Text won't wrap around object at top of page

[martinwinlow]

H,

I'm trying to use OO Writer as a tool to design the layout of electric underfloor heating wire (bear with me, here...!). If you just want to go to the OO Writer-specifc problem, cut to the the paragraph beginning with an asterisk ('*')...

The kits you can buy for UFH often consist of a reel of heating wire (the main other type is the wire pre-attached to a mesh backing - but it is the plain wire type I am using). The length of the wire is quoted in the kit instructions (and at time of ordering) and the optimal spacing between the runs of wire is also provided for a specific heat output per unit area.

The problem is deciding on the precise amount of spacing (to within a mm or 2) to use up all the wire within the area you want to heat without having any significant amount left over because you *cannot* cut the wire. The other main issue is that consistent heating wire spacing is key to even floor temperature.

To design something on paper is a nightmare if you have more than one regular shaped object occupying floor space where you do not want heat as you have to calculate the run lengths and add them up to find your cable is not long enough or too long. So, you have to start again with slightly wider or narrower spacing. Likewise if you don't bother with a paper plan and just start attaching the wire to the floor you will run into the same 'too short' or 'too long' problem.

So, the thrust of my idea is that the spacing between the wire is analogous to text line spacing in a Writer document and the page can have objects inserted to represent bathroom (typically) furniture; ie bath, sink, WC, etc. Repeated use of a fixed width font (eg Courier) hyphen character ('-' - without any spaces) is used to represent the wire (see pic). The total number of hyphens can thus be inserted (using the 'Word Count' tool - which also counts characters) to represent the total wire length. You would have to use Word Count to find the number of hyphens a full 'page' width has and divide that into the actual room width to find out what length of wire one hyphen represents but I have found that using 8 point 'Courier New' font gives a wire spacing of about 80mm and a character width of 48mm (9 pt gives 91mm and 54mm, resp).

Next: The clever bit... Using the Wrap tool, and for a given font size, you can simply flow the lines of hyphens (wire) around the objects, adjusting the size of the unheated areas (objects) until all the wire is used up.

* So, the problem I have (and it is only a minor one) is that for some reason when you align any furniture object's upper edge with the top of the page, the text does not start until after the bottom of the lowest object edge (see pic A). This isn't a cosmic issue because the unwanted length of wire above the objects will be used up when the wire is actually laid below the correctly positioned (real) object (see pic B).

Can anyone explain why the wrap does not flow correctly at the top of the page and a solution to make it do so...?

Regards, MW.

Pic A:
ibb.co/XtQkXBc

Screenshot-2024-02-04-at-13-24-09.gif (92.16 KiB) Viewed 993 times

Pic B:
ibb.co/Xj32zWG

Screenshot-2024-02-04-at-13-24-40.gif (75.68 KiB) Viewed 993 times

[Zizi64]

A real sample file can help us more - then we can help you...

An image can not give us enough information about the applied styles and settings.

[Nick N,]

Godday Sir,

Sorry but couldn't be of any help as a TV engineer. Nevertheless, appreciating your concern, I kindly ask you to take a look at this message.

You may indeed solve your impasse by putting the form anchor TO the character instead of TO the paragraph.

With very best regards

Nick

[Bill]

I don't think anchoring As Character will work because there are no wrap options available for objects anchored As Character.

For objects anchored To Paragraph, the problem appears to be that the first line of a paragraph will not split left and right across an object. If an object is moved up into the line space of the first line of a paragraph, then the first line moves below the object. As far as I know, there isn't a simple workaround for this behavior.

If the unwanted length of wire above the objects isn't a problem, then just reduce the height of the objects on the document by the line height so the objects don't intrude into the first line space.

[keme]

I don't think anchoring As Character will work because there are no wrap options available for objects anchored As Character.

Nobody advised to anchor as character. There is a suggestion to anchor to character, but that will also not work.

Can anyone explain why the wrap does not flow correctly at the top of the page and a solution to make it do so...?

For some reason, the hyphens are not considered a split marker when there are only hyphens, it seems. This may be by design or a side effect of the wrapping algorithm, IDK. A possible solution is to use a series of hyphen-space pairs.

Edit: I first suggested alternating hyphen/space, but spaces have a special handling at the "breaking edge" which - depending on the dimensions of your projects and the precision you need to achieve - may mess up the count. Alternating hyphen/equals-sign is more like what you have, and looks to behave nicely. See attached document.

When I have done this kind of work, I used a surface calculation to determine length and find the optimal spacing. Just subtract the surface area occupied by fixed objects from the area of the floor. The issue is then mostly about routing the cable in and out of the tightest passageways, and you can adjust the spacing of bends against the floor edge to position the end of the heat section precisely.

This is of course easiest if you can tie the cable down on a mesh attached to the base layer, which has been my situation. If you need to glue it, I guess it will be harder to make adjustments. You could possibly duct tape the cable first, then glue it when you have the layout done.