Re: Defining Shapes - Error Message about "Several Object Types"

[Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>]

On Wed, 21 May 2003, David Powell wrote:
> On Sun, 18 May 2003 03:55 am, Alan Horkan wrote:
> > On Sat, 17 May 2003, David Powell wrote:
> > > When I use "sheets and objects" to load my new shapes I get an error
> > > message for each one that says:
> > >
> > > ***Error***
> > > Several Object types were named shapes - 'shape-name'.
> > > Only the first one will be used
> > > Some things might not work as expected
> > > ***end Error***
> > >
> > > I can assure you that I only have one .shape file for each shape in
> > > the
> >
> > Shape name is defined inside the XML, <name></name> and they must be
> > unique.
>
> I looked at that, and as far as I could tell, the names I had given them
> were unique.  Does the sheets & objects tool copy the shapes to somewhere
> else as well as the location that I saved them in?  I added "ORM-" to my
> shape names to make sure they weren't clashing with others in other
> directories but was still getting the error message for each shape when
> Dia loaded.

Check your .dia directory to see if the shapes directory contains a copy.
I believe the s&ot may copy shapes, I have occasionally gotten the
duplicate object message myself, but never had time to track it down.

> The reason I ask about how the sheets & objects tool (s&ot) works is
> because I was able to fix the problem after changing the shape names
> after loading them using s&ot - previously every time I made a change to
> a shape I used s&ot to remove and then re-add it.
>
> > What kind of shapes are you making anyway?  Why so myseterious?
>
> I use Object Role Modelling (ORM - see http://www.orm.net) to plan & map
> databases rather than entity-relationship diagrams which I understand is
> more common.  I've previously used Kivio but found that I can't use this
> on Windows PCs, unlike Dia.  So I've just started building some of the
> basic shapes of ORM to see how well it works.

Sounds good!  I hope you will share the results with us eventually.

> So far so good, however I've found that my shape definitions don't always
> come up in Dia how I expected (e.g. I can't seem to get the shapes the
> size I want - they are always bigger than expected).  This isn't a huge
> drama though and I think I'll keep using Dia as well as Kivio, depending
> on the situation.

The shapes are automatically sized to 2x2 cm (afair).  It wouldn't be too
hard (I think) to change the custom objects code to use size information
for their initial size.  Patches would be welcome.

-Lars

-- 
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause)| HÃrdgrim of Numenor
"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I   |----------------------------
will defend to the death your right to say it."   | Where are we going, and
    --Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrasing Voltaire  | what's with the handbasket?