placing a solid colour field behind distance tool

KD952 · Post by **KD952** » Mon Feb 13, 2023 7:09 am

Hello.

I searched the forum for a solution for this problem and found a post from 2018 that this feature is not yet implemented. (I know about the possibility to change text colour and font size) I have placed tens of thousands of solid colour fields over the last ten years or so as stamps. If this process could be automated it would save me a considerable amount of time. See picture.

placing a solid colour field behind distance tool.zip: (339.16 KiB) Downloaded 12 times

Kind regards,
Daniel

Post by **TrackerSupp-Daniel** » Mon Feb 13, 2023 8:04 pm

Hello, KD952

This is already possible through the use of exclusive mode, simply hold the Shift key before you begin drawing the object and you will be able to place it ignoring any other page content, including the already present distance tool annotation. Could I ask for a link to the topic where it is not considered implemented, and perhaps a more detailed explanation so that I can better understand what it is you are looking for?

Kind regards,

KD952 · Post by **KD952** » Tue Feb 14, 2023 5:10 am

Hello, Daniel

Thank you for the reply. I am talking about this post:

viewtopic.php?p=122582&hilit=distance+t ... nd#p122582
The subject of the post is "Distance tool coloe field behind nummber"

Here again the picture from my last post. To directly quote m_rie: "Is it possible to program the Distance Tool so that you have a coloured Field behind it witch will move with die Measure. sometimes you can´t read the numbers because there are to many information on the drawings."

I too would like the same feature to be implemented. The yellow colour fields in the picture behind the text of the distance tool currently have to be placed by hand. I would like them to be there automatically.

Kind regards,
Daniel

Post by **TrackerSupp-Daniel** » Tue Feb 14, 2023 4:21 pm

Hello, KD952

I see, At the moment this is not possible, however we are working on a "comment grouping" function which would allow you to link two separate objects after they are placed, though at the moment I am unsure if that would be something permanent/lasting in the document. This is something that we will need to take a wait and see approach to, while the Devs work their magic.

For the time being, I am afraid that I cannot offer any promises exactly what you want here will be possible, but after we can offer comment grouping, we can then look at if there is a possibility to allow placing premade comment groups in a single action like this.

Kind regards,

KD952 · Post by **KD952** » Tue Feb 14, 2023 4:55 pm

Sounds promising!

Thank you for the update.

Post by **TrackerSupp-Daniel** » Tue Feb 14, 2023 6:33 pm

jotess · Post by **jotess** » Fri Mar 17, 2023 8:13 am

Comment grouping sounds good! I would have liked to use such a feature many times.
But for the problem that the OP describes this seems to be still a bit much fiddling. I have often had the same problem and I really would love to have an option "opaque background" for measurement text.

Best regards
Joachim

Post by **TrackerSupp-Daniel** » Fri Mar 17, 2023 3:49 pm

Hello, jotess

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, we already off all text properties that the PDF specification allows for a measurement to have...

As you can see, there is no option for a background color value to be an embedded part of this tool. As such the only way we can offer exactly what KD is asking for, is with workarounds like this, which will take some extra work to both implement, and use later on.

Kind regards,

jotess · Post by **jotess** » Fri Mar 17, 2023 6:35 pm

This is really a pity! I didn't know that measurements are a feature that is part of the pdf specification. I thought these measurement lines were something you had made up yourselves.
Best regards
Joachim

Post by **TrackerSupp-Daniel** » Fri Mar 17, 2023 10:44 pm

Hello, jotess

Unfortunately not, We strictly adhere to the PDF specification, to ensure that our files are as universally compatible, and stable as possible.
Any features which go against, or are undefined in the PDF spec that any application offers, should be avoided, or used with some caution. This is because, if any other application which does not know how to handle an undefined item like that, or one which has their own unique implementation of how to handle it (which is different from the original creator) comes along and makes changes... It cam sometimes have catastrophic effects. Usually only meaning that a few items are missing from the file, or that you get some "Xref" errors next time you open the file and it needs a repair from a spec respecting software, but on occasion it can cause issues which lead to complete document corruption and mass loss of all data in that version of the file.

Kind regards,