70002419 A new Dialog to filter entities while selecting

Summary

A new Dialog to filter entities while selecting.

Solution

In version 1005 we have created a new Form/Dialog to help users filter entities from a drawing.
In any command (like cmdMove , cmdRotate etc...) the first step is to select which entities to perform the action. We added a new option there as following
all , prev , last , fi , w , c , wp , cp , fp , grip , ls
The new option fi will open Filter dialog (Please read the descriptions below in order to understand better the functionality and the usage of this dialog)

You can call this dialog by code in c# like below
vdSelection Selset = VectorDraw.Professional.Dialogs.frmFilterEntities.Show(doc , doc.ActionControl);

The dialog looks like this




1: This is the selection of entities that are going to be filtered. By default the dialog will filter the ActiveLayout's entities , the user though can change that with the Pick Selection button.
2: With this button the dialog closes and the user is prompted to make a selection. The entities that are going to be selected are going to be used for the filter.
3: This button will clear the selection and the dialog will return to it's initial default selection which is the ActiveLayout's selection.
4: This is the list of the Filter options that are added from the bottom left portion of the dialog.
5: Using the combo you can choose one of the filter types : Figure type (arc , circle etc...) , Layer name , Linetype , PenColor , Block name for inserts , Dimstyle , Textstyle.
6: Depending what you select on the upper combo this will determine the value of the filter option , for example if the type is pencolor , here you can choose the color to filter.
7: The Pick from Entity button will close the dialog and the user will be prompted to select a figure , from which the value combo will be filled from it's properties.
8: The Add button will add the selected type and value to the filter options list above.
9: The Remove Item button will remove the currently selected filter option.
10: Clear List will remove all filter options from the list.
11: The Named Filters section gives you the ability to Save As a filter giving a name , Delete a named Filter , or choose throught the combo an already saved filter to be used (and fill the filter options list).
12: This text label will show how many entities are filtered (will be returned) after applying the filter to the selection.
13: Apply will close the dialog , will save the current Named Filters to filters.fnl file and the filtered entities will be added and returned to a vdSelection collection from the Show method.
14: The Cancel button will close the dialog , the Named Filters will not be saved and the Show method will return a null vdSelection.

The named filters are saved in a file (Filters.fnl) and the default folder that are going to be saved is : Application.UserAppDataPath
If you want you can change the folder using the following static property of the form like below

VectorDraw.Professional.Dialogs.frmFilterEntities.FiltersFolder = "c:\\temp";

Send comments on this topic.