About Smart Object Authoring
HINT: Think Spreadsheet Formulas
This is definitely the advanced section of the help system. But, if you are familiar with using formulas in spreadsheets, you will find this a breeze. You can, of course, examine any of the Smart Objects included in the Design Intuition Smart Object Library as you explore this help topic.
NOTE: Every control described in this help topic (Object Authoring) is on the Attribute Inspector, unless specifically noted otherwise.
We built Design Intuition so advanced users who wanted to author their own Smart Objects would not need to purchase a separate tool to do so. This page introduces the core concepts involved in object authoring, which can be further explored by clicking on these links:
How to create a Smart Object
Design Intuition makes it easy to create a simple Smart Object. All you have to do is create a document and save it into the Design Intuition Smart Objects Library (File --> Save in Smart Object Library). The process is simple:
- Create a Design Intuition document.
- Draw the objects you want to have in your Smart Object.
- Create attributes and edit expressions to give the Smart Object unique characteristics.
- Select all of the objects and group them.
- Open the File menu and select Save in Smart Object Library to save your document as a Smart Object where it will always be available in the Library Inspector. Within the Smart Objects Library, you can save it to an existing folder, or create your own.
Your new object now appears in the Library Inspector.
So, if you wanted to create a set of common cabinet doors to use in your kitchen designs, you could simply create a Design Intuition document with one door, save it as a Smart Object, and then drag it into new documents from the the Smart Object library.
But Smart Objects are capable of far more sophisticated behaviors than that. Read on!
Tips when creating Smart Objects
- Create Smart Objects for all the common components you use. You'll accelerate your design efficiency when creating documents that use them.
- Before saving your Smart Object, enable show in the Object Inspector, for your Outermost Group
- Also before saving, examine your object carefully in all views, for example...
- Tidy up the dimensions in your drawing, and delete redundant ones.
- Center the outermost group itself. In the views banner, click "Center Outermost Group."
- Adjust colors and correct spelling errors of names of everything (objects and attributes).
Why are Smart Objects called smart?
The original goal for creating Design Intuition was (and still is) to provide some kind of simple rules for drawing objects, which could be altered in a straightforward way by some commonly available, easy-to-learn approach. This required an approach that didn't require reading a long, complex user manual, something simple that most people already know about. Since spreadsheets have been around since the dawn of the personal computer and most computer owners know basic high school algebra, rudimentary spreadsheet formulas, i.e., basic algebra, seemed the obvious candidate for that approach. These formulas are called expressions elsewhere in this user manual.
If you don't edit any expressions, your objects scale nicely when their enclosing (group) object (eg, the outermost group) is resized. This is the default behavior of all objects you create. Your objects behave this way automatically. However, once you alter an expression, you've altered the default behavior of something in your document. Naming this non-default behavior "smart," distinguishes it from default behavior. You might, for example, edit some expressions to make them all the same common value. Then, when this common value changes, all the expressions will be re-evaluated to this new common value.
By the way, we have plans for expanding the meaning of "smart" in Smart Objects. More about this when the time comes.
