Cedar Shakes Files

CEDAR SHAKES
VBA Utilities for Coreldraw

CedarShakes is (C)Copyright 2022 Jeff Robinson (jeffnik@anecho.mb.ca)
' and licensed under the GNU LGPL
' The intention of this software is to provide a "library" of functions
' folks can use to simplify the creation of Coreldraw VBA scripts/macros

Cedar Shakes (CDR Shakes for the pun of it) will be a collection of visual basic methods
to simplify writing your own Coreldraw VBA scripts.
* FontCurve - converts a font to curves and records the original font information in the Object Data of new curve.
	- Fonts converted with this curve can have similar text recreated from the embedded information.
	- FontCurve comes with a GUI or can be used programatically
* GetEdgePoints - returns a list of cross-points of the outside edge of a ShapeRange 
(useful for dimensioning)
* getCrossPoint - returns a single cross-point from a ShapeRange, where either the 
highest or lowest value can be specified. eg, the crosspoint closes to the bottom edge 
of a shape.
* Toolbar adds simple methods for adding toolbars and buttons to Coreldraw
* ScaleDetail allows the user the create a drawing detail that can be dimensioned, 
and have a different scale presented than the document.  ScaleDetail also comes with a GUI.
* FontCurve converts text to a curve while writing the font metadata to the curve.  This curve can be reverted back to a font with similar features to the original based on the saved metadata.  This metadata will persist if the curve is copied and pasted from the clipboard or saved to a new document.  Changes to the parameters of the curve after conversion will not be updated in the metadata.

Installing:
The CedarShakes macros can be installed by either loading the GMS via the macro manager
(Tools -> Macros -> Macro Manager) in older versions of Coreldraw or ALT+ALT+F11.

How things work:
ClickDim:
This module simplifies some aspects of dimensioning, and can function in two different ways.
The "Don't Overlap" option is common two both ways of dimensioning.  When this option is 
checked the macro will move the dimension value outside the extension lines if the text is
too large to fit.
Unlike using the dimension tool manually, ClickDim will also attempt to snap appropriately
to artistic text.

* Using "Select Target"
To use "Select Target" on shape or group of shapes must already be selected before
clicking the button.  Once a selection has been made, click the "Select Target" button
and then click on the shape to be dimensioned to.
This method uses the actually location on the target clicked to find the closest target
point on the shape.  Clicking close to the lower-left edge of a shape will use the
closest extremities to that location.
ClickDim will the try to calculate the best location from the originally selected shape(s)
to dimension to the target.  ClickDim will always try to use the side of the selection
that is closest to the targert

* Using "Drag to Points"
When active, "Drag to Points" will change the cursor to the crosshair shape.  The user may
then click and drag from the starting shape to the target shape.  ClickDim will attempt
to use the location on each shape that is closest to where the starting and ending click happen.

ScaleDetail:
This module is a 3-step process via the GUI, though the functions may be incorporated 
into other code.
The first step is to create a shape that surrounds the detail you wish to create.
With the shape selected use the "create detail" button.  This shape will then become
a frozen magnification lens at 1x zoom.  This frozen lens may now be dimensioned with
the standard Coreldraw dimension tools.  
Once the dimensions have been applied, click the "Apply Scale" button.  Any dimension
that are coonected to this lens will have the dynamic dimensions turned off, to maintain
the original measurements.  The lens will then be scaled to the specified size, and
optionally the scale will be noted below based on the scaling of the detail and
the current document scale.