Patterns 2D

The Patterns 2D transformer extension in the Gateway provides a flexible solution for grouping and hotspotting sets of graphical objects with tag text, both multiline text (‘mtext’) and single line text (‘text’) to be included in the Group. Various filters can be defined based on the size of the graphical objects, attribute values, number of objects in the group and types of graphical objects to include in a group, as well as how multiple text elements should be concatenated to form a single string for identifying tag(s) to be associated with the group. These tag definitions can be further refined using base mapping.

The following Patterns 2D configuration shows two such filters.

<Object>

<Conditions>

<ObjectType ObjectType="symbol, table, oval, all_lines_closed" />

<Size min="0" max="20" />

</Conditions>

<Group Separator="-" TextControlPoint="center" JoinTextFrom="topleft" IncludeParts="false" GrabTypes="text, mtext" KeepTextOnly="false">

<IncludeArea AllDirections="1" />

</Group>

</Object>

<Object>

<Conditions>

<ObjectType ObjectType="text, mtext" />

</Conditions>

<Group Separator="-" TextControlPoint="center" JoinTextFrom="topleft" IncludeParts="false" KeepTextOnly="false" />

</Object>

The first filter defined by the <Conditions> node selects graphical objects of various types (in this case symbol, table, oval, or all_lines_closed) that are smaller than 20% of the area of the drawing. The Gateway classifies MicroStation cells and AutoCAD block references as graphical symbol objects (a full list of Symbol types can be found in the Gateway for 2D Data User Guide). Any text or mtext boxes within these graphical objects’ extents are then assigned as the initial tag value. Multiple texts are concatenated in the order of their central positions (TextControlPoint="center") from top left to bottom right (JoinTextFrom="topleft"). Concatenated texts are separated by hyphens, as defined by Separator="-". In this example only text that is fully within the group’s extent will be part of the group as IncludeParts="false".

The second filter selects graphical objects of types text or mtext that were not grouped by the first filter. These would normally be isolated texts not located within symbols or closed line objects.