'Line' component Pen colour...

malc · 21 Mar 2005

Yeah this is a problem that's been needing fixed for a while. The reason there is a Pen connector is to bundle related data together to avoid loads of connectors. I think we should still keep this but make it easier to specify a Pen the way you want it.

String components are a good way to get quick results and I think it works well that you can just use a string to get a colour when you want it. But I see them more as a shortcut when you want something in a hurry.

I think the Pen could follow the way Areas work. You can use a string to quickly define an area but you also have an area component that makes an Area from four floats. We could have a Pen component that makes a Pen from a colour, thickness and (eventually) line style.

I'll try and get this sorted for the next release.

Fonts are another problem that we need to address as these can only be specified by strings at the moment. I created a module that makes specifying a font much easier. We could do the same for pens as well.

Get the schematic here

Note that this could be improved if we had a component that read system fonts to populate the typeface popup.

Tom7777 · 22 Mar 2005

Thanks malc, Examples are always a good thing in my opinion as i learn best that way. 🙂

Shifrin · 22 Mar 2005

Cheers malc, makes sense to do it the way you want and if you add a R,G,B,A,Size or whatever -> Pen component that'll work great for me 🙂

Shif.

Tom7777 · 23 Mar 2005

Was just wondering can you make dotted/gated line effects? or just solid lines?

Shifrin · 23 Mar 2005

I'm pretty sure malc said the Line component would allow you to have dotted/dashed lines - just that it's not in at the moment.

Shif.

Tom7777 · 23 Mar 2005

thanks i can't wait for that feature its always cool to experiment with stuff the more modules/features the more options 🙂

posh · 12 Apr 2005

any thoughts on making it hex (and/or rgb) defined? instead of white (e.g) you go FFFFFF? cause that would rock. this can propably be done with the color select module somehow, but i have no clue how, so imo implementing this would be a nice idea.

- posh.

malc · 12 Apr 2005

Hi posh,

This was added in one of the recent incremental releases. So you can type "(128:255:100:100)" say in a String component (without the quotes of course) and connect this to a Colour connector to get a transparent red.

The format is "(a:r:g:b)" where 'a' is the transparency. All values run from 0 to 255.

We could do Hex as well I guess if it's going to be useful.

posh · 13 Apr 2005

sweet!

as far as hex/rgb, it isnt very important, that was just posted for..umm. well, to see whether it was either one or the other, for me it doesnt matter, although im more used to hex then rgb. love the a:r:g:b format. alpha yes. thanks. - posh.

Tom7777 · 13 Apr 2005

I requested ARGB by numbers a while back, im glad the feature was added, as for hex input, maybe you could have some tool modules in SM like a calculator and Hex to ARGB converter which i think would be very cool 🙂