Re: Unit selection input

[Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>]

On Wed, 23 Jan 2002, John Volpe wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I have been using dia for some time now and I am very impressed.  Good 
> job.........
> 
> Over the years I have used many other drawing packages (Mechanical CAD,
> PCB Layout/Schematic Capture and Diagramming).  In all the cases I am
> familiar with the, the units and scale factors can be set on a per layer
> basis. Idea 1 below would allow us to have separate units for each layer.
> 
> I would like to make the following suggestions.  Please feel free to nuke
> them as needed.
> 
> 1. All dimensions in all items/objects be kept in some universal units.
> Then converted to output and from input.  This would allow the changing
> of the units without changing the physical size of the objects.

That is the plan.  Currently, both internal and external units are cm.  To
avoid every internal number having a unit attached, they will be converted
upon input.

> 2. Scaling be specified per layer.  This would allow a background (Title
> Block, Border etc.) to be scaled for the drawing.  If the drawing items
> need to be scaled to fit in the paper, the background would not.

That's an ... interesting idea.  Should then rulers and guidelines change
depending on which layer is selected?  

> 3. Allow the user to create a layer which is a scaled view of a (portion
> of) another layer (set of layers).  -OR - Create a view object which
> would show a scaled "view" of some portion of the drawing.  This, of
> course, would allow a detail or overview view to be created.

This can be done with a separate view right now, and is certainly outside
of my current scope (units).

-Lars

-- 
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause)| Hårdgrim of Numenor
"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I   |----------------------------
will defend to the death your right to say it."   | Where are we going, and
    --Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrasing Voltaire  | what's with the handbasket?