Templot Club Archive 2007-2020
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posted: 10 Jan 2018 18:48 from: Rob Manchester
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Hi Martin, I can see how to combine two picture shapes into one as seen in the help notes example which is very useful. Am I right in thinking there isn't a way to combine a number of background shapes into one shape that could then be duplicated at will. For example if you had baseboard outlines showing as background shapes and you added shapes to represent wiring connector boxes/control modules/etc to one of them it would be good if you could grab a few of these shapes and replicate them on other boards without having to draw each one again. Regards Rob |
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posted: 10 Jan 2018 19:25 from: Martin Wynne
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Rob Manchester wrote: For example if you had baseboard outlines showing as background shapes and you added shapes to represent wiring connector boxes/control modules/etc to one of them it would be good if you could grab a few of these shapes and replicate them on other boards without having to draw each one again.Hi Rob, To do that you need to save the shapes to a BGS file, and then add the file back again, as many times as you need. Unfortunately there is no function to move them in one block, so you would need to move them one at a time to the new locations after adding them. The alternative would be to have 2 instances of Templot open. That way you can keep moving all of them and re-saving a file, before adding it to the other instance. I agree that it is not ideal. The background shapes functions were created in about 5 minutes flat 20 years ago as a means to add a baseboard outline. They are extremely primitive in what I can do with them without breaking all the legacy BGS files. The intention was that they would have been abolished by now and replaced with the sketchboard functions. Unfortunately the picture shapes (a later addition) have taken on a life of their own, so I can't abolish the BGS format now. I suggest for anything other than baseboard outlines and picture shapes that you use the sketchboard instead. On there you can combine items into blocks, copy and paste them, move them about. Plus far more options for colours, text, etc. Sketchboard items can be included on the trackpad and printed output by ticking the relevant boxes. regards, Martin. |
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posted: 10 Jan 2018 22:18 from: Rob Manchester
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Hi Martin, Thanks for your reply. I suspected it may not be possible. I had a hunch that I could work around it by exporting a number of background shapes to an image file and then loading them back with the add picture shape dialogue. You only seem to be able to export background images rather than shapes via this route as it just produces a blank image. You may wish to change the wording on the export dialogue as it refers to both background shape images and then to background shapes as if they were inter-changeable. I will dive into the unknown and fire up and learn the Sketchboard and see how I get on. Iain Rice better watch out! Prepare for some questions on it's use..... Regards Rob |
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posted: 10 Jan 2018 22:30 from: Martin Wynne
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Rob Manchester wrote: You only seem to be able to export background images rather than shapes via this route as it just produces a blank image. You may wish to change the wording on the export dialogue as it refers to both background shape images and then to background shapes as if they were inter-changeable.Hi Rob, To export picture shapes you need to save the BGS file and all the SK8n files having the same name. To import them, all those files must be in the same folder. If sending to others it makes sense to zip them all together. The BGS file contains the containing rectangle for the picture shape. The SK8n file contains the image which is stretched to fit within it. The picture shapes are easy to use, once you have grasped that these are two entirely different things. regards, Martin. |
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