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Change in 3.5.0 to Property Editor default

Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 7:43 pm
by BarryW
Hi,
With apologies in advance if this is in the wrong place ..

Andrew, can you say why, in rev.3.5.0 the change "Automatically set filter to Block References if only block references and attributes are selected" has been made.

I have a large number of wiring diagrams in which relay contacts are blocks with attributes. If I select one of these blocks, the attributes light up in the selection colour as well as the the block. So far so good. Now I want to change the block and attributes to differnt colour, and click the property editor for, say, red, but only the block changes colour. The attributes, which were selected in the drawing, remain unchanged. Then you realise that the spin box in the property editor is now showing 'Block', not 'All', as was the case in 3.4.7.

I now keep having to go back and select 'all' in the property editor.
For me it worked so much better the previous way.
I just wonder what was the thinking behind this ?
Sorry to rant on, the program is excellent, by the way, thanks,
Barry.

Re: Change in 3.5.0 to Property Editor default

Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 10:28 pm
by andrew
Attributes belong logically to their block references and should (ideally) be grouped together with the block reference into one entity.

However, the design of the DXF/DWG format defines attributes as separate entities. QCAD attempts to create the illusion that they are somehow grouped together by automatically selecting the block attributes when a block reference is selected.

The property editor in QCAD >= 3.5 follows that same idea by showing the properties of the block reference with its attributes as if they were one entity:
Screen Shot 2014-05-12 at 22.34.20.png
Screen Shot 2014-05-12 at 22.34.20.png (51.38 KiB) Viewed 7545 times
This way, you can in most cases ignore the fact that attributes are separate entities and simply select the block reference to get an overview of its preferences as well as all its attributes and to change the attribute values.

The color, line type and line weight are almost always controlled "by layer". In fact, modifying the color of an attribute directly is somewhat problematic since such a modification will be reversed if attributes are synchronized with their attribute definitions.

One potential solution would be to set the color to "by block" but this is not supported by QCAD for block attributes at this point. Bug report at:
http://www.qcad.org/bugtracker/index.ph ... sk_id=1048

Another possibility would be to make that behavior of the property editor configurable. Feature request at:
http://www.qcad.org/bugtracker/index.ph ... sk_id=1049

Re: Change in 3.5.0 to Property Editor default

Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 7:42 pm
by BarryW
Andrew,
Thank you for that guidance.

Suppose I have a block, with attributes, everything set to colour by layer.
I want to move the block from the black layer to the red layer.
I select the block, the attributes show up selected, as well. Great.
Now, in the property editor, select the red layer.
Only the block moves. The attributes stay where they were.
Logically grouped together ? Not now!!

thanks,
Barry

Re: Change in 3.5.0 to Property Editor default

Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 9:29 pm
by andrew
BarryW wrote:Suppose I have a block, with attributes, everything set to colour by layer.
I want to move the block from the black layer to the red layer.
I select the block, the attributes show up selected, as well. Great.
Now, in the property editor, select the red layer.
Only the block moves. The attributes stay where they were.
Logically grouped together ? Not now!!
Yes, that's why the suggested solutions above.

Re: Change in 3.5.0 to Property Editor default

Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 10:42 pm
by BarryW
Andrew,
But it worked fine before !
Goodbye.

Re: Change in 3.5.0 to Property Editor default

Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 11:06 pm
by andrew
Note that the situation in QCAD <3.5 had other issues:
Selecting a single block reference with attributes did not allow you to edit its preferences in the property editor right away. One would have to first set the filter to 'block reference' to for example change the scale or position of the block reference.

I believe making this behavior configurable as a user preference is likely the best solution.

Re: Change in 3.5.0 to Property Editor default

Posted: Wed May 14, 2014 10:29 pm
by BarryW
Andrew,
It may well be that for some people, your new default setting is better, but for me it's not.
Having the default configurable would be very helpful, thanks for that,
Barry.

Re: Change in 3.5.0 to Property Editor default

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 3:44 pm
by BarryW
Andrew,
Thank you for your work on the property editor in 3.6.0.
For me, editing blocks with attributes is now a simple one step process again,

Best wishes, and thanks for an excellent CAD program,
Barry.