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Instrument selection
Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 1:24 am
by lanternz
Sometimes, and I am not sure when or how but usually after a drawing has been up for some time on my Mac (MacBook Pro Retina running Mavericks) the info panel for an instrument changes it's display. When I select the instrument the info sections are now all closed. I can open them by clicking the arrow next to "Light" for example and all the information is still there. If I re-open all the info sections they will stay open but I am not sure why they closed as I did not deliberately do so. Is there a key stroke combination that collapses the sections? Currently running 3.2.3 build 8306A.
Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 4:28 pm
by admin
There is no shortcut to expanding/collapsing all the items.
It may be difficult to determine a cause for this unless there's a reliable method of causing it to happen. When you have noticed this, has more than one plot been open? Are any open plots stored in iCloud? Are any open plots older, perhaps even originally imported from MacLux Pro? When this happened, had you recently loaded a key?
Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 6:39 pm
by admin
Actually, you can reproduce this by having a plot with a list report and a section window open. Select the section window. Switch to the report and select a row representing a light. The Inspector's info tab will show no information. Switch to the main plot window and the info will be collapsed. (Switching to a different plot window will restore the collapsed state of the categories in the info tab)
Regardless of the work-around, this is fixed in the latest build 3.2.4 (8313B).
Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 11:19 pm
by lanternz
Version 3.5.2. I am having trouble selecting some instruments. I have a tight stack of par cans and when I click the center of 1 instrument the instrument above it gets selected. In order to select the correct instrument I find I have to click about 50cm in front of the instrument. This only seems to be happening with one particular position which is drawn spaced off to stage right but mapped vertically.
Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 11:30 pm
by admin
Without seeing the file and replicating the situation, its hard to say exactly what is going on.
First, as objects in motion tend to stay in motion, objects that are selected, tend to stay selected. This is not always the best and does not always produce the desired result, but sometimes it produces exactly the result you want with hard to grab handles. The reason for this behavior, eg. for re-positioning a line, is that handles are easier to select from nearby objects if preference is given to a line that is already selected. A lot of times, this is a good thing and does what you want. Occasionally, a previously selected object prevents you from selecting the object you really wanted to select, particularly when they are in close proximity... This is somewhat of a tossup because sometimes it works better and sometimes it works worse. If someone has a suggestion about how to better interpret the context and have selection work the way you want/expect it to, that would be great.
So, if a previously selected object prevents you from selecting one that overlaps, you can use Select None ( Cmd-Shift-A ) to deselect the first object and to try again. Another thing you can do, especially if you've run auto-arrange on the layer, is to use the select Next Object/Previous Object commands. These allow you to step along a sequence of objects in the drawing order. As a bonus, these commands also step through selecting individual objects in a group. (If you haven't done auto-arrange, these commands will skip all over the place, selecting objects in the order you drew them.)
A simple answer is that the unwanted selected instrument is drawn in front and overlapping the desired but unselected instrument. So, using the move backward command, followed by Select None, may allow you to select the desired symbol.
One further selection option/trick is the relatively new ability to turn on and off the selection of info fields. When selection of info fields (those attached to an object) is disabled, a click on one of these fields selects the parent object.
This last option is my guess as why a click away from a light would select it. But, that's just a guess without the file and reproducing the condition to be sure.
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 12:10 am
by lanternz
I had tried with your new turn off info selection of info fields but the issue persisted. I had also deselected. What fixed the issue in was your suggestion of using auto arrange. I normally use this function but probably not until I am further down the track with a drawing. I am not quite sure why the auto arrange should have fixed the problem. The instruments in this specific position would only select when clicked around 50cm in front of the instrument, so when I clicked in the center of one instrument the one above it (offstage) would get selected. All good now and I will remember in future to always use auto arrange.