Selection by name

Seriously consider adding support to name and select an Entity. It's a good product but this road you have gone down for selection is brutal. I had some terrain I wanted to duplicate so I could layer them for a desired effect and I'm sure I wasted a couple hours on this. Time spent reading both the user manual in the program and the PDFs. Time spent trying to figure out which docs are still relevant. If I see that I have some 3 entities selected, 2 of which are a compete mystery to me, I think I will go murder one of my kids stuffies...

I hate writing this downer post but man I wasted 2 days on making a map and then rage quit.

Comments

  • You can do a list on something, in that information there is a tag number.

    To copy, just type cop and the click on the terrain you want to copy.

    Then move the mouse pointer and put it at a different location. Same thing can be done with symbols already on the map.
  • That is essentially doing it manually which I think is what he was talking about. The STORE command can save the reference tag of a selected entity in a named variable that can be used by other commands. I think this may only save the reference to the lowest/first entity encountered at a particular location so if the one you want isn't at the bottom of the stack you will want to list them to get the right tag number anyway.
  • <blockquote><cite>Posted By: JimP</cite>You can do a list on something, in that information there is a tag number.

    To copy, just type cop<enter>and the click on the terrain you want to copy.

    Then move the mouse pointer and put it at a different location. Same thing can be done with symbols already on the map.</enter></blockquote>

    Thank you Jim for giving a solution. I can't be the only one with this opinion. Having people try and manage entities by numbers that you have to type a command to even get the list is ridiculous. Being a programmer myself I understand how we tend to be poor designers. Add text names to entities and lay down a listbox and call it a day. Come on.
  • What I posted is for two items too close together to select otherwise.

    It isn't typically used.

    This software has a learning curve. Note that I have made over 5 thousand maps using this software.

    On my cell phone so I hope autocorrect doesn't go mad.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited June 2020
    I am curious how you propose naming the entities. A typical drawing contains thousands of them. You can't really have a popup asking for a name for each entity, that would be rather horrible when mapping. And auto-generated names aren't much more useful than the entity tag number anyway.

    If you just want to "name" a few entities, I suggest making dedicated layers for them, since layers can be selected by name. Nothing wrong with making a dedicated layer for a single or a few entities. Layers are there to identify and group entities after all. And assigning an entity to a layer isn't that much different than a gui for adding a name to an entity would be.
  • <blockquote><cite>Posted By: Monsen</cite>I am curious how you propose naming the entities. A typical drawing contains thousands of them. You can't really have a popup asking for a name for each entity, that would be rather horrible when mapping. And auto-generated names aren't much more useful than the entity tag number anyway.

    If you just want to "name" a few entities, I suggest making dedicated layers for them, since layers can be selected by name. Nothing wrong with making a dedicated layer for a single or a few entities. Layers are there to identify and group entities after all. And assigning an entity to a layer isn't that much different than a gui for adding a name to an entity would be.</blockquote>

    Usually a program will auto name things by type such as line01. It's what I do for my game editor. If the user wants to name it they can and they will name important ones. I understand there are methods such as the IDs and layers but come on it shouldn't be this hard. Trying to take a piece of terrain and make an exact copy on another sheet so I could select it in the future was incredibly hard. In the end I gave up. I thought I could select the terrain, copy it, select the new sheet and paste but that didn't work. Has no one else seriously not mentioned this?

    Here are some examples I just picked out.
    http://www.3d-sphere.com/3D.Articles/Software/AutodeskEntertainmentSuite2014/Images/Maya/pic3.jpg
    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/igAUW-ZOx8I/maxresdefault.jpg
    https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tBFeJ1-vLy4/VIVrgs3W4KI/AAAAAAABQ2g/DtL6fDHRuD4/s1600/Unreal%2BEngine%2B4.6.png
    https://i.stack.imgur.com/D1flk.png
    https://i.stack.imgur.com/pw3Ub.png
  • edited June 2020
    If I've understood you correctly, you were wanting to copy a single polygon ("piece of terrain") onto another Sheet in your CC3+ drawing in exactly the same place. If so, the simple answer is to use the "Copy to Sheet" command. Hover your cursor over the "Copy" button in the column to the left of your drawing - the one with four little blue squares connected by dotted lines - then right-click with the mouse to call up the list of copying options. Pick "Copy to Sheet" from that, click to identify the object you wish to copy as normal, then right click again and click "Do it". You'll then get a command panel you can choose which Sheet the new entity is to go on. Pick the one you need, and click "OK".

    To check the new entity is where you want it, hide the Sheet the original polygon was on, and use the List command on what should be the new polygon on the Sheet you told it to go to.

    As for the naming angle, CC3+ effectively names every item in your map with a unique Entity Tag Number automatically. If you're going to need to remember one or two of those for some specific purpose later, just keep a note of the correct Tag Numbers separately.

    It's worth remembering that CC3+ isn't a simple drawing program, so the tricks familiar from only doing things in other graphic programs are really bad habits in this one! Oh, and trying not to get too irritated when you can't quickly figure out how to do something - we've all been there ;)
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited June 2020
    When it comes to things like copying, CC3+ deliberately keeps the sheet information with the entity, because that is what you usually want to do. granted, it then prevents the copy/change sheet/paste operation, but it can only support one of the modes, and being able to copy an entity without knowing what sheet it is on and pasting it to the correct sheet automatically (correct obviously mean same sheet as the original) is the far commoner use case.

    To copy an entity to another sheet, CC3+ do have a separate command for that, you find it by right clicking the sheets and effects or copy buttons. If you need to manipulate the copy you just placed, then just select by Prior, this will select the copy (assuming you didn't do anything in between) without having to deal with complicated selection stuff to avoid selecting the original as well.

    Edit: Ninja'ed by Wyvern :)
  • I'm stunned and excited by somehow having managed to ninja Monsen! I have to remember this - it may never happen again :)
  • Posted By: WyvernI'm stunned and excited by somehow having managed to ninja Monsen! I have to remember this - it may never happen again :)
    Sue and Remy do it to each other from time to time.
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