The commands in the OBJECT menu control which picture is currently being edited (in other words, which is the open object), and perform other object-wide operations.

Use the OBJECT/OPEN command to select an object for editing and display it on the screen. The selected object is opened; it becomes the open object. Type the command letter to display a name menu of all the objects in the loaded picture file. Select an object name from this menu to open that object for editing, or select the name "/NEW/" if you want to create a new drawing from scratch. (See the discussion of name menus in <[1.9.1]> for information on how to select a name out of this menu.) If you have changed the former open object and not used the OBJECT/CLOSE command (see below), those changes are lost by opening another object. You are always asked for verification before PEP deletes these changes. If you want to abort the changes that you have made to the open object, simply use the OBJECT/OPEN command to reopen the same object, or to open another object. Otherwise use the OBJECT/CLOSE command described below to save the changes to the old object before opening a new one.

Use the OBJECT/CLOSE command to close the open object, optionally assigning it a new name. If you have been editing a previously created object, its old name appears in the menu line below the CLOSE command. To save the new version of the object with the same name, simply press the command letter and RETURN. If you want to save the new version under a new name, press the command letter, type the new name, and press RETURN. The original object remains unchanged under its old name. If you have created this object from scratch, the name area will be blank. Type the command letter, type in a name, and press RETURN. If a new name is used, and it is the name of an existing object, the former contents of that object are lost. You are asked for verification before this happens.

Use the OBJECT/RENAME command to change the name of any object in the picture file you are editing. Press the command letter to display a menu of object names. Select one; its old name appears highlighted below the RENAME command in the OBJECT menu. Type in a new name and press return. The selected object is given that name.

While you are editing an object, there is always a maximum area into which it is legal to place picture elements. This is called the editing area. To make this limit visible, PEP displays a thick red line at the right and bottom edges of the legal editing area. The OBJECT/LIMIT command lets you choose among three choices for the type of editing limit. In PAGE mode, the editing area is limited to one printer page; if you change the printer settings, the area may also change. In USER mode, the editing area limits are user specified. When you turn USER mode on, the LIMIT command becomes an XY input command that allows you to set the X and Y limit values. In NONE mode, the editing area limits are set to 16383 pixels in each direction. This is maximum coordinate value legal for PEP picture elements under any circumstances. Note: if you open an object that is larger than the current limits, the editing area is expanded to accommodate it, but a warning message is displayed.

To increase display speed, PEP maintains a cache of bitmap images of objects that it draws. Once an object has been drawn into a bitmap, it can be drawn to the screen or printer by a transfer of the bitmap image rather than a draw of each component element. Unless the object is very simple or the image very large, the single transfer is the faster operation. A separate bitmap image is cached for each combination of stretch, rotation and line style in which the object is drawn. Objects that contain colors (other than FOREGROUND) or fill patterns (other than SOLID) are not cached. Use the OBJECT/BITMAP command to control whether a particular object can be cached. It is a multiple choice command with two values: ON (caching is enabled for the object) and OFF (caching is disabled). Whenever you start editing a new object, the BITMAP status is reset to OFF. If you are creating an object which will be used multiple times as a sub-object in another object and which does not contain colors or fill patterns, then you can probably improve display speed by turning BITMAP ON. Otherwise, you should leave it OFF.

You can use the OBJECT/ELIMINATE command to remove the definition of any unused object from the picture file that you are editing. If, however, the object you select is used in some other object definition, then PEP displays an error message and you will not be able to ELIMINATE the object selected. You must first ELIMINATE the calling object before you can ELIMINATE any of the sub-objects that it contains.

The OBJECT/SHORTEN command reduces as much as possible the number of bytes in the PDL representation of the open object. A message displays the savings (in bytes) that resulted from invoking this command.

The commands in the OBJECT/IMPORT menu allow you to extract objects defined in other PDL files and add them to the PDL file that you are editing.

Use the OBJECT/IMPORT/FILE command to identify the source file from which objects are to be imported. Press the command letter to display a name menu of all files in the source directory with the extension PDL (or other extension set by the OBJECT/IMPORT/EXT command below), and choose a source file from this menu. The source directory may be either the current PEP directory or the PEP home directory. The choice is determined by the OBJECT/IMPORT/DIRECTORY command below.

Use the OBJECT/IMPORT/EXT command to change the filename extension used by the OBJECT/IMPORT/FILE command above.

Use the OBJECT/IMPORT/OBJECT command to import an object from the selected source file. If the object you select contains sub-objects, each of these is imported also unless an object with the same name is already present in the file you are editing.

Use the OBJECT/IMPORT/ALL command to import all of the objects from the specified source picture file. An object in the source file will not be imported if an object with the same name is already present in the file you are editing.

Use the OBJECT/IMPORT/DIRECTORY command to select the source directory for imported objects. This is a multiple choice command. The choices are: HOME (source files are located in the PEP home directory) and CURRENT (source files are located in the current directory). If you are importing objects from both the PEP standard libraries and from libraries of your own creation, this command provides a rapid method of switching between the relevant directories. The current directory can be changed by using the SETUP/DIRECTORY menu <[12.6]>.

The OBJECT/HOME command moves the contents of the open object as far as possible towards the upper left corner, location (0,0). The elements of the object do not change their positions with respect to each other; they all move in parallel towards the upper left corner. Use this command to eliminate empty space at the left and top edges of the open object.