Editing Drawing Objects

BASIC Guide

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• The Language of Apache OpenOffice Basic

• Overview of a Basic Program
• Working With Variables
• Strings
• Numbers
• Boolean Values
• Date and Time
• Arrays
• Scope and Life Span of Variables
• Constants
• Operators
• Branching
• Loops
• Procedures and Functions
• Error Handling
• Other Instructions

• Runtime Library

• Conversion Functions
• Strings
• Date and Time
• Files and Directories
• Message and Input Boxes
• Other Functions

• Introduction to the API

• Universal Network Objects (UNO)
• Properties and Methods
• Modules, Services and Interfaces
• Tools for Working with UNO
• Overview of Central Interfaces

• Working with Documents

• The StarDesktop
• Styles and Templates

• Text Documents

• The Structure of Text Documents
• Editing Text Documents
• More than Just Text

• Spreadsheet Documents

• The Structure of Spreadsheets
  • Rows and Columns
  • Cells and Ranges
  • Formatting Spreadsheet Documents
• Editing Spreadsheet Documents

• Drawings and Presentations

• The Structure of Drawings
• Editing Drawing Objects
• Presentations

• Charts (Diagrams)

• Using Charts in Spreadsheets
• The Structure of Charts
• Chart Types

• Databases

• SQL: a Query Language
• Types of Database Access
• Data Sources
• Database Access

• Dialogs

• Working With Dialogs
• Properties
• Events
• Dialog Control Elements

• Forms

• Working With Forms
• Control Element Forms
• Database Forms

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Grouping Objects

In many situations, it is useful to group several individual drawing objects together so that they behave as a single large object.

The following example combines two drawing objects:

 Dim Doc As Object
 Dim Page As Object
 Dim Square As Object
 Dim Circle As Object
 Dim Shapes As Object
 Dim Group As Object
 Dim Point As New com.sun.star.awt.Point
 Dim Size As New com.sun.star.awt.Size
 Dim NewPos As New com.sun.star.awt.Point
 Dim Height As Long
 Dim Width As Long
 
 Doc = StarDesktop.CurrentComponent
 Page = Doc.drawPages(0)
 Point.x = 3000
 Point.y = 3000
 Size.Width = 3000
 Size.Height = 3000
 ' create square drawing element
 Square = Doc.createInstance("com.sun.star.drawing.RectangleShape")
 Square.Size = Size
 Square.Position = Point
 Square.FillColor = RGB(255,128,128) 
 Page.add(Square)
 
 ' create circle drawing element
 Circle = Doc.createInstance("com.sun.star.drawing.EllipseShape")
 Circle.Size = Size
 Circle.Position = Point
 Circle.FillColor = RGB(255,128,128) 
 Circle.FillColor = RGB(0,255,0)
 Page.add(Circle)
 
 ' combine square and circle drawing elements
 Shapes = createUnoService("com.sun.star.drawing.ShapeCollection")
 Shapes.add(Square)
 
 Shapes.add(Circle)
 Group = Page.group(Shapes)
 ' centre combined drawing elements
 Height = Page.Height
 Width = Page.Width
 NewPos.X = Width / 2
 NewPos.Y = Height / 2
 Height = Group.Size.Height
 Width = Group.Size.Width
 NewPos.X = NewPos.X - Width / 2
 NewPos.Y = NewPos.Y - Height / 2
 Group.Position = NewPos

This code creates a rectangle and a circle and inserts them into a page. It then creates an object that supports the com.sun.star.drawing.ShapeCollection service and uses the Add method to add the rectangle and the circle to this object. The ShapeCollection is added to the page using the Group method and returns the actual Group object that can be edited like an individual Shape.

If you want to format the individual objects of a group, apply the formatting before you add them to the group. You cannot modify the objects once they are in the group.

Rotating and Shearing Drawing Objects

All of the drawing objects that are described in the previous sections can also be rotated and sheared using the com.sun.star.drawing.RotationDescriptor service.

The service provides the following properties:

RotateAngle (Long)

rotary angle in hundredths of a degree

ShearAngle (Long)

shear angle in hundredths of a degree

The following example creates a rectangle and rotates it by 30 degrees using the RotateAngle property:

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Page As Object
Dim RectangleShape As Object
Dim Point As New com.sun.star.awt.Point
Dim Size As New com.sun.star.awt.Size

Point.x = 1000
Point.y = 1000
Size.Width = 10000
Size.Height = 10000

Doc = StarDesktop.CurrentComponent
Page = Doc.drawPages(0)

RectangleShape = Doc.createInstance("com.sun.star.drawing.RectangleShape")
RectangleShape.Size = Size
RectangleShape.Position = Point

RectangleShape.RotateAngle = 3000

Page.add(RectangleShape)

The next example creates the same rectangle as in the previous example, but instead shears it through 30 degrees using the ShearAngle property.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Page As Object
Dim RectangleShape As Object
Dim Point As New com.sun.star.awt.Point
Dim Size As New com.sun.star.awt.Size

Point.x = 1000
Point.y = 1000
Size.Width = 10000
Size.Height = 10000

Doc = StarDesktop.CurrentComponent
Page = Doc.drawPages(0)
RectangleShape = Doc.createInstance("com.sun.star.drawing.RectangleShape")
RectangleShape.Size = Size
RectangleShape.Position = Point

RectangleShape.ShearAngle = 3000

Page.add(RectangleShape)

Searching and Replacing

As in text documents, drawing documents provide a function for searching and replace. This function is similar to the one that is used in text documents as described in Chapter 6, Text Documents. However, in drawing documents the descriptor objects for searching and replacing are not created directly through the document object, but rather through the associated character level. The following example outlines the replacement process within a drawing:

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Page As Object
Dim ReplaceDescriptor As Object
Dim I As Integer

Doc = StarDesktop.CurrentComponent
Page = Doc.drawPages(0)

ReplaceDescriptor = Page.createReplaceDescriptor()
ReplaceDescriptor.SearchString = "is"
ReplaceDescriptor.ReplaceString = "was"

For I = 0 to Doc.drawPages.Count - 1
   Page = Doc.drawPages(I)
   Page.ReplaceAll(ReplaceDescriptor) 
Next I

This code uses the first DrawPage of the document to create a ReplaceDescriptor and then applies this descriptor in a loop to all of the pages in the drawing document.

Content on this page is licensed under the Public Documentation License (PDL).