Named objects

Home

LiteCAD drawing object contains both graphical and nongraphical objects. You use graphical objects, such as lines, arcs, and circles, to create your designs. At the same time, you use nongraphical information, referred to herein as named objects, to manage the design. Loosely speaking, named objects are graphical object specifications.  Named objects include such items as text styles, dimension styles, layers, linetypes and so on. Named objects help you design more efficiently. For example, if you use a set of linetype properties frequently, you can save the properties as a named linetype and then apply the linetype to lines in your future drawings.
LiteCAD stores named objects by type, in different tables. LiteCAD's API provides functions to add, delete and change properties of the named objects. You can view and revise all named objects using LiteCAD's dialog boxes.

The following table enumerates LiteCAD's named objects.

Named object	Description
Block	Contains the block name, base point, and component objects.
Layer	Organizes graphical data in the same way that transparent acetate overlays on a drawing do; the layer stores the properties that you set for it, such as color and linetype
Linetype	Stores information that controls how a line or curve is displayed... for example, whether the line is continuous or dashed.
Text style	Stores settings that control the appearance of text characters... for example, stretched, compressed, oblique, mirrored, or set in a vertical column.
Point style	Stores settings that control the appearance of point objects.
Dimension style	Stores dimension settings that control the appearance of dimension annotation.
Multiline style	Stores multiline settings that control the appearance of multiline objects.
Raster image	Stores raster image settings that control the appearance of image reference objects.
Filling with lines	Stores settings that control the appearance of inside area of closed entities.

Each named object has the following properties:

Property	Type	Access	Meaning
LC_PROP_TABLE_ID	int string	R	Unique Identifier Hexadecimal string (up to 16 characters)
LC_PROP_TABLE_NAME	string	RW	Table Name
LC_PROP_TABLE_DESCR	string	RW	Table description
LC_PROP_TABLE_TYPE	int	R	Type of named object
LC_PROP_TABLE_DELETED	bool	R	"Deleted" flag
LC_PROP_TABLE_DRW	handle	R	Handle to owner drawing
LC_PROP_TABLE_PRIORITY	int	RW	Priority value, used for sorting (lcDrwSortObjects)
LC_PROP_TABLE_NREFS	int	R	A number of references to the object
User specific data
LC_PROP_TABLE_XDATASIZE	int	RW	Size of extra data (bytes)
LC_PROP_TABLE_XDATA	handle	RW	Pointer to extra data
LC_PROP_TABLE_XSTR	string	RW	User text variable (uses XDATA buffer)
LC_PROP_TABLE_INT0  . . . LC_PROP_TABLE_INT4	int	RW	User integer variables
LC_PROP_TABLE_FLOAT0  . . . LC_PROP_TABLE_FLOAT4	float	RW	User float variables

See also

  Retrieve objects