I added some text notations to a plot and am unable to delete them. I can edit the content and move them, but when the text field is selected the Delete key (and Delete function under the Edit menu) do nothing.
I'm using Version 2.0.0 (5908) running on a MacBook Pro under OSX 10.6.8.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Text field bug?
This does sound strange. Does closing the file and re-opening it make the problem go away?
There may be a few rare things that cause the undo stack to get out of whack. When this happens, exceptions are thrown by anything that relies on undo. The result is that a function does not work. Quitting the application and restarting it makes this problem go away.
Unfortunately, these are hard things to track down because the effect is removed from the actual cause. For example, deleting something might not work because undo is unhappy over something the thing you did a step or two before you noticed that delete wasn't working.
If quitting and restarting the application doesn't make this go away, is it possible to e-mail a copy of the file so that we can try to reproduce the problem?
Otherwise, if you suspect an action might cause the application to become unresponsive, please post it so we can try to track it down and fix it.
There may be a few rare things that cause the undo stack to get out of whack. When this happens, exceptions are thrown by anything that relies on undo. The result is that a function does not work. Quitting the application and restarting it makes this problem go away.
Unfortunately, these are hard things to track down because the effect is removed from the actual cause. For example, deleting something might not work because undo is unhappy over something the thing you did a step or two before you noticed that delete wasn't working.
If quitting and restarting the application doesn't make this go away, is it possible to e-mail a copy of the file so that we can try to reproduce the problem?
Otherwise, if you suspect an action might cause the application to become unresponsive, please post it so we can try to track it down and fix it.
Is this happening with v2.1.0?
The cause in the previous post was never determined. There is much better exception reporting in the latest version. If the theory above is correct that the undo stack was out of sorts and caused the problem, you should get a message about it right away.
Again, if quitting and restarting the application does not make the problem go away, please send the plot so the problem can be traced and fixed. (There was no followup to the previous post so the assumption is that restarting the application fixed the problem.)
The cause in the previous post was never determined. There is much better exception reporting in the latest version. If the theory above is correct that the undo stack was out of sorts and caused the problem, you should get a message about it right away.
Again, if quitting and restarting the application does not make the problem go away, please send the plot so the problem can be traced and fixed. (There was no followup to the previous post so the assumption is that restarting the application fixed the problem.)
It did not occur to me that this text that can't be deleted would be text displaying info attached to an object as opposed to just plain text fields. The way to show and hide text attached to an object is to check and uncheck the boxes in the Inspector's "Info" tab. (Delete does not function on info text fields.)
To determine which object "owns" an info field, you can hold down the option key and click on it. This will select the light or position that the information belongs to. (This trick is really useful with a small symbol where the unit number keeps getting selected when you are trying to click the light.)
The issue in the above case is a little more complicated in that it turns out to be that the offending field is actually a numbering option that is hidden from being displayed in the Inspector's info tab. So, to uncheck the display, it is necessary to reveal the field so that it appears in the info table.
You do this using the View->Data Fields... command. In the data fields sheet, switch to the "Position" tab. Look for the "Numbering" field. (This happens to be the problem field in the above case) Its category is set to "Hide". The best thing to do is to use the popup to set the category to "Position" instead. You could set it to something else but "position" makes the most sense. Once you have done that and clicked "OK" you will see "Numbering" appear in the Inspector's info tab under the "Position" heading--when you have a position selected.
Then, it is a simple matter to find the position that has the field attached to it and uncheck the box in the Inspector's info tab. This done, the field will no longer be displayed on the plot.
In versions prior to 2.0, the numbering and layout options were not hidden. However, it is very unlikely that you ever would want to display them. And, their values are better set with the popups in the Inspector's "position" tab. It makes more sense to choose "Right, Top" from the popup menu than to enter the code "rt".
The Data Fields sheet actually gives you a lot of control of settings for information attached to objects. The category determines which heading a particular field appears under in the Inspector's Info Tab. Changing the category setting moves where information is displayed.
For example, you may not need to use the "Circuit" field. You can either put it into the "more" category so it is out of the way. Or, you can hide it entirely so that you never see it. Any circuit data is still there--just unseen.
You could also rename a field and use it for something else. You would want to be careful because fields like "channel" and "colors" have specific meanings. For example, no matter what the color field is named, it still sets the color of a fixture. But, a field like "frost" may not be useful to you and you could name it something that was. You might even note that there is a hidden field called "User Data" that has no purpose except so that you can rename it to something meaningful to you.
The data field setup for a plot is stored as part of its key. You can however, export and import a setup into other plots using the tools popup in the Data Field sheet. There are other things you can do with the Data Field setup such as determine where the default placement of a text field occurs. The color field is set to display at a distance of 7 pixels from the front of a symbol. But, you can change that...
-------------------------------------
As a side note, v2.1.0 is available as the latest build. Once some necessary updates to the download pages happen, it will be the new release version.
To determine which object "owns" an info field, you can hold down the option key and click on it. This will select the light or position that the information belongs to. (This trick is really useful with a small symbol where the unit number keeps getting selected when you are trying to click the light.)
The issue in the above case is a little more complicated in that it turns out to be that the offending field is actually a numbering option that is hidden from being displayed in the Inspector's info tab. So, to uncheck the display, it is necessary to reveal the field so that it appears in the info table.
You do this using the View->Data Fields... command. In the data fields sheet, switch to the "Position" tab. Look for the "Numbering" field. (This happens to be the problem field in the above case) Its category is set to "Hide". The best thing to do is to use the popup to set the category to "Position" instead. You could set it to something else but "position" makes the most sense. Once you have done that and clicked "OK" you will see "Numbering" appear in the Inspector's info tab under the "Position" heading--when you have a position selected.
Then, it is a simple matter to find the position that has the field attached to it and uncheck the box in the Inspector's info tab. This done, the field will no longer be displayed on the plot.
In versions prior to 2.0, the numbering and layout options were not hidden. However, it is very unlikely that you ever would want to display them. And, their values are better set with the popups in the Inspector's "position" tab. It makes more sense to choose "Right, Top" from the popup menu than to enter the code "rt".
The Data Fields sheet actually gives you a lot of control of settings for information attached to objects. The category determines which heading a particular field appears under in the Inspector's Info Tab. Changing the category setting moves where information is displayed.
For example, you may not need to use the "Circuit" field. You can either put it into the "more" category so it is out of the way. Or, you can hide it entirely so that you never see it. Any circuit data is still there--just unseen.
You could also rename a field and use it for something else. You would want to be careful because fields like "channel" and "colors" have specific meanings. For example, no matter what the color field is named, it still sets the color of a fixture. But, a field like "frost" may not be useful to you and you could name it something that was. You might even note that there is a hidden field called "User Data" that has no purpose except so that you can rename it to something meaningful to you.
The data field setup for a plot is stored as part of its key. You can however, export and import a setup into other plots using the tools popup in the Data Field sheet. There are other things you can do with the Data Field setup such as determine where the default placement of a text field occurs. The color field is set to display at a distance of 7 pixels from the front of a symbol. But, you can change that...
-------------------------------------
As a side note, v2.1.0 is available as the latest build. Once some necessary updates to the download pages happen, it will be the new release version.