DB2 graphic  QMF Version 8

Custom objects and the Custom palette

QMF Visionary provides a Custom palette in the Palette Manager where you can save graphic objects you create.

For example, if you use a Text object often in a world but want the size to be 9 point rather than 12 point, and the font to be Palatino rather than Arial, you can save your customized Text object to the Custom palette. Perhaps you want to reuse a Marker object that is defined as a solid triangle shape, red color, and 9 point size; you can save the customized Marker object to the Custom palette.

The Custom palette is particularly useful for storing objects that are used as template graphics in every scene in your world. For example, reusing a title object that has the font, size, frame, color, and fill you want in every scene provides consistency throughout your project.

The following figure shows these custom objects saved to the Custom palette.

Figure 27. Custom objects on the Custom palette

You can also rename your custom objects to identify their significant properties, as illustrated in the figure above.

Similarly, if you create a picture that you want to use in several places in the world, you can specify a particular stock image as the ImageSource property for the Picture object and then store the customized Picture object to the Custom palette.

CAUTION:
You can only store object properties with a custom object. Events and parameters associated with an object are not stored and cannot be reused from instance to instance. You must manually assign event actions and parameterized properties to objects if you want to duplicate those attributes.

To add a modified object to the Custom palette, drag it from the editor window to the Custom palette. An object named Objectn appears in the palette, where Object is the standard object name and n is an integer. To rename the object, right-click in the Custom palette and click Rename.

Note: You can also right-click an object in an editor and select Add to Custom palette to save custom objects.

Your custom objects are saved in QMF Visionary Studio and appear in the Custom palette the next time you launch QMF Visionary Studio. Custom objects are not saved with the world, but with QMF Visionary Studio.

To delete a custom object from the Custom Palette, right-click the object you want to delete and click Delete.

You can modify a custom object as often as you want by inserting it into an editor window, modifying it, and saving it again with the new properties.


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Copyright IBM Corporation 1982,2004 Copyright IBM Corporation 1982, 2004
timestamp Last updated: March, 2004