Auto-convert User text to Project text

[Tom Dawson]

Hi Tony
Any chance of a setting/option to convert User text to Project text automatically on opening a User text file? I'd be happy for this to happen every time.
With regards
Tom

[Tony Bryer]

Changes in the next round of releases (ProSteel imminent) should deliver what you want in a slightly different way:
On each edit dialog next to the notes field I've added an extra button. When pressed this opens up the large window editor currently used for text pages. Putting a one line note such as Encase beam to half hour fire resistance is fine in the small edit field, but you wouldn't want to write an essay! Currently item notes are treated as plain text with consecutive lines being concatenated and word wrapped as necessary. Where text doesn't contain any of our markup tags (<e> emphasis font, <!> jump to next tab etc) it will continue to be treated in this way. If the notes text contains any tags, line breaks will be respected and the text will be rendered according to the tags (fonts, tabs etc). The large window text page editor now adds the 'Use note', 'Add note' and standard note dropdown list that are currently in each edit dialog.

How does all this fit together? Where you currently make a User Text Page, you will be able to enter this text as a standard 'note'. Create a Project Text item, select it from the drop-down list, press 'Use' and you're done.

Beyond this (n.b. statements of intent aren't promises and don't have dates!) the plan is to add a notes field to beam loads. These notes will be printed between the beam loads and steel/timber calculation, or if you so choose you can have a loads/BM/SF/deflection only + notes page. This will effectively replace the link text page to beam option that is a little clunky and dates back to SuperBeam 1.

For this to be really useful there needs to be a mechanism whereby the notes text can include replaceable parameters for (say) the maximum bending moment and some form of evaluating conditions (e.g. is max BM less than a certain value). The aim is to to allow the creation of standard text blocks for lintels and proprietary beams - older users will remember the Catnic lintel text page supplied with SuperBeam 1 & 2: it worked but was not the easiest thing to understand. Currently I am thinking about exactly how to do this, finding the best balance between something that is intuitive and giving power users more options. Watch this space!