[PROTEL EDA USERS]: Selection in Schematic Editor (ex Re: One dialog box is "odd")

["Geoff Harland" <gharland@ingenico.com.au>]

It would be an improvement if the Schematic Editor behaved in a similar
manner to the PCB Editor vis-a-vis extended selection; to wit, it would be
good if the user could select whether extended selection was enabled or
otherwise (in the Schematic Editor).

I have written a macro (attached to this posting) which permits me to select
whether everything is deselected before I select all items inside an area,
or whether this doesn't occur. By default, initial deselection does *not*
occur, but if the Ctrl key is held down when the macro is launched, then
this deselection does occur. (If you want to reverse this behaviour, then
change the code in the macro; I wrote it in the way I did, at the suggestion
(and with the assistance) of Simon Peacock (, who I worked with at the
time), to make its default behaviour match that of Protel's
Sch:SelectObjectsInsideArea Process.)

The idea is that this macro should be invoked, instead of the
Sch:SelectObjectsInsideArea Process (provided by default), when the dotted
rectangle button in the main (Schematic Editor) toolbar is clicked on. The
associated toolbar definition should be changed so that the same bitmap is
retained (SELECTIN.BMP), but the Process invoked is Macro:RunMacro, and the
parameter provided is:

FileName=C:\Protel\Sch4\Zsel_win.bas|Language=ClientBasic

The above will need editing to match your setup. Note also that this is from
Protel 98; I have yet to set this up for use with Protel 99 SE. But if you
study the default Resources provided for use with Protel 99 SE, this should
give you some tips on how to set up this macro for use with this. Amongst
other things, you will almost certainly have to set up a parent DDB file to
contain this macro. (If necessary, either somebody else or myself might be
able to provide more assistance in this regard).

It is not out of the question that a Process could be created which would
emulate the behaviour of the PCB Editor more closely. A dialog box would
permit the user to select whether extended selection is selected or not, and
the setting saved in an .INI file or the (Windows) Registry. This setting
would then determine whether an initial deselection of all items then occurs
or otherwise. How much interest would users have in this capability being
provided in (my) SchAddon version 6.0.1 (assuming that I could implement
this without too much difficulty)?

Regards,
Geoff Harland.
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Attachment Converted: E:\EUDORA\ATTACH\Zsel_win1.bas