[Ipe-discuss] Precisely select symbols taken from component library

[Otfried Cheong]

So far, Ipe symbols are used for a limited number of use cases:

- marks
- arrows (and this is handled entirely internally by Ipe)
- page backgrounds that you want to appear on each page

There are a few people who have created libraries of Ipe shapes, but they rather organized them in one or several Ipe documents and copy them into their current document when needed instead of using them as symbols from the style sheet.

Is it worthwhile making this more usable?

Currently, the simplified drawing makes it impossible to distinguish different symbols during the selection process.  One obvious way to fix this would be to draw symbols fully when they are selected (like e.g. groups).   I would make this optional, because for mark symbols you really want to know the location, not the shape of the symbol.

Another improvement would be to allow a symbol to carry a list of snap locations - so snapping to a symbol would not only snap to the reference location, but also to any of the listed snap locations.   This would allow you to attach wires on both sides of a resistor, etc.

Otfried


On Mon, Apr 8, 2019, at 22:09, Christian Kral via Ipe-discuss wrote:
> Thanks for the hint. If the entire component were highlighted in 
> addition to the reference point, your suggestion were the exact right 
> procedure for me. 
> 
>  In the proposed example three reference points are located on the very 
> same place -- indicated by the red cross. So hitting space after 
> selecting the intersection point, I cannot distinguish which of the 
> three components is selected, as only the reference points are 
> highlighted. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 08/04/2019 06.34, Michael GENG wrote:
> > Hold the mouse selection, then tap space bar. keep tapping to shuffle all the components close by. 
> > 
> > 
> >  On Apr 7, 2019, at 01:31, Christian Kral via Ipe-discuss <ipe-discuss at lists.science.uu.nl> wrote:
> > 
> >> Hi,
> >> 
> >>  I created an electrical engineering component library in  https://github.com/christiankral/ElectricalEngineering.isy to simplify the creating of electrical circuits. After developing some components I was running into troubles selecting symbols. As an example, please consider three symbols (two resistors, one disk marker) with the reference points show on the left in pic below; this example is available at  https://gist.github.com/christiankral/134b9feb5603f159c6532039c7bcc0dd.
> >> 
> >>  <55567406-e3331080-56fd-11e9-807f-78fc94b1eb53.png>
> >> 
> >> If I assemble the symbols to a circuit the three indicated reference points will end up on the very same location. My question is how a user can select one of the three symbols systematically, e.g., to move the vertical resistor...
> 
> >> However, one could say the design of the components is in a way "wrong" as all components shall rather have their reference points in the component center. So for the resistor the reference point could be moved from one line end to the center of the symbol -- this were a possible solution. 
> 
> >> Can anyone share his experience or make some comments on this topic.
> 
> >> Thanks,
> >>  Christian 
> 
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Ipe-discuss mailing list
> >> Ipe-discuss at lists.science.uu.nl
> >> https://mailman.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/ipe-discuss
> 
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