Page 523 - Chief Architect Reference Manual

Creating User Defined Macros

• Global macros have information about • The Marker Panel of the Marker
the project, the plan or layout file, a Specification dialog.
room, and the date and time. They can 2. A menu of macros displays. Move your
also be used to insert special characters. cursor over a menu item to view its sub-
• Object Specific macros have information menu.
specific to a selected object type and can 3. Select from the list of available macros.
be included in object labels. See “Label In this example Global> Time Date>
Panel” on page 682. Short Date (%date.short%) is used.
• User Defined macros can include a wide
range of values, including global and
object specific information and text.
They can also be written to perform cal-
culations.
• Columns macros can be inserted into The macro displays in the
Materials List cells and used to create dialog’s Text Entry field
custom Materials List formulas. See
“Materials List Formulas” on page 1277. 4. Click OK to close the dialog.
5. The text object displays the date rather
To insert a macro into a text object than the macro formula.
1. Click the Insert Macro button on:
• The Text Panel of the Rich Text or Text
Specification dialog.
• The Callout Panel of the Callout
Specification dialog.

Creating User Defined Macros

You can create your own custom text macros There are two broad categories of macro in
for a variety of purposes: Chief Architect: Text macros and Ruby
• Shortcuts for names or other written macros. See “Ruby Console” on page 1345.
information. • Text macros are essentially shortcuts that
• Custom object labels. See “Object replace long strings of text with an
Labels” on page 681. inserted macro. Text macros can include
Global macros with general information
• Custom object labels inserted into text about the current view or file, but they
objects, callouts, and markers in floor cannot perform calculations.
plan view.
• Ruby macros, on other hand, can include
• Materials List formulas. See “Materials Named Values, perform calculations, and
List Formulas” on page 1277. even reference scripts written in Ruby.

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