Re: Rulers and object annotations

[Michael Ross <michael e ross gmail com>]

Paul,

I am with you - I haven't got a whole view of the units/grid/margins/pagesize, etc.  I do have a way of operating that suits my needs (and where I mostly know what I am doing).  I will try to explain it an maybe I will understand better and you will benefit.

The base units of Dia are cm.

My default set up is like this:

Page Setup:

Letter size, portrait

Units of inches, 

margins set to 1.000 inch all 4 sides

Scale 100%

Grid:
White Background, 

pale Grid Lines,

dark Page breaks

Grid Spacing 0.254

Grid Visible Spacing  1

Dynamic Grid    Off

Here is what I see:

Ruler is measuring in cm

The grid is showing inches, but you have to mentally convert the ruler (cm) to tell this is true.

0.254cm  = 0.1in

The grid lines are spaced just so, where each inch is 2.54 cm (check it on the ruler)

The the page displays the working area according to my 1 inch margins so that the page working area is 6.5in x x9in. ((8.5 - 1 - 1) x (11 - 1 - 1)).  The ruler shows this to be the distance between page breaks shown in cm.  

In Preferences/Grid the "lines per major line" is set to 10.

The bolder grid lines make it easy to see where the inches are even though the ruler is cm.  The page breaks mark out the real extents of a page in inches.  Look at one of the pages near the ruler origin (0,0) to see ruler numbers that make sense.

If you change the margins they will correctly shift  - smaller margins get you a larger working area in inches; larger margins means smaller working area.

I use this setup as my default, and sometimes have to go back to it for reassurance.  Everything makes sense this way so when I change things I can refer back to this as a frame of reference.

Good luck,

M

On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 1:03 AM, <paul hermeneutic gmail com> wrote:

These are basic questions.  I searched the Dia help and the web and
could not find anything.

I would like to display the rulers around the diagram surface borders
in inches.  I set File > Preferences > User Interface tab > Length
unit: to "Inch".  However, the rulers still appear to display in
centimeters.  I created a new drawing and they still display in cm.
The help does not say anything about ever being able to display in
other units.

What is the meaning and purpose of File > Preferences > User Interface
tab > Length unit:?  Is it possible for the rulers to display in units
other than cm?

When I use a Network object such as Storage or Computer, using Tools >
Edit text (F2) allows an annotation label to be edited below the
object.  However, if I use a UNIX workstation, switch, or router
object, there does not appear to be a label that can be edited.  Is
this correct?  What decides if an object has a label or not?
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