Using Perspective Sets

Perspective sets can be used across the system to define dependencies between objects.

Overview

Where Perspectives Control Data

Using Perspective Sets in UI views like Tree and Grid

In HDC, objects are interconnected through multiple relationships. A Floor object connects to many elements: Rooms, technical documentation, and installed equipment. However, displaying all these connections at once would overwhelm the user interface and make navigation difficult.

Perspective Sets act as filters that control which object relationships are visible in different contexts. They help create focused views by showing only the relevant connections for each task. In a typical building management scenario, you might want your Tree View to display only the core building hierarchy (Building → Floor → Room), while using the Grid View to work with equipment lists and related documentation.

Each Perspective Set defines which relationships are available in a given context. This filtering mechanism serves two important functions:

1. It controls what users can see in each view type

2. It determines which new relationships users can create between objects

By configuring different Perspective Sets for different views, administrators can create an intuitive interface that presents the right information at the right time. Since Perspectives only filter the logical view of data, these settings can be adjusted without affecting the underlying data structure.

Using Perspective Sets in Viewer

When working with rental units that group multiple rooms together, we face an interesting technical challenge: rental units themselves don't have direct visual representations (spots) on drawings - only rooms do. However, we want users to be able to select a rental unit and see its complete spatial footprint on the drawing.

This is where perspective sets come in. By configuring a viewer perspective set with the relationship "Rental Unit → Room", we give the viewer essential instructions. When a user selects a rental unit, the viewer follows this perspective to understand that it should:

1. Look for all rooms that belong to this rental unit

2. Find the spots (vector elements) linked to those rooms

3. Display all these spots together as a unified visual representation of the rental unit

The perspective acts as a bridge between the logical grouping (rental units containing rooms) and the physical representation (rooms having spots on drawings). Without this perspective configuration, the viewer wouldn't know how to visualize a rental unit, since it has no direct spots of its own.

When properly configured, this enables seamless visualization where hovering over any room in a rental unit highlights all other rooms belonging to the same unit, creating an intuitive grouped display on the drawing.

Using Perspective Sets to control object/icon display

Perspective Sets are also used to control how system finds a drawing to be shown for objects that do not have spots.

This must be set in order to properly display Rental Units or Equipment as icons.

In system Settings → General → Objects:

Objects Settings

The "Content for object perspective" setting handles a fundamental challenge: how to display objects that don't have direct connections to drawings. Consider a piece of equipment in a building - it doesn't have its own spot on the drawing, but we still want to see where it's located. This perspective creates an indirect path to find the right drawing through related objects. When someone selects an equipment item, the system uses this perspective (Equipment ← Room) to first find the room containing that equipment, and then use the room's spot on the drawing to show the equipment's location.

The "Linked objects perspective" serves a different but complementary purpose. It determines which objects should appear as icons within drawing spots. Think of a room on a floor plan - you might want to see symbols for all the equipment installed in that room. By setting up a perspective like (Room → Equipment), you're telling the system "when I'm looking at a room's spot on the drawing, show me icons for all equipment linked to that room." This is distinct from the viewer perspective, which controls how larger grouped objects like rental units are displayed using the actual drawing elements.

Together, these perspective settings create a complete system for visualization. The first helps locate objects through their relationships to spots on drawings, while the second controls what additional information appears as icons within those spots. By configuring both appropriately, users can easily navigate between physical locations and the objects or documents associated with them, even when those connections aren't direct.

Using Perspective Sets Various system functions

Macros and print templates use Perspectives to find specific objects. For example, perspective is needed to navigate from a Document to Building in order to display building name on the printout.

Objects will be deleted with subtree. Subtree is determined based on a context perspective set in system settings: