Strucc.c - 2022-12-01

I'm in process of restructuring, rewriting some of my existing code, in order split down reusable components into libraries. One part of this are reusable P&ID symbols to be placed on diagram visualizations, almost like "factory made" visualization controls.

With visualization 4.3 there are great features for this (yes, HTML Controls are great, Thanks for that ;-). One of those is Frame configuration.

It's mostly intuitive, however based on the existing available documentation I might not get the complete picture correctly. Questions:

1. What is the purpose adding standard properties?
Am I correct that the only purpose of this is to be able to organize the element's appearance in the Properties tree view? So unless it's defined, all standard frame properties will be shown. If defined, only the selected the properties will be shown in the provided order.

Is it possible to define default values for the properties hidden this way? For example, when inserted into visualization, I'd like my frame scaling to be "Isotropic"....

2. Is it possible to do property mapping?
Is there a way to define properties for the frame, what can be directly used in the properties of the contained visualization elements? (like #placeholders on the old 2.3 visualization..)

Example: Define "Line width" as a frame property, and use this value directly as the "Appearance/Line with" property of the contained Polygon element. I know, it's possible to use the frame interface variable "iLayout_LineWidth" in "Appearance variables/Line width"

The main difference would be that modifying the property of the inserted frame element would / could be immediately seen in the visualization designer.

3. Rotation
It would be even more practical to use such a feature for rotating the element, so that in the case of the shown pump symbol example I don't have to create 4 different variants...
I know, maybe it's not so important to see the final layout of the element in the designer, yes, people can live with that. (This case I can just use the "Interior rotation" variable of the frame element)

But in practice I tend to end up a dozen of different variants for different text positions, optional content - and it takes a lot of time to introduce any change, improvement one by one on each of these variants.

Is there any good practice for this?

Would it be very complicated to add "Angle" property (same like polygons have) for the frame element?

4. VisuElement Toolkit
I just guess, it could provide solution for many of the above questions... Am I correct?

I can see it in the installer, I know about its existence, and I know it requires a payed (subscription) license, but it's not avaliable in Store.

How to get it as a Library developer?
(I was trying to contact support and sales about this, but received no reply, maybe my mail went to spam?)

Thanks in advance for your precious help - let me know if I should create a Ticket for this topic

 
πŸ‘
1

Last edit: Strucc.c 2022-12-01