The oddity of the 'group' - command

Clemens Karlhuber

 Hi,

Coming from several CAD programs I wonder why the 'group' - command in BricsCad works in such a clumsy manner.

For me grouping objects together simply (temporarily) connects different objects until you ungroup them.

A way of keeping selections together or sections or anything.

In BricsCad 'groups' work even more complicated than blocks. I do not want to give a group a name.

Is there a way to quickly make objects stick together?

Knut Hohenberg

In the .dwg world, groups are simply named selection sets. This implies that objects may be part of several groups at the same time, and that groups cannot be nested - which is quite different from the hierarchical group concept that most other graphics applications adhere to.
Since .dwg compatibility must be upheld, there is nothing Bricsys could do about this.
But the concept is not as odd as it may seem at first glance - it complements the hierachical block structure with a sort of relational model, which can be quite powerful if used properly (but I have to admit I rarely use grouping).

If your main concern is the somewhat clumsy workflow when using the group command, you might be interested in this script:
http://web2.iadfw.net/terrycad/LISP/Groups.lsp

Michael Mayer

Not sure if that was a good idea to go with DWG.

Max lossless Ex-/Import of DWG great.

Possibility to directly work with DWG'S if necessary, great.

Like Microstation does.

But renouncing the possibilities and freedom of an own File System and try

to make a better Software as someone else by using their file system and

trying to circulate given restrictions ?

I wouldn't do that by free will.

Jason Bourhill

Attach a LISP utility to quickly create and explode groups. Also includes a function to create an unnamed block

On loading will make the following commands available:
  QUICKBLOCK, QBLK    Converts the selected objects to an unnamed block without prompting
  QUICKGROUP, QGRP    Converts the selected objects to an unnamed group without prompting
  QUICKUNGROUP, QUGRP    Explodes the groups related to the selected object without prompting

Personally I prefer creating blocks over groups, its a much stronger container. With blocks you can utilise REFEDIT to make changes in place, and RENAME if you want to formalise it. With groups it can easily become confusing as to what is actually in the group.

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

QuickCollect.lsp

Seneb

@Knut Hohenberg said:
"If your main concern is the somewhat clumsy workflow when using the group command, you might be interested in this script:
http://web2.iadfw.net/terrycad/LISP/Groups.lsp"

Thank you for this script!

Anthony Apostolaros

Jason's QuickBlock command allows us to create a block as easily as Sketchup or VectorWorks creates a group, and the block thereby created functions much as the SU or VW group -- except that it's not really an unnamed block, so its cryptic name shows up in any listing of blocks. It might be possible to add something to the end of that lisp function that assigns a name to the new block, say zz004 (if there's already a zz001, zz002, and zz003, but no other blocks beginning in zz), so that at least these single-iteration grouping blocks would appear at the end of any list of block names.