So it is not really a bug, because a menu choice had been provided that didn't
work. Oh well, so that's all right then.
And even though that menu choice doesn't work, it is actually still possible to
create dashed lines by pasting short line segments, as and how required. That's
really fantastic too; where would everyone be without the provision of such
advice to help them out?
But just in case anyone has a "tin ear", I do NOT think that defects like that
are "all right then" at all. I'm not unduly bothered about that defect in
particular, but it is still all-too-typical of what Altium has been shipping to
its customers since the days when God was still in diapers.
I honestly can't and don't understand why there aren't far more complaints
about how buggy Altium's software is. However, as far as I am concerned, anyone
who doesn't see fit to complain about the defects in their applications, but
who is prepared to publicly defend them, is an accessory to the provision of
crappy software, and is thus part of the problem.
It is public knowledge that many people are unhappy about Microsoft. I'm not
trying to start any flame war on that matter, and/or which type of OS (Windows,
Linux, or others) that people should install on their PCs, but at least MS
continues to provide service packs and patches for earlier versions of Windows
for quite some time after releasing following versions. (They aren't still
supporting NT 4.0, but they still did so for some time after releasing
following versions, and AFAIK, they are still, for at least the time being,
continuing to support Windows 2000.)
OTOH, each time Altium releases another major version, they stop releasing SPs
for the previous major version. It would be one thing to not continue releasing
SPs for the previous version if the last SP released for that version resulted
in it being totally bug-free. However, not only has that never been the case,
but the final versions of each major version still contain *serious* defects,
such as those involving output (e.g. Gerber files and printouts).
I don't believe for one minute that Altium are at all likely to ever release a
SP5 for AD2004 (or a SP3 for DXP, or a SP7 for Protel 99SE, or a SP4 for Protel
98 ...). However, given that other companies have issued "product recalls" on
various occasions and for various reasons, I still don't understand why
Altium's customers tolerate that. And to make matters even worse, there is
nothing atypical about outstanding defects continuing to remain unrectified
within following major versions. So not only are customers not getting serious
defects rectified "for free", but many are paying good money to upgrade to the
next major version, ... and *still* not getting many serious defects rectified.
I don't want to see the software industry subjected to higher levels of
regulation than is currently the case, as it is unlikely that there would be a
beneficial impact as far as prices or ongoing innovation are concerned. But
software of the quality released by Altium still increases the likelihood of
such an outcome occurring.
I have already said what I think of anyone who doesn't see fit to complain
about the defects, but who is prepared to publicly defend them. In the case of
this defect, shortcomings of the GDI could be regarded as a complicating
factor, but it is still not an excuse for failing to provide some type of
"workaround" of a satisfactory manner, or otherwise appropriately modifying the
user interface to prevent giving users the impression that certain
functionality is available when that is actually not the case.
Regards,
Geoff.
Harry Selfridge wrote:
> Hi Brad,
>
> This is an old issue that is well known. It's not really a bug, but
> a result of how the dotted and dashed lines were produced. In
> Protel99SE graphical lines were drawn using the Windows Graphics
> Device Interface (GDI), and the Windows GDI does not support the
> width property. The bug was allowing a menu choice that didn't work.
>
> You can manually create dashed lines of any width by drawing a short
> solid line with the desired width, then use copy and paste, or paste
> it multiple times using Paste Array.
>
> Regards - Harry
>
> At 11:43 AM 1/7/2008, you wrote:
> >The schematic line tool displays dashed (and dotted) lines with the line
> >width of smallest no matter what it is set to.
> >
> >If you change the line back to solid then the line width gets set to the
> >correct value.
> >
> >Is this a known bug?
> >
> >Protel99SE SP6.
> >
> >Tx Brad.
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