Combine (catenate) properties from PSD in tag

[jack.33330]

Seems like I've seen this somewhere before but searching various forums has resulted in not finding it.

Want a Room or Space tag to display the length and width. I would like this to be in one line and for the line of text to be left justified. So far,I have placed the Width and Length properties in the view block (as separate entities) into one line separated but a text object "X" such that it reports something like "10'-11" X 12'-9"". I right justified the left property and left justified the right property, in order to equal their spacing about the "X". The difficulty I am having is left justifying the entire line. I thought there was a way to catenate or combine properties into one entity with quotations or conditional statements, but I can't seemed to find such in ACA Help or other forums. See Sample1.dwf

I tried left justifying each, but then I have to assume a spacing between them. (Sample2.dwf) The problem is if the Width or Length is longer (or shorter) than the assumption, then the"X" is either spaced too far from the Width or Length
(like "3'-9" X 12'-9") or its overwritten by the longer value. See Sample3.dwf (space width edited to illustrate)

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[bradg]

Hey Jack,

Although I'm an AMEP user, I *think* I understand what you're trying to do. You may want to check out this thread: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=71705 . It's pretty long, but it covers a lot of good techniques for creating custom tags and PSDs; the first few posts are what I think you may be interested in.

Hope this helps!
-Brad

[dkoch]

A formula property can concatenate the information you want into a single property, which can then be justified any way you like.

If you will be using imperial units (feet and inches), as you post indicates, be aware that it will probably not be quite as easy as simply concatenating two or three strings into one, due to the presence of the embedded inches mark, which just happens to serve as the delimiter for a text string. An embedded double quotation mark can cause problems, but there is a way around it, provided you are willing to calculate all the individual pieces (feet, inches, fractions of an inch) for each dimension to be shown and then stitch them all together on the RESULT line of the formula property.

This blog article has a link to a sample file that creates a Width x Height property for Windows, which do not have an automatic version for that, like Doors do. Segment 2 of my ATP121 class on formula properties (check out the AUGI Training Program archives for June 2006) has sample formulas that do both decimal and fractional values for fractional inches. It can get a little complicated, but if you really want to have a single property with multiple dimensions, it is worth the effort.

[jack.33330]

David, thanks so much, this will get me going. You are so prolific, I see your name all over. Where do you find the time?

[dkoch]

Sleep deprivation and a very minimal personal life can free up enormous amounts of time.