Custom Border Style

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ellerbrock
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Custom Border Style

Post by ellerbrock »

Is there a way to define custom border styles for the comment tools? I'm looking to define a different dash pattern than the standards that come with the software package, such as an 8-4-1-4 or maybe a 16-4-4-4.
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi ellerbrock,

Thanks for the post - I'm afraid that it isn't possible to create custom border styles and I don't believe that it would be possible to implement, as there is likely no provision in the ISO Specification to allow this, which would mean that any custom styles that are used would very likely not display properly in other readers. We adhere to the ISO spec. to the letter, so if this is restricted then it isn't something that we would add.

Thanks,
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Thank you.

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Will Travaglini
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Tracker Software Products Ltd.
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ellerbrock
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by ellerbrock »

Thanks for the prompt response. Sticking to the ISO standard is understandable. Will you be looking into whether that's restricted by the ISO specification to determine if that's something that Tracker Software will implement in a future release?
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi ellerbrock,

**Update** It seems that the initial information that were were provided was incorrect. I've now been informed that this is possible under the Spec., but that it isn't something that would be done in the near future as it would require changes to the UI and, at this time, we have other priorities that we need to attend.

Thanks,
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
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Tracker Software Products Ltd.
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cfessler
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by cfessler »

Hello Will,
as i was not able to find more on this: is it still in progress? is there maybe any configuration file where i could change it?
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hi, cfessler

We have not cancelled production of this function, Unfortunately however It has been pushed back due to more pressing functions, such as accessibility overhaul, or other more heavily requested items, taking priority over it. Unless we see significant user demand for this function, it will likely not be made available in any short timeframe.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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smccrary@rosemccrary.com
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by smccrary@rosemccrary.com »

I would like to add my vote of interest for this functionality.
I often need to use various types of line dashing beyond that available currently.

Thank you.
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Paul - Tracker Supp
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi Rose,

let me do a little digging here, I cannot find the associated ticket, I am not convinced this is still on the cards. It may have been purged from the system.

We are short staffed untl next week, I am afraid that the people I need to speak to about this are not avalable until then. I will do so when they are back.
Maybe hit me up here again towards the end of next week to see how this progressed?

Paul
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Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
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hb1982
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by hb1982 »

Paul - Tracker Supp wrote: Thu Dec 30, 2021 1:13 am Hi Rose,

let me do a little digging here, I cannot find the associated ticket, I am not convinced this is still on the cards. It may have been purged from the system.

We are short staffed untl next week, I am afraid that the people I need to speak to about this are not avalable until then. I will do so when they are back.
Maybe hit me up here again towards the end of next week to see how this progressed?

Paul
Hi Paul
Please keep us updated regarding the implementation of this feature.
Not sure why Bluebeam Revu can achieve this simple feature for a few years already

Thx
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello hb1982,

I am afraid that custom border styles are very tricky, and while it might be technically possible - it is with very tight restrictions. You can specify custom fill for a border or even a whole object, but that is calculated there and then for that specific object and stored in an "appearance dictionary" for that object and for it alone. The moment you need to touch up that object - the appearance dictionary has to be discarded, and the object set up and displayed with some default border of the list of defined in the PDF specification. So even if you have e.g. the same build of the Editor on two machines, and you've created such a custom border on one machine - the other will be able to display that object, but not modify it (without resetting it's appearance to a standard one), and the same would be true for any other PDF viewer (even on the machine on which our Editor has the custom template).
So technically - there is a possibility to create such custom appearances for objects, but those are very fragile and not really transferable between PDF viewer or even resizeable. So an image with the custom pattern might pretty much the same job.

Given the specifics of such a feature and how it effectively makes those objects not truly 'portable' - I think that even when we were looking at this our devs were not too enthusiastic in making something that will only work on a specific machine, and will make the file less portable than the Portable Document Format (PDF) allows! :)

Kind regards,
Stefan
mark henwood
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by mark henwood »

Hi,
Wondering if there will be any further progress on creating 'user' border styles (linetypes). We use PDF XChange for marking up drawings for revision and special linetypes would make this much more efficient.
Comments above about easily being able to do this in other packages is correct, however we have a strong user base in this software who would benefit massively from this functionality.
Regards
Mark
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello mark henwood,

I am afraid that for the time being there are still no plans for us to implement such a feature.

Kind regards,
Stefan
ketter
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by ketter »

I'm dropping a note here since I was looking for this feature also. We currently use both PDF-XChange Editor and Bluebeam. Personally I prefer PDF-XChange Editor, but just had another user request Bluebeam because he needed this capability. Custom border styles would be a great addition to PDF-XChange Editor.
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Paul - Tracker Supp
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi, ketter

Thanks for adding your voice to the choir. I have passed on to the devs that there is additional interest in this, however I will say that in my experience anything that deviates from the ISO specifications does not get a lot of traction here.

We will have to wait and see.

Kind regards,
Paul - Tracker Supp
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
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Toxic_Rat
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by Toxic_Rat »

@Paul - Tracker Support: I'd like to add my vote to providing this. I can appreciate wanting to be in full compliance with ISO standards, but this is definitely a feature that would be appreciated.
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Custom Border Style

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, Toxic_Rat

Thank you for yet more support on this, Respecting the spec is a bit more than just a "want". In order to ensure that your documents are as compatible as possible with other software's, and ensure that nothing we put in there could lead to file corruption, it borderlines on a requirement.
This is a big part of why we don't often accept comparisons of "things Bluebeam can do" specifically, because they very often disregard the spec, leading to situations where you can only utilize their content in their software, else it causes lasting damage to the file, which we never want to do. (Meanwhile "things Adobe can do" see much more attention, because they do respect the spec... with a small handful of exceptions in the past).

Now moving past that, As Stefan quite a while ago, Will was incorrect, and these line styles are not entirely defined by the spec, it may be possible (to some degree) for them to be customized. It would still very likely lead to the case of "you cannot modify these objects in some other applications" but it does not appear to be something that could lead to file damage. Instead probably just a minor re-write of that objects data to a style which that application supports, if it is unable to support an embedded value.
Unfortunately however, this is still not a high priority at the moment. I believe we have enough support here that I can at least push the team to increase the priority. Hopefully we can see development of this started sometime in the future.

I the meantime, I have created the following ticket to track any developments, should the team accept it.
RT#6666: FR: Add Custom border line "styles"
Do note that this is not a guarantee that the function will be implemented, only a promise that I will do what I can to ensure the Dev team has a serious think about if we can implement it going forward.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
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Support@pdf-xchange.com
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