Output label sizing?

[TCArknight]

I am attempting to format an output sheet for the Doctor Who game and have a slight issue.

On the pdf sheet (which is the standard1.dat), the huge gap on the left side should have three entries from the following biodata2 layout.

  <layout
    id="oBioData2">
    <portalref portal="oPerson"/>
    <portalref portal="oBackgrnd"/>
    <portalref portal="oGear"/>
    <portalref portal="oTechLevel"/>
    <position><![CDATA[
      ~position the tables next
      perform portal[oPerson].autoplace
      perform portal[oBackgrnd].autoplace
      perform portal[oGear].autoplace
      perform portal[oTechLevel].autoplace

      ~our layout height is the extent of the elements within
      height = 1000
      ]]></position>
    </layout>

If any gear is bought, the gear portal shows up as expected (second pdf). This is how the standard sheet is set for this part:

      ~position the AppGoals below the name; this will
      ~establish the remaining space available on the left for adjustments
      layout[oAppGoals].width = colwidth
      perform layout[oAppGoals].render
      layout[oAppGoals].top = layout[oName].bottom + autogap

      ~position the biodata below the name; this will
      ~establish the remaining space available on the left for adjustments
      layout[oBioData2].width = colwidth
      perform layout[oBioData2].render
      layout[oBioData2].top = layout[oAppGoals].bottom + autogap

The AppGoals layout works fine, but not the BioData2 and I'm not sure why...

Am I missing something on the layouts? I've attached the game system files just in case anyone wanted to look...

Thoughts?

 

[Mathias]

Doesn't oBioData2 include the gear portal?

Isn't your "Unknown plus gear" pdf showing that the gear portal is being placed correctly?

What problem are you having?

 

[TCArknight]

Biodata2 does include the Gear portal. However, the oPerson, oBackgrnd and oTechLevel aren't. It should be displaying the headers like this:

Appearance Personal Goals

Personality

Background

Gear

Home Tech Level: X

Weapons

But no such luck. I'm thinking maybe it's a sizing issue of the individual portals, but not sure....

 

[Mathias]

Check to make sure all your position scripts define their height. Otherwise, if you let Hero Lab guess at the heights, you'll end up with large gaps if you use autoplace to place things with undefined heights.

 

[TCArknight]

Yep, that worked. I specifically defined the heights and all are now showing.

One related question too:

Is there a way on a template to show different portals depending on a specific variable?

In this case, I'd like to show an Image portal in the same spot as the Appearance Portal with the Appearance header, but only if the Image is not the default. The code I'm using is:

       if (herofield[acTacImage].value = 0) then
        template[oPortrait].visible = 0
        portal[oAppear].top = 0
        portal[oAppear].left = 0
        portal[oAppear].width = temp
        portal[oAppear].height = 350
      else
        template[oPortrait].visible = 1
        portal[oAppear].top = 0
        portal[oAppear].left = 0
        portal[oAppear].width = temp
        portal[oAppear].height = 350
        template[oPortrait].top = 100
        template[oPortrait].width = temp
        template[oPortrait].height = 350
      endif

However, I noticed that even if the oPortrait isn't visible, the text in the oAppear info label isn't visible at all, even if I use istransparent="yes" on the output_image portal.

Is this possible?

 

[TCArknight]

One thing I've noticed too is that even if I declare one of the output label portals to have a height of 350, the text from the appropriate field never shows. In the <labeltext> element, I'm using @text = field[somefield].text as the script.

Before, I always thought it was due to the height, but should I specifically declare the width too even though I'm using portal[someportal].width = width?

 

[TCArknight]

Any ideas anyone?

 

[Kairos]

Any ideas anyone?

Have you tried something like: portal[xxxx].lineheight = n?

 

[TCArknight]

Have you tried something like: portal[xxxx].lineheight = n?

Yep, didn't work.....

 

[Mathias]

TCArknight, I'd really appreciate it if you could use one thread for each question, and not just add new questions to the end of a thread that's only barely related to the new question. If I have a busy week and can't get back to you quickly, it's hard to figure out what issues I still need to help you with and what's been solved.

 

[Mathias]

Hero Lab is not set up for complex graphics. Don't try to overlap two portals in order to show both. istransparent="yes" isn't powerful enough to handle that. I'd recommend setting template[oPortrait].top = portal[oAppear].bottom + 10.

Yep, that worked. I specifically defined the heights and all are now showing.

One related question too:

Is there a way on a template to show different portals depending on a specific variable?

In this case, I'd like to show an Image portal in the same spot as the Appearance Portal with the Appearance header, but only if the Image is not the default. The code I'm using is:

       if (herofield[acTacImage].value = 0) then
        template[oPortrait].visible = 0
        portal[oAppear].top = 0
        portal[oAppear].left = 0
        portal[oAppear].width = temp
        portal[oAppear].height = 350
      else
        template[oPortrait].visible = 1
        portal[oAppear].top = 0
        portal[oAppear].left = 0
        portal[oAppear].width = temp
        portal[oAppear].height = 350
        template[oPortrait].top = 100
        template[oPortrait].width = temp
        template[oPortrait].height = 350
      endif

However, I noticed that even if the oPortrait isn't visible, the text in the oAppear info label isn't visible at all, even if I use istransparent="yes" on the output_image portal.

Is this possible?

 

[TCArknight]

TCArknight, I'd really appreciate it if you could use one thread for each question, and not just add new questions to the end of a thread that's only barely related to the new question. If I have a busy week and can't get back to you quickly, it's hard to figure out what issues I still need to help you with and what's been solved.

Sorry, this all seems related..... I'll try to clarify and break out the issues next time.