Styles Food for Thought

[nzeeben]

Some of you may have seen some ongoing posts about styles tools that James Wedding originally starting working on. I've taken on the task of seeing where I can push the toolset for these. So far my basic ideas/ideas of others are as shown below. If anyone else has some suggestions I would be happy to look at putting them in if they are in the realm of possible. I make no promises but lets hear thoughts, maybe we can spur the Macnhester team with some ideas as well.

Style Purge Tool(Will remove styles from a drawing that are not in use)

Style Comparison(Select two styles of the same type and highlight the settings that are different between the two. Long term I would like to have edits be possible in the dialog, but for now just a comparison will be what I target)

Style Rename Tool( This is cause I have heard Scott complain too many times about how he has to rename all the styles he creates with a prefix. So Merry Xmas Scott. That is assuming I get this finished by xmas. )

Anyone else with ideas throw them at me. Keep in mind somethings just can't be done through the api at this point, but I will check things out. I am hoping to have this done sometime over the xmas holidays.

[Anonymous]

I have a few things:

I'd like every objects that is on my screen, and is controlled by a style, to have a rt-click menu option to edit the style that is currently in use. Some objects currently make you go through a couple of dialogs before getting there. (this gets old real quick when you're tweaking a style)

When I copy a style into the current drawing I want the option to overwrite a style if it has the same name. This would help me get those tweaked styles back into the template file and update current production drawings.

I'd like to see the samples in the style editor show one of the labels in a sample 'dragged' state.

[nzeeben]

1 looks like it might be possible, but I would have to dig a little bit and see what is available. I don't have alot of room for jumping into the middle of exisiting commands so 2 and 3 are probably wishlist for the Manchester folks. Message was edited by: nzeeben

[Anonymous]

How about a way to modify the common elements in multiple styles and/or a
search & replace to go through a tree of styles.

John

wrote in message news:5035905@discussion.autodesk.com...
Some of you may have seen some ongoing posts about styles tools that James
Wedding originally starting working on. I've taken on the task of seeing
where I can push the toolset for these. So far my basic ideas/ideas of
others are as shown below. If anyone else has some suggestions I would be
happy to look at putting them in if they are in the realm of possible. I
make no promises but lets hear thoughts, maybe we can spur the Macnhester
team with some ideas as well.

Style Purge Tool(Will remove styles from a drawing that are not in use)

Style Comparison(Select two styles of the same type and highlight the
settings that are different between the two. Long term I would like to have
edits be possible in the dialog, but for now just a comparison will be what
I target)

Style Rename Tool( This is cause I have heard Scott complain too many times
about how he has to rename all the styles he creates with a prefix. So
Merry Xmas Scott. That is assuming I get this finished by xmas. )

Anyone else with ideas throw them at me. Keep in mind somethings just can't
be done through the api at this point, but I will check things out. I am
hoping to have this done sometime over the xmas holidays.

[Anonymous]

I would love to see a style reporter tool that would allow me to see all the settings for all the styles of a particular type in a drawing. Even if it was just an export to excel this would help in trying to standardize content.

[Anonymous]

Funny someone should mention Excel....

--
James Wedding, P.E.
Technology Manager &
Associate
Jones & Boyd, Inc.
Dallas, TX
XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G
LDT 2006 & C3D2006/SP2
www.jones-boyd.com
www.ee2inc.com

[JoshNelson]

Is that supposed to be a hint?

Josh Nelson

[Anonymous]

Yes, but not so much to anyone in here, just to some of the lurkers....

--
James Wedding, P.E.
Technology Manager &
Associate
Jones & Boyd, Inc.
Dallas, TX
XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G
LDT 2006 & C3D2006/SP2
www.jones-boyd.com
www.ee2inc.com

[michaela.g]

How about a styles checker, similar to the Drawing Standards Checker? This would allow me to audit drawings to see if our users are changing the styles and/or creating their own.

Additionally, a tool that tells me which dwt was used to create the drawing (pathing included).

The purge style idea is fantastic, btw.

Michaela

[sboon]

I would like to be able to select a style in the toolspace, and somehow get a list, or highlight all of the objects that are using it. It would be nice to know what I am affecting when I edit a style.

[Sinc]

In addition to those already mentioned:

1) Ability to do a "quick audit" between multiple drawings. For example, compare all styles in the current drawing to those in the template, and let me know which ones are different.

2) After doing the above, a quick way to select styles in the current drawing to add to the template, or replace the existing version in the template.

3) A way to change the parent/child relationships of styles - i.e., a way to take a child style and make it a top-level style, or take a top-level style and make it a child of another existing style.

4) A way to "reset" values in child styles so that they are once again like the parent. For example, I have a style with text size 0.10". I create a child, but I set the child text size to 0.06". Now if I change the parent to 0.08", the child will remain at 0.06". We need a way to "reset" the child, so that it will once again change with the parent. Ideally, we would have a "same as parent" option for ALL settings in Styles, so we can easily tell when the child is getting the value from the parent, and when it isn't.

This is just a quick-n-dirty list. Styles are so weak right now that there is TONS of room for improvement.

[Anonymous]

Additionally, a tool that tells me which dwt was used to create the drawing
(pathing included).

You can use the drawing properties for this. Create a custom property giving
the info you need to know. we store the version numberof our template
here....that way I can open up a drawing and know if they used the most up
to date version of the template.

Shawn

[Anonymous]

To make this "official" I would think you should use the .civil.wishes NG,
but maybe not. I like them anyway.

Bill

[Anonymous]

All very good ideas. Has any progress been made with these tools? and are any of them available?

I would like to have a data base type view of all the styles in a dwg or dwt. It would be nice if there was a way to edit styles inside the data base view, like many functions work in the Panorama.

The other thing I would really like is a style display map that allows one to preview all of the styles in a template or side by side and labeled in some way.

Matt

[Anonymous]

Sinc, you can do this now in the summary tab of each label style. If you
override a setting in a child you'll see the blue arrow in the overrides
column. Clear that and the height goes back to what the parent is set to.

Matt

4) A way to "reset" values in child styles so that they are once again like
the parent. For example, I have a style with text size 0.10". I create a
child, but I set the child text size to 0.06". Now if I change the parent
to 0.08", the child will remain at 0.06". We need a way to "reset" the
child, so that it will once again change with the parent. Ideally, we would
have a "same as parent" option for ALL settings in Styles, so we can easily
tell when the child is getting the value from the parent, and when it isn't.

[AussieHans]

Have different layer settings for individual components of a style. Sometimes I try to plot a parcel layout to a smaller scale and the bearings become unimportant as its for an estate agent or someone who recognizes distances but bearings mean nothing in his life. Switching off bearings reduces the clutter in this instance. Then when I need the same plan for an engineer I can then switch the bearings on again. Or alternatively make the parcel segment style a property of the parcel same as the parcel segments' display are controlled by the parcel style.

[AussieHans]

Also faster right-click access to the label style. At the moment it's right click - click label properties - click label style control, click label style button in value box, new dialog click second button, click edit current select, and finally reach the label style dialog.

[Sinc]

Ah, OK. I rarely look at the Summary tab.

But that highlights another problem that permeates this entire UI - it is not very user-friendly. In this case, here's one implementation that would be much more user-friendly:

If any value on the General, Layout, or Dragged State tabs is different from the parent, it would be shown in a different color, so it jumps out at the user. Right-clicking on any such value would pop open a shortcut menu, and "Reset override" would be an option in the right-click menu.

This does two things that are sorely-lacking in the current C3D UI - the information is on a single tab, rather than spread over two tabs, and there is a very simple two-click operation to change it.

[Anonymous]

Good idea Hans.
How about calling it the "HBS" AKA the "Hans Bypass Switch"?

Bill

wrote in message news:5779278@discussion.autodesk.com...
Also faster right-click access to the label style. At the moment it's right
click - click label properties - click label style control, click label
style button in value box, new dialog click second button, click edit
current select, and finally reach the label style dialog.

[Anonymous]

Great Post!

The Purge tool would be at the top of my wish list. Can something like this go deep enough into the "commands" level ? The style defaults need to be changed to be able to purge a style.

Can a tool also "search and replace" layers within the styles to match individual company layer standards?

I don't know if this is a style tool, however, I'm concerned with the time it takes to create a template with all of your custom styles, drawing settings, label style defaults and layers. I've heard James and other posts recommend that it is best to have your template recreated with every new release. ie drag and drop your styles from your template into a new release (imperial NCS extended) template, update all of your drawing settings and defaults, etc.. I've experienced numerous fatal errors during the drag and drop styles process.
Can an old template be merged with a new release template without having to weed out layers and styles that are not your company standards?
John Mascari, Fair Hill Engineering
C3D 2008 SP2