The commands in the COLLECT menu allow you to select multiple elements from the open object, and then to convert them into a group, a filled region, or an object. (You can also delete all the selected elements). Use the six commands at the top of the menu (ALL, EXCEPT, SINGLE, INSIDE, TOUCHING, and PROPERTIES) to specify which elements you want to collect. The commands can be used in combination to select and deselect multiple elements in a variety of ways as described below. The three commands at the bottom of the menu (OBJECT, GROUP, and DELETE) terminate the selection process and specify the operation to be performed on the selected elements. To abort the collection process at any time, type Q (for QUIT) or ESC to return to the top menu.
The COLLECT/ALL command causes all elements in the open object to be selected.
Use the COLLECT/EXCEPT command to switch from selecting elements to un-selecting and back again. It is a multiple choice command and has two values: OFF (elements chosen by the user are being selected) and ON (elements are being un-selected). If EXCEPT is OFF, only elements not yet selected can be chosen by the user, and once chosen they become selected. If EXCEPT is ON, only elements already selected can be chosen, and once chosen they become no longer selected. For simplicity, the discussion below assumes that EXCEPT is OFF and elements are being selected. However, the same procedures apply if you have turned EXCEPT ON, and are un-selecting elements previously collected. For example, to select everything except one particular element, first use the ALL command to select everything. Then turn EXCEPT ON, and use the SINGLE command to de-select the one exceptional element.
Use the COLLECT/SINGLE command if you want to select individual picture elements, one at a time. When you press the command letter, a cross-hair cursor appears; position the cursor and press RETURN. PEP finds the picture element nearest to the cursor and displays a box around that element. (This element is also displayed in the preview window.) Press RETURN again to accept, or SPACE to reject this choice. If you accept it, the boxed element is added to the collected elements and the cross-hair reappears in preparation for selecting another element. If you reject the boxed element, PEP finds the next closest and displays a box is around it. During this process, an element once collected is not available for selection later.
The COLLECT/INSIDE command provides one method for selecting several elements at once. To use it, press the command letter, position the cross-hair cursor, and press RETURN. The crosshair cursor is replaced by a stretchable box cursor whose upper left corner is located at the chosen point. Stretch this box so that it surrounds the elements you want to select and press RETURN again. All elements contained entirely inside the box are selected. The cross-hair cursor reappears in preparation for repeating the process.
The COLLECT/TOUCHING command provides a second method for selecting several elements at once. The selection process is exactly the same as for the INSIDE command above with one exception: now all elements are selected which intersect the box cursor, whereas, with the INSIDE command, selected elements were required to be entirely inside the box. Note: an element is considered to be touching a specified rectangle if the smallest box containing the element intersects the rectangle, even if the element itself does not intersect. In <[FIG01]>, the straight line A qualifies as touching the stretchable box cursor B because a box C drawn around A would intersect with B.
By using the COLLECT/PROPERTIES command you can limit the selection process to certain types of elements or elements with certain properties. For example, you can restrict attention to red elements or to lines only. This is a multiple choice command with two values: DISABLED (all elements are available for selection) and ENABLED (only elements matching the properties template are available for selection). When the template is first enabled, a new menu is displayed to show the current template and to allow the user to change it. After you set a property in the template, only elements having that property can be selected. If two or more properties are used, only elements having both properties can be selected. You should be careful not to use contradictory properties, as then no selection can happen at all. For example, if the template specifies a fill pattern, only filled regions can be selected. If a justification is specified, only text labels can be selected. Thus if both are specified, no selection can take place as no element can have both properties. To turn off a field in the template, choose the value NONE for that field.
Use the COLLECT/PROPERTIES/ELEMENT command to restrict selection to elements of a certain type. Press the command letter to display a menu of choices. The choices are: LINE (all types of lines are accepted), HORIZONTAL (only horizontal lines are accepted), VERTICAL, STRAIGHT, RIGHTANGLE, CURVE, GROUP (both types of groups are accepted: PLAIN and FILLED), PLAIN (only plain groups are accepted), FILLED (only filled regions are accepted), OBJECT, TEXT, and NONE.
Use the COLLECT/PROPERTIES/JUSTIFY command to restrict selection to text labels with a certain justification. It is a multiple choice command with five values: CENTER, LEFT, RIGHT, EVEN and NONE.
Use the COLLECT/PROPERTIES/FONT command to restrict selection to text labels using a certain font. It is a multiple choice command with seven values: the six possible fonts and NONE.
Use the COLLECT/PROPERTIES/PATTERN command to restrict selection to filled regions with a given fill pattern. Press the command letter to display a menu of 17 choices: the 16 fill patterns and NONE.
Use the COLLECT/PROPERTIES/COLOR command to restrict selection to elements with a given color. Press the command letter to display a menu of 17 choices: the 16 colors and NONE.
Use the COLLECT/PROPERTIES/ROTATION command to restrict selection to text labels and objects having a given rotation. Press the command letter to display a menu of 9 choices: the 8 rotations and NONE.
Use the COLLECT/PROPERTIES/NAME command to restrict selection to objects of a given type. Press the command letter to display a menu of object names including /NONE/.
The COLLECT/PROPERTIES/INITIALIZE command resets every entry in the template to NONE. In this state, every element in the open object will match the template.
The COLLECT/OBJECT command terminates selection and converts all selected elements into an OBJECT. Press the command letter and type in a name for the object. A MODIFY-OBJECT menu is then displayed. See Chapter <[4]> for descriptions of each of the commands in this menu. To return to the PEP main menu, simply QUIT from the MODIFY-OBJECT menu.
The COLLECT/GROUP command terminates selection and converts all selected elements into a GROUP. A MODIFY-GROUP menu is then displayed. See Chapter <[4]> for descriptions of each of the commands in this menu. To return to the PEP main menu, simply QUIT from the MODIFY-GROUP menu.
The COLLECT/DELETE command terminates selection and deletes all selected elements from the open object. PEP continues to display the COLLECT menu. The UN-DELETE command <[3.1]> in the main menu can be used to recover the deleted material.