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What's the best method for setting new subclass color?

EvanShultz

 I've been using the following code to successfully create new subclasses and set a color for them:

axlLayerCreateNonConductor("MANUFACTURING/TOP_SMT")
axlShell("scriptmode +i +n;color192;setwindow cvf.dialog;cvf layers_color manufacturing/top_smt 9;cvf okay;setwindow pcb")

 

I create a layer, then I run a script to open a form, select that newly created layer, then pick a number from the palette for the color I want. I have to manage the layer name in two places when editing or copying this code. And the color number means nothing whatsoever to me. Plus it could vary from one DB to another.

 

This seems so kludgey. Is there a better way? Perhaps in a single function I can create a layer and pick the color with human readable code (like the color symbols on pages 63-64 of algroskill.pdf from 16.3)?

  • fxffxf

     you can replace the axlShell with

        lyr = axlLayerGet( "MANUFACTURING/TOP_SMT")

        lyr->color = 9

        axlLayerSet(lyr)  ; can also control visibility

     and finally after creating and assigning colors to all layers

        axlVisibleUpdate(t)

    You can get the rgb values of the current color numbers by

        rgb = axlColorGet(9)

  • EvanShultz

     Hi fxf,

    Of course, I see it now. On pages 171 and 111-113 of algroskill for 16.3. Thanks!

    It seems to me that pre-defined color symbols would be much easier for humans to manage, plus it would be DB-independent. 192 colors is a bit outragoues, but even the basic 24 colors would be quite helpful. In Concept, for instance, colors are assigned by human-readable names. I assume that there's no way to specify a color except by the abstract number, since if there was you'd know about it.

    On a similar subject, it is just me or is it batty that the number relating to the blue swatch (blue in my DB) in the axlShell function above is 9, but if I put "scriptmode +echo" in the command window and click on the blue swatch, I see that it is 8. So scripts are 0-based and the Allegro environment is 1-based!?

  • fxffxf

    This may be due to the difference between 0 and 1 based indexing. Color 0 (axlColorGet(0)) is reserved for the background color which can never be assigned (if you tried assigning 0 axlLayerSet will return an error) to a layer. So the 1st color item in the color dialog is actually the RGB value of db color number 1. Since non-Pascal programmers normally use 0 as the start of an array, the difference is probably due to the color dialog array number appearing in the script which is <dialog array #> = <db color #> -1

     

  • EvanShultz

    axlLayerCreateNonConductor("MANUFACTURING/TOP_SMT")
    lyr = axlLayerGet("MANUFACTURING/TOP_SMT")
    lyr->color = 9
    axlLayerSet(lyr)

    is awfully wordy. It's too bad there's no way to compact these statements, such as being able to pick a color during subclass creation. I've submitted an SR.

     

    Also, this method is predictably much faster than the script method I was using. Using the coarse timing available from getCurrentTime() and compareTime(), the time to create and color 8 subclasses went from 4 secs to 0 secs. Basically, it went from a noticeable delay to instantaneous.

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