Original LXSeries Forum

Hi there,

I have an issue where after drafting a little while in LX Beams, it stops taking the my second clicks on an instrument as an intention to drag an item somewhere - it seems to think I am trying to draw a rectangle to select items... I think it happens after I enter a rotation angle in the measurement tool.

When I quit and re-start LXBeams, it works again (for a while).

Any idea what that could be?

My entire guess is that after you have rotated the unit, you are no longer clicking inside its body. You may be clicking inside of the box formed by the selection markers, but a click select requires that you be inside of the path of the symbol. The reason for this is because info text fields and other units, underlaying positions, etc. can be hard if not impossible to select if the click is allowed inside the box. This is particularly true with a unit at 45 degrees which maximizes the "white space" in the box that is not inside the symbols path.

There's no error here. It is this way by design.

Hm, strange... I am indeed clicking inside the symbol path, and at times even attempt to click right on the path - not just in the rectangle marked by the selection markers. still no joy.

The moment I drag, the selection markers briefly disappears (until it recognises the rectangle as selecting it).

Funnily enough - once I am outside the program, with another application /process active, and have the plot in the background, it works for one drag! I.e. if with the first click, while LXBeams is not in focus, I drag a symbol somewhere, that works. It does not work normally until I restart, though.

So, you can select a light but not drag it. Is that correct?

Does this happen with all symbols or only a particular one? And what LXFree/LXBeams version and operating system are you using?

Is the layer that the light resides in the current layer or is it simply marked as selectable?

When you press the mouse on the light to start to drag it, the tail of the arrow should disappear. I'm a little confused about the two clicks you describe. It shouldn't take two clicks to be able to drag an object.

Here the answers:

Yes, it happens with all items alike.

LXBeams Version 3.2.0 (8112A)
Mac OS X 10.8.4

Yes, all items are in the currentl layer. I have three - Floor Plan (a pdf, at the bottom) Set (drawn as rectangles, middle), and Instruments - all LX items, top. All have the Sun selected (visible), and the Hand unchecked.

Yes, the arrow disappears, but it starts to try and make a selection rectangle. The two clicks are indeed not necessary, but should not interfere, either (i.e. when I have just edited an instrument's data in the inspector, and thus it is still selected, I should still be able to drag it anyway, right?).

Can you try a new blank plot and see if the same thing happens or if it is specific to that plot?

Also, does this happen with other objects or just lights?

Yes, you should be able to click and drag an object (almost) right away. There's a tiny delay to the start of a drag so that when you click to select you don't accidentally drag a little. And, you should be able to click, select, then click and drag. It shouldn't matter. All of this seems to be working fine for me on the several computers I've tried.

Hi Claude,

Yes, it does affect all items (in that layer), not just lights - doughnuts, irises, labels, lines...

Made a blank plot with only a few lights, and there it did not seem to happen...

Would you mind looking at this, and tell me if you can re-create my issue on your machine? I did create this file in an earlier version of LX Beams (about 6 months ago?), so I don't know if that might have anything to do with it.

Anyway, here is the file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kkm02718afkk3 ... rth.lxplot

Can you describe a sequence, starting from opening the file, where the drag problem occurs?

It does not seem to happen for me.

Also, are you using a trackpad or mouse? I don't think the input device should make a difference. But, sometimes strange things turn out to be the cause of problems...

I did sort of reproduce your issue with the donut symbol. If you select a donut and change the fill color to something really obvious like pink, you will see that there is really a "donut hole" in the middle. If you click there, the click will pass through the hole and begin a drag select.

This is due to a subtle part of how paths are constructed called a winding rule. If you go in to the symbol editor and reverse the order of the 3 interior curve segments that form the "hole", the entire symbol will be filled and you can drag it from the middle without clicking through the hole. (To reverse the three segments, simply drag then into the new order in the symbol edit sheet's points table.)

Hmm, interesting... obviously, I built the doughnut symbol myself, and the intention was as described - to have a hole in the middle. But if that creates instabilities, obviously I can change that. input device is the built-in Trackpad, with the system set so that it interprets a tap as a click, a double-tap as a doubleclick and so forth - but it never produced issues before, and the issue with moving items around was not limited to the doughnut symbols... strange.

When trying to write down the sequence for you, all I try I am not able to recreate it. Hmm... thanks for listening, I'll keep an eye out to when it happens again, who knows - it might be a while, but as soon as I see something, I'll post it here! TA