load it anyway |
typically in other applications, an xref is placed and then edited using "refedit". (this is similar to edit block except you can see the objects in the drawing and in the block or xref you are editing)
What is viewable is controlled using "xclip" (similar to how we can crop pdf's now)
How it is viewed on a sheet is controlled by a viewport (which we don't have at all but would not need if we could clip xrefs)
These are highly productive methods which have been available in autocad since version 14.
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Peter Severin Carlsen
Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 75
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:34 pm Post subject: |
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It sounds like you would like a special target (for example: 3/A12), that when you clicked on it, holding down some special key it would "open" a separate drawing the target referenced. It would not be on the current drawing, but a separate file that is opened for reference.
Or do you want the drawing to appear in the original drawing at a different scale, in which case it does indeed sound like you want a referenced view port.
Still I wonder about the complexity of the whole thing. I have trouble keeping drawings together so they can be found whether by me or a program at a latter date to say nothing of properly keyed in target or reference. I don't think it would end up being as simple to use or administer as it sounds, but perhaps Im wrong.
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huc
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 660
Location: ::caddpower.com:: (Aurora, CO)
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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I really think the easy and clear first step is an Open referenced file menu item -- an example is attached. That example is a simple, single reference, item -- clearly with multiple referenced files as was the case with details discussed earlier, one click access similar to what's shown becomes even more important IMO.
Since the master drawing has all the references already inserted -- they appear in the Reference menu. Having anopen menu item, linked directly to the referenced drawing, would provide one step access.
while less complex than referenced view ports, etc., , maybe simple is the best place to start as it seems that would meet the original request as I understand it.
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Open referenced drawing. Note there are no dots... associated with the menu item, it simply opens the direct path to the file.
Filesize: 19.92 KB
Filename: OpenReference.JPG
Viewed: 148 Time(s)
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huc
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 660
Location: ::caddpower.com:: (Aurora, CO)
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| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 5:54 pm Post subject: Re: I'm sorry if I wan't clear. |
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[quote="jasonlocher"][quote="huc"] | jterry7484 wrote: | For example, I draw cabinets primarilyWhat is viewable is controlled using "xclip" (similar to how we can crop pdf's now)
How it is viewed on a sheet is controlled by a viewport (which we don't have at all but would not need if we could clip xrefs) |
Since a referenced drawing as a border (Reference menu > Toggle Reference Borders) and the ability to Select a reference (REference menu > reference name > Select)... seems the most direct method (and consistent with other cropping features) would be pressing command and mousing down on the Reference Border to bring up a crop cursor. Since cropping is non-destructive one could crop and un-crop the referenced drawing.
Seems that would be the concept of a 'view port' but with a simpler and more direct interface?
Easy to say -- I'm sure it's much more difficult to implement 
I wrote about that in Feb 2007 here -- anyone care to cast a vote  LOL
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jasonlocher
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 612
Location: Austin, Texas
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| Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:33 am Post subject: |
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| huc wrote: | I really think the easy and clear first step is an Open referenced file menu item -- an example is attached. That example is a simple, single reference, item -- clearly with multiple referenced files as was the case with details discussed earlier, one click access similar to what's shown becomes even more important IMO.
Since the master drawing has all the references already inserted -- they appear in the Reference menu. Having anopen menu item, linked directly to the referenced drawing, would provide one step access.
while less complex than referenced view ports, etc., , maybe simple is the best place to start as it seems that would meet the original request as I understand it. |
Or even making a "edit reference in place". This way you could edit the reference without opening it, and snap to objects in the host drawing. I feel this technique needs to be bridged to editing groups as well.
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Steve Woolf
Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 43
Location: Amherst, MA
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| Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Let's keep this one alive. The excitement of the original post seems to have been trampled down to a much thinner concept and all but killed. The idea was to create pointers from specific places on your drawing to ANY information source. I think it's a wonderful idea!
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