Selection Modes --> Noun/Verb Selection

[HybridAWD]

Can someone please explain this to me. I understand what it does, but I dont fully understand why it's called Noun/Verb Selection. Any input?

Now for my original question:

What is the proper way to have this enabled everytime I open a P&Id without having to go through tools --> options....

[dave]

set it up in your profile and you shouldn't have to do it every time. ;) To undo it, type: PICKFIRST <ENTER> 1 <ENTER>

[HybridAWD]

Can someone please explain this to me. I understand what it does, but I dont fully understand why it's called Noun/Verb Selection. Any input?


:P or is this a mystery :)

[dave]

Ah ha! Yeah I don't know. :D

[Data Wrangler]

This is actually an interesting topic (if you're a geek!), and has lead to confusion in the past with people that became very familiar with Autocad before it transitioned over to a Windows type of environment. I'm going to explain it in a Autocad-centric manner, as that's what you are asking about...

In order to make changes to objects in any type of program, you need to do two things. The first thing you need to do is to decide on the command you want to use (the verb part). The next thing you need to do is to select the objects you want to use this command on (the noun part).

When Autocad was first written, I guess they decided that the most natural way of going through these steps was to do it in exactly that way: Pick a command, then the objects to be used in that command. This worked just fine for many years....

When Xerox, Apple and Bill Gates started coming out with their windows oriented operating systems, someone made the decision to operate on objects in exactly the opposite manner. Using a pointing device, it was decided that you should select the objects first (highlighting them) and then use a command on your selection. Thinking about it, this is more efficient because your selection set remains selected if you want to use more than one command on it - unlike the Autocad manner, where you had to reselect a selection set (P or L) in order to do the same thing.

When Autocad had to make the transition over to Windows, the different manner in which you operated the programs quickly became obvious. People familiar with either one of the programs became confused because of this disparity.

To be continued...

[dave]

very informative wrangler, thanks for that. :)

[Data Wrangler]

Starting with Autocad 12, Autodesk added the ability to work in the same manner the rest of the world was going - they added the pickfirst command and all of the associated code to support working in Autocad in a Windows "native" manner, including such things as grips, etc. That's why you now have to check "Noun/verb selection" in your options (or use the pickfirst variable) in order to get a lot more functionality from your Autocad.

This history is also the reason why if you peek over at the old timer's screens and watch how they operate Autocad you will see very little use of things like grips, etc. If you don't keep up with the new commands in Autocad, you can still use the old commands just fine - but you are really crippling yourself when you have to do certain things. I take it for granted that I can click on an attribute and move it using the grip, or double click on an object and edit it without having to remember each command for editing each particular object, be it attributes or text. Usually, newer is better.

Of course, complying with Windows standards has it's downsides as well. This has also brought use the #$%^ use of the 'documents and settings' folder and all of the hoops you have to jump through there. I understand it and it's usefulness, I just think it was implemented awkwardly.

For further information you can refer to the Autocad history pages, located at http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/history/area51.htm

Derek

[PlantWorker]

the noun/verb option for p&id is triggered in pid-sup.lsp. That will overrule any profile settings ...

find following line in pid-sup.lsp
(setvar "pickfirst" 0) ;Select Objects before you issue command
and change it to
(setvar "pickfirst" 1) ;Select Objects before you issue command
to have the noun/verb option enabled
or disable the line with a ";"
; (setvar "pickfirst" 0) ;Select Objects before you issue command
to have the option triggered by your profile setting.