Hi Rob and SD-Team

Please have a look at this bug report:

When using aligning objects to each other or to the grid, sometimes weird things happen, see attached video:
- when using "alilgn to grid", the objects don't even move
- (at 0:30 in the video) when using "align" to another object, the objects jump to a random position...



The problem seems to appear and disappear randomly - sometimes it's fine, then starts freaking...



Furthermore, we also often see copy/paste behaving strange - this might be related:
- Copy object (ctrl + c)
- Paste it -> object will be pasted "off the grid" and often far away from the copied object. You'd then have to zoom out (F4), find the pasted object on the drawing, move it to where you want it and finally re-align it to the grid!

Both issues were observed on several machines from several users (we are six engineers sharing three licenses of SD7) and are very annoying.

Let me know if you need more information or have further questions - I really hope you can reproduce these issues and fix them asap...

Cheers,
Phil

-------------------------------
auviso - audio visual solutions ag

ch-6010 kriens
switzerland

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the video - we see what is happening.

If you want to add to, or make significant changes to a symbol, we recommend creating a UDP and using Edit Symbol mode (rightclick on the UDP in the Library List and choose Edit Symbols) to make such changes and additions. Edit Symbol mode does not require use of the Unlock Cursor.

You CANNOT use the Unlock Cursor to create (or copy/paste) new objects that belong to a symbol in a project drawing.

The Unlock Cursor is designed as a cursor mode for making simple edits to existing symbols, e.g. to delete things like unused IO stubs, or to edit an existing Text label, but NEVER to create new objects in symbols in drawings.

I accept that the behaviour you've seen is confusing and we will endeavour to take the steps necessary to improve user experience. I cannot say at this point what or when that might be.

As an explanation, though, it looks like the Align function is 'walking up' the symbol hierarchy to find the parent object of the line you're trying to Align. The parent is the Symbol itself, which is already aligned to the grid, which is why you see no change using Align to Grid. When you draw another line (Line A) and Align that to the selected line, the Align function operates on Line A and the Symbol, and if you don't realise that's happening it could look like 'random' behaviour.

I hope this makes sense.

Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the quick and detailed answer; I especially appreciate the techie i.e. object orientated explanation. This absolutely makes sense and I see that we have been "abusing" the unlock cursor feature a bit. We often edit symbols in drawings because this feels quicker and would not affect co-workers (who work with the same UDP-library thanks to the cloud-feature). After your explanation, we will now change this practice.

What remains is the copy/paste-thing also described in my post below - I'll try to make another video when I see it next time...

Btw, shall I remove the "alignment not working" vid from youtube?

Cheers,
Phil

-------------------------------
auviso - audio visual solutions ag

ch-6010 kriens
switzerland

Hi Phil,

Yes, re: copy/paste, noted, but this applies to use of Unlock also, unless I have misunderstood, so should be avoided because the pasted object cannot be added to the (or any) symbol in the drawing.

Re: movie on YouTube, yes, please take it down so as to avoid confusion - many thanks.

Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com