The versions of PlansPlus before 2.1.1 have been very limited in the kinds of interaction it permitted with the user. It allowed menu picks, of course, and the rectangular "lasso" feature with which to define a selected print or export area on the user's lot, and the common move and zoom controls.
Starting with version 2.1.1, however, that has changed. PlansPlus now allows for whole objects, as well as single points or edges, of one or more objects to be selected and manipulated, with new commands. The selections have been implemented to allow for choosing a subject for the commands, in the same way as the Punch! main program does. In general, the selection mechanism mirrors the Punch! model, with just a few exceptions.
Like Punch!, a single point or a single edge of an object may be selected by simply clicking on it, with either the left or the right mouse button. The left button simply selects; the right mouse button selects and pops up a "context menu", which is a menu that occurs on the site of the click and allows choices to be made that are germaine to the object clicked on; you'll see more about these on the next page. In addition to the single click, a dragging operation (with the left mouse button) will draw a rectangle on the screen, within which all the points, edges and objects will be selected. Like Punch!, no part of any object will be selected with the lasso unless all the points of the object are selected, and then, of course, you have selected the whole object. This holds for all objects except walls - with walls you select the points that are included in the rectangle and no others, so it is possible to select a single point or a wall, or several walls, of a wallset.
It is possible, when using the single click, to select more than one object where they may coincide close to the click point. In Punch!, a complex algorithm chooses one of the competing objects for selection. In PlansPlus, the approach is different. Instead of choosing one, PlansPlus pops up a small context menu with the selections listed, with checkmarks to indicate which ones are selected. Clicking on any of the items will toggle the checkmark, and the second menu item serves to checkmark all the possibilities. To make the selections final, click on the "Continue item at the bottom of the menu or click anywhere outside the context menu. The context menu will be dismissed, and the action, interrupted to determine what was selected, will continue with the selected item(s) shown on the screen with handles, in the usual manner. For example, if you right-clicked on a wall to change its color and a floor edge was present, the selection box would popup first; when you selected the wall and then dismissed the seelection box, the object context menu will immediately pop up, allowing the color to be set.
The items in the selection menu consist of the word "Point:" or "Edge:", followed by the object's type and either the internally produced object number, or the object's name. Bringing up the rear are the object point numbers that were selected. Displaying an object's internal serial number is pretty opaque, since this is likely the first time the user has seen that number, so it is advised that most or all of the objects be given names which have meaning to the user. See this page on how to set an object's name. This name, by the way, is a new Punch! feature, so it will inevitably start showing up in other places in Punch! as well.
Plants actually exist only at a single point, but Punch! provides four handles for them anyway. Like all other objects, all four handles have to be selected to select the plant, but it is difficult to determine where these handles lay until the are selected. PlansPlus solves this Catch-22 situation by allowing for a fifth handle right in the center of the plant (on its actual location). A handle does not appear there, but the plant may be selected by clicking on that spot or by lassoing the center point.
PlansPlus and the contents of this help file are
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