Draw Layers Management

Request For Enhancement, User feedback candidates for wiki
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ndyer1
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:42 pm

Draw Layers Management

Post by ndyer1 »

i have read in comments that the developers 'intended' DRAW to be a simple drawing program, not a sophisticated image processing and information managing tool. And therefore certain types of improvements 'are not priority'. Isn't this like saying “we require that our users never graduate the third grade”? Granted, developers cannot do more than their allotted volunteer time permits, and granted that there is some natural order to development that establishes bases first, extensions second. Sometimes, quality function can be had with novel presentation of data already in existence. Low hanging fruit.

People doing architecture, theater, public sector data, engineering, geology, meteorology, cartography, oceanography, cartoons, and home decorating - all appreciate Draw Layers. And many of these accumulate so many layers that it becomes painful to keep track of which are locked, hidden, printable, etc. Especially when these are dynamic, changing from request to request, print out to print out.

Its time for Layers Management. A table that displays all the layers, their status, what pages they are assigned to, their colors, lineweights, linestyles, transparency, grayed out condition, and order in overlay situations.

Each layer gets to set its own defaults, including grids and snaplines, but defaults to the prior layer settings.
The white space is converted to clear space.
Object arrangement, front to back, is made precise, via an assigned arrangement stack_number.
The set of layers acts as a transparency stack. One can choose which transparencies to overlay so as to tell a story. In architecture there is a plumbers story and an electricians story, but both need to know where the walls are.
Therefore the work is 3 stacks of transparencies: the x-y plane, the y-z plane and the x-z plane. This covers plans, elevations, and even sections. However, the deliverables, the print outs, are a series of selections of from the layers. Each page shows several layers. Some layers show on every page, like the border and title block. Data tables typically only show on one page only (no duplications). The walls will show on many of the plan views.

Conceptually, in x-y-z space there are three views + data. This makes for a tidy arrangement: Ideally, the working points would be defined in 3-space, and automatically mapped onto the 3 views.
Can i paste in .png's?

hmmm i don't see the .png coming in.
This large sheet is then cut into 4 quarter sheets for printing, with border/titleblocks underlaid

To manage which layers are to appear on each sheet, a single table: layer x sheet map allows speedy assignments and conditions.
Spreadsheets already have page breaks, and data tables, programmable and with hyperlinks.
Most of the necessary pieces already exist.
[Table=]
slider Transparency

slider Gray

slider Tint

Layer Visible Locked Print Level Transparency Gray Tint Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 1 0 0 13 Layout 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
2 Controls 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 Dimensions 99 99 30 30 0 0 0 0 0
4 99 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 0 99 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
6 0 0 99 0 0 0 0 0 0
7 0 0 0 99 0 0 0 0 0
8
[/Table]
hmmm, there is column misalignment
OOo 3.0.X on MS Windows Vista
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keme
Volunteer
Posts: 3699
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:27 am
Location: Egersund, Norway

Re: Draw Layers Management

Post by keme »

When you gain functionality, you may lose accessibility. Loading Draw up with every CAD feature you could think of, and converting it to a real 3d tool, looks possible, but then it would be a different beast altogether. My guess is, it is not going to happen.

Instead of complaining that your graip does not have full harrowing functionality, get yourself a harrow suitable for your field. Mind the size though, make sure that your tractor is able to pull it.

Some free CAD options:
DraftSight: 2D drafting, Win/OSX/Linux (OS-X download is tagged as beta version)
FreeCAD: 3D modeling, Win/OSX/Linux (still in "stage zero", current version is 0.12)
NanoCAD: 3D modeling, Windows only (looks mature, well supported, and easy to get started with)
Apache OO 4.1.12 and LibreOffice 7.5, mostly on Ms Windows 10
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