Martin Wynne
Admin
- Location
- West of the Severn UK
- Info
@riccardo palombella
My reply to Riccardo yesterday:
https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/inclines-and-layers.628/post-5929
revealed a significant shortcoming in Templot.
There is no quick way to show and hide tagged templates for different sections of a track plan, without getting involved in the group functions, unused templates, the storage box, and the rest of it. Which works, but it is far too clunky.
So I have spent today doing something about that. In the next program update there will be new options to show or hide tagged templates directly from the trackpad menu.
You can hide from view all the templates having a given prefix tag:
And then show them again:
This doesn't require the templates to be grouped or dealt with in any special way, other than being given a prefix tag by the existing methods. It controls only the display of templates on the trackpad.
It is however, not quite as simple as it seems:
1. If a tagged template is included in a group, it will always show while grouped, regardless of the above settings. This is to cover the possibility of accidentally including hidden templates in a group without realising it. Ungrouping the group will hide it again, if it was hidden before. Likewise removing it from the group. This also means you can gain access to all templates, regardless of their hidden status, by grouping all templates.
2. If you add an existing tag to a new template, and the similarly tagged templates are already hidden, the new template will not be hidden until you click the above hide option again.
3. If you remove a tag from a template which is hidden, it will show immediately, regardless of any other tags it might have.
4. If all the templates having a given tag are already showing or hidden, the options above will be greyed out accordingly.
5. If a template has multiple tags, clicking any of its tags in the menus above will show or hide it. So it could get hidden by hiding one tag, and then shown again by showing a different tag.
6. The display options above are not included in the BOX file -- on loading all templates will be showing. But the tags are included, so it is easy to hide whichever section of the track plan is not wanted, if any, after loading the file.
7. There are no functions in the storage box to handle or edit the tags. I may look at that later. You can of course see the tags as a prefix on the names in the box list, and sort them alphabetically in tag order.
8. All the above applies only to the display of tagged templates on the trackpad screen. Tagging a template has no effect on printing, exports, or any other output, or on the sketchboard. You must use the grouping functions to control that, by creating a group from the tagged templates, as now.
9. Likewise applying a marker colour to all the tagged templates requires the existing methods by grouping.
This will be in next program update. It may require some fine tuning to the logic when used in anger.
In particular, I haven't yet given any thought to how prefix tags may be a useful aid in creating the timbering bricks for the plug track.
cheers,
Martin.
My reply to Riccardo yesterday:
https://85a.uk/templot/club/index.php?threads/inclines-and-layers.628/post-5929
revealed a significant shortcoming in Templot.
There is no quick way to show and hide tagged templates for different sections of a track plan, without getting involved in the group functions, unused templates, the storage box, and the rest of it. Which works, but it is far too clunky.
So I have spent today doing something about that. In the next program update there will be new options to show or hide tagged templates directly from the trackpad menu.
You can hide from view all the templates having a given prefix tag:
And then show them again:
This doesn't require the templates to be grouped or dealt with in any special way, other than being given a prefix tag by the existing methods. It controls only the display of templates on the trackpad.
It is however, not quite as simple as it seems:
1. If a tagged template is included in a group, it will always show while grouped, regardless of the above settings. This is to cover the possibility of accidentally including hidden templates in a group without realising it. Ungrouping the group will hide it again, if it was hidden before. Likewise removing it from the group. This also means you can gain access to all templates, regardless of their hidden status, by grouping all templates.
2. If you add an existing tag to a new template, and the similarly tagged templates are already hidden, the new template will not be hidden until you click the above hide option again.
3. If you remove a tag from a template which is hidden, it will show immediately, regardless of any other tags it might have.
4. If all the templates having a given tag are already showing or hidden, the options above will be greyed out accordingly.
5. If a template has multiple tags, clicking any of its tags in the menus above will show or hide it. So it could get hidden by hiding one tag, and then shown again by showing a different tag.
6. The display options above are not included in the BOX file -- on loading all templates will be showing. But the tags are included, so it is easy to hide whichever section of the track plan is not wanted, if any, after loading the file.
7. There are no functions in the storage box to handle or edit the tags. I may look at that later. You can of course see the tags as a prefix on the names in the box list, and sort them alphabetically in tag order.
8. All the above applies only to the display of tagged templates on the trackpad screen. Tagging a template has no effect on printing, exports, or any other output, or on the sketchboard. You must use the grouping functions to control that, by creating a group from the tagged templates, as now.
9. Likewise applying a marker colour to all the tagged templates requires the existing methods by grouping.
This will be in next program update. It may require some fine tuning to the logic when used in anger.
In particular, I haven't yet given any thought to how prefix tags may be a useful aid in creating the timbering bricks for the plug track.
cheers,
Martin.
message ref: 5935