I’ve just found my self trying to delete a curve in a pattern that I’ve made and the delete button isn’t clickable, so I guess something is based on it. Therefore it came to mind that it might be a very comfortable option if there was a window where you can see all the connections from points or lines they’re linked to. I know that you can see the reference point in the property editor (which btw has got a spelling in the Version 5.15.2.) but I mean the other way around. Instead of seeing where its based on you can also see which point is based on that point or line (seeing all the linked points). This could be very practical because I sometimes find it quite difficult to remember which point has been created on which other, as you have to go backwards to delete something.
I believe that you’ll find the History item in the History menu, between Measurements & Utilities, (or ctrl-H,) to be just the ticket. You can even use it for time-travel! (please save first, because paradoxes,) If you move the arrow indicating the present back in time.
Thanks for your response, I think thats a little help but imagining that you want to delete something thats a lot of steps behind it would be sad if you have to delete all when there is a point that might just got 2 or 3 different ones depending on that.
@Douglas: Agree, I think that would be a really clever solution, it would make it way easier to understand what is based on what
While a plan is being devised on how best to address the issue of dependants, Here’s what I do:
If I wanted to delete point A25, I first open the history and do a search for A25. This will highlight all the lines and nodes that are created off A25. Then I go & attach these to another node (if I want to keep them) or delete them. This narrows down the guessing quite a bit, thanks to @Douglas for adding this search facility not so long ago:
Sometimes, the delete remains greyed out, so I save and close the pattern and reopen it. If the Delete is still greyed out, I’ll need to do the search again & see what else is dependant on it.
If it can now be deleted, you will need to know that any formula accessing this node will now be unavailable and have a plan to change the formula, as there is no way to read the formulas in advance or to see where the formula is used in the pattern, although the program will warn you and ask if you wish to cancel the delete - in which case you can go & check all your formulas to find where the node is being used and change them, or to change the formula to something that you have created before hand (at a place in History) to replace the line/node that you are deleting.
This sounds very complicated, but everyone has a certain way of creating their patterns that they use constantly, a certain order - for me, I normally make place-holder curves as I go & then delete them and recreate my curves when my pattern is complete and I need to start walking the curve lengths and make them resizable - and with practise, you will easily remember where you referenced a live length or angle.
Thank so so much for this detailed guideline of yours, that will surely be of big help. I will try that method for future problems and see if I can figure out the problem through that
The suggestion from @Grace is probably the way to go, but if you still find yourself with difficulties then the fallback is to load it into my-pattern.cloud, you can then click on objects to view their usages, and there is a graph that shows how objects are related. (You can also safely re-order drawing objects if you find yourself needing to.)
