Using Locatable Plot Items

Locatable plot items allow you to associate a Plot Item (selected from the Plot Item Library) that will automatically reference itself to a particular XYZ position. Such items are useful in that they can be configured to show a 'connector' (enabled by default) that will point to a particular position (highlighting grade values in a given range at a particular sample position, for example. They can also be used to fix a plot item to a particular point in space, so that if that view is panned or rotated, the plot item position (or connector terminus) is maintained. The same is true if the plot item is manually repositioned for any reason.

Which Plot Items can be 'Locatable'?

Locatable plot items are either added to your plot as such, or existing plot items can be enhanced to support positional referencing. The following plot item types are supported for this:

Clip Art
Default Title Box
External Document (OLE Plot Item)
Histogram
Hole Log Frame
Legend Box
North Arrow
Profile
Scale Bar
Symbol
Table
Text Box
Title Box for Plans

"Relative" Locatable Plot Items

The following series of image shows a histogram plot item that has been inserted as a locatable plot item. The plot item is of the 'point' variety (more about point and line varieties later), and has been set to show a connecting line between it and the interactively selected point on a specific collar position. The plot is being panned in each image, to the right:

Note how the relative position of the plot item is maintained throughout. This is because the Plot Position property for that item has been set to [Relative] in the Properties control bar (you can see this for yourself by clicking on the plot item in question and looking at the context-sensitive display.

if you are not currently displaying your Properties control bar, you can enable it by activating the Home ribbon and toggling theShow | Properties Bar option

With the same settings, you can reposition the plot item (ensure Page Layout mode is active and select the histogram). Dragging the item to a new position will retain the connector 'head' position, e.g.:

"Fixed" Locatable Plot Items

A fixed locatable plot item behaves slightly differently to its "relative" counterpart; fixed plot items will remain in the same screen position when changes are made to the view direction, for example, as a consequence of panning or scaling. In the example below, the fixed plot item is added to the plot in the top left corner. The view is then shifted (panned):

Note how the overall screen position of the plot item doesn't change. These plot items can still be manually dragged to another position, but that position will remain static (fixed) during view direction changes.

Point vs. Line Location Types

There are two methods by which a plot item can be assigned a positional reference:

A Point on the current section can be referenced. In this situation, the locatable plot item can only be seen if the selected point falls within the visible section (taking any clipping limits into account, e.g.:

As the point that has been selected is only visible on the current section, when the next/previous section is displayed (for example, using the back and forward arrows on the Section toolbar), the plot item in question will disappear as the point is no longer visible. A "point" locatable plot item only requires a single XYZ location (see "Setting up the location, below).
A two-point Line can be referenced. In this situation, two XYZ coordinates are supplied, and an imaginary line plotted between them. Where this line intersects any section in view, the locatable plot item will be shown, referenced to that intersection position, e.g.:

The intersection point will be determined regardless of clipping settings.

Setting up the Location

To support locatable plot items, a set of object properties have been added to the Properties control bar.

if you are not currently displaying your Properties control bar, you can enable it by selectingPropertiesfrom theViewribbon'sShowdrop-down menu

The three groups (Location, Location Point 1 and Location Point 2) are used to define how the plot item is located and to which reference point or line. As described in the previous section, only one location point is required for "point" location types, and two are required to define a "line" location.

Regarding the properties that are available:

Has Location: if the plot item is 'locatable', this will be set to [Yes], otherwise the plot item does not support locational information, it will be set to [No]

Location Type: denotes whether the plot item is located according to a specific [Point] or a 2-point [Line] (see previous section for more details).

Plot Position: determines how the plot item is positioned in relation to its associated location, either as a [Fixed] or [Relative] position (see previous section for more details).

Show Connector: by default, an arrow will connect the plot item to the associated position on the current plot. This can be disabled if required.

Line Width: the width of the connecting line, in pixels.

Arrow Size: the size (width) of the arrow head that is shown on the end of the connecting line.

Set the Arrow Size to zero to remove the arrow head completely.

Line Color: set the color of the connecting line.

Location Point 1 XYZ: specifies the XYZ location of the point the plot item is associated with, or the first point of the two point line used to create an intersection point (see previous section for more details).

Location Point 2 XYZ: only valid for [Line] Location Types, this XYZ location determines the second point on the line that will be used to create intersection location points across multiple sections (see previous section for more details).

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