Just a thought, but could there be a ‘SelTextObject’ function?
Hmmm - TextObjects, if you mean objects created by TextObject, are just dumb objects - curves, surfaces, polysuraces, they do not know that they were made using text curves as inputs. So there would need to be some user data or something attached to be able to distinguish these from other objects. I can imagine that if we ever get to the point of autonaming objects as they are created, we could be smart about that and users could use SelName to grab them.
‘Real’ text can of course be selected by SelText.
-Pascal
Thanks for your comments Pascal, I had pretty much come to those same conclusions yesterday when the need arose to do this. I did notice that each time I used the test object tool with the group box checked, that it would name the group and I could use SelGroup and there would be the text object name which was whatever I had typed in. I was adding labels to frames for a boat to be watercut and wanted to change the color of the frame numbers so they would just be lightly etched in instead of cut clean through when waterjetting, something I should have thought of in the first place and placed on a different layer for that sort of control. Anyway, my point is that even though auto-naming might work if implemented, the auto-naming of each text obj does allow me to go and select all the Fxxx named labels since they show up alphabetically in the list. Nice! One thing though, if I created the label, say F10 and placed it in the upper right hand corner of a frame, and then GumBall drag copy to the other two divisions of that frame, then the copies get named something else (just a number with a Group prefix) and I can’t round them up as easily. So I found it easier to just repeat the TextObject which still has F10 in the entry and it gets assigned just a simple number which is a bit easier to find at the bottom of the list. Even better I find is to repeat the TextObject command and add a suffix such as F10a, F10b … and then the frame labels are all in the same section of the list and easy to select. I’m finding a lot of uses for the SelGroup command in this quest. Is there any way that the SelGroup window can be kept open? or names be assigned or changed within that window? Put on the V6 wish list for me please. I find SetGroupName to be not so user friendly for some reason. Maybe it would be if I used it more!
Thanks for listening and I guess I have my workaround for now.
Reading you mention of ‘real text’ made me wonder why I hadn’t used that and I think it was because I am using a single line font MechSoft_Font-1 which displays oddly as in ‘real text’ mode. It looks like the curve wants to close itself but that font works just fine as a text object. It displays oddly in the text object creation window, just like it does as text in the model, but needs to be single line for the waterjet etching. It seems that there should be a ‘allow single line text’ checkbox in the test creation window just as there is in the text object creation window to get proper display. Add to wishlist please.
Crazy idea: create all text on its own layer. Then its easy to select the entire layer for whatever needed.
Optionally, you could have different layers for each different cutting depths.
SelText is handy for those of us disorganised enough to have forgotten text on various layers! Thanks for that.