Automatic Replacing of Symbol

Diagrams User Guide

Diagrams : Working with Diagrams : Changing Symbols for Existing Items : Automatic Replacing of Symbol

When the catalogue reference for an item is set or changed, the application can automatically replace the symbol using a symbol reference from the catalogue. This can for instance be applied when a generic shape has been used from the beginning, and when at a later time in the process the catalogue reference is set. Then a more specific symbol can be fetched from the catalogue, given that the catalogue item includes a shape reference.

The shape reference in the catalogue can be set using the Symbol Group and Symbol Name fields in Paragon. Symbol Group should contain the name of the stencil and Symbol Name should be the name of the shape within the stencil.

Figure 4:53.

Catalogue symbol reference in Paragon

The way that the automatic symbol replacement works is controlled by some default settings in Diagrams Options (Defaults in Chapter Getting Started):


Default setting	Value	Description
Auto replace shape from catalogue	Yes	When the catalogue reference is set or changed, the application will check if the referenced catalogue item has a shape reference. If it has, the shape will automatically be replaced with one referenced from the catalogue.
	No	When the catalogue reference is set or changed, the application will not attempt to replace the shape from the catalogue.
	Ask User	When the catalogue reference is set or changed, the application will check if the referenced catalogue item has a shape reference. If it has, the system will ask the user if the shape should be replaced.

In addition to this, there is also a setting for Auto replace manually replaced shapes. This can have the same values as described above for the Auto replace shape from catalogue, with the difference that it only applies to shapes that the user has previously exchanged manually. This basically provides a way to disallow any automatic changes to shapes that the user has manually replaced.