Counting all different parameters at once

[pulseps]

I am using this software from last 5 years. The only think that I am missing is gathering all highlighted (comments) information data by selecting whole page. For example; If I have highlighted finish plan for a building floor with variety of tools like perimeter, rectangular, oval etc. By selecting all comments I get no information.
What I am really expecting that once I select whole highlighted page, I should get total LF of red color, total LF of blue color, total SF of yellow color, total number of ovals, total number of rectangles. This all information should be come in table to use it. Instead what I have to do is, manually select each colored perimeter to find out total LF of finishes. This manual method is too lengthy as well as not 100% if we miss something.
Help needed if this feature already here but I could not able to access it, OR if this feature is not exist, please provide this feature for users benefits.
Thank you.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi, pulseps

have you tried the "Comments Pane"? for selecting and manipulating multiple comments?

image.png

Then there is the "Summarize Comments" feature:

image(1).png

and also if you select the perimeter tool then navigate to the Format tab there is an option to export the perimeter values to CSV:

image(2).png

Does that help?

[pulseps]

Hi Paul, thanks for taking time and explain this. Does this helps? = Yes it is.
However, this is too complicated compare to other software for group comment value determine per page or per entire file. No wonder why many companies using bluebeam and other similar software.
I love working on PDF Xchange software as this is my first software I ever used and I believe this is the most easy to use software. But I always have difficulty to determine total quantity per highlighting types on each page. We have to manually select comments to determine total of each type.

I have faced at least 10 interviews in last couple of months in millwork industry. Be honest none of those companies ever heard PDF Xchange editor. I love it and I want to continue use it but it is not in my hand as I am just estimator employee. Companies determines which gives best breakdowns.

I am attaching my one of highlighted plan where I have to manually type in total LF of one kind tool I used. Also, I highlight different finish on different page so I put my comment where to find. Since summery is not easy on PDF Xchange, I have to use multiple same drawing page to highlight different tools, where I can just select all and find total LF.

I request to PDF Xchange, please update software so that we can have breakdowns of highlighting by each color and types. For example, if I used blue color, red color, pink color perimeter tools on same page. Those all different color should be summarized differently and should be able to give me total LF per each color types on each page. In millwork trade we have variety of wood wall panel finishes as well as we need to count fabric wall panels, glass wall panels & metal wall panels.

Highlighting Issues.pdf

[Willy Van Nuffel]

@pulseps
If I understand it correctly, you would like to have totals per 'type of comment' for 'each page', with 'subtotals' 'per color' ?

@PDF-XChange Support
That would be something for a feature request (additional option in the Summarize Comments dialog-box) ?

Kind regards.

[pulseps]

@Willy
Yes something like that.
We millwork estimators use floor finish plans where all the finish tags are given by architect. For example, see my previous comment and there I attached one PDF floor plan with all my highlighting.
Finish WD1 = I use blue color perimeter tool with width 6.
Finish WD2 = I use blue color perimeter tool with width 4.
Finish LQ1 = I use purple color perimeter tool with width 6.
Finish WB1 = I use green color perimeter tool with width 2.
Finish WB2 = I use green color perimeter tool with width 3.
What I want from PDF Xchange software update is all these above perimeters each type to counted for me automatically and can be able to paste on same page for everyone or future reference. These perimeter tool for each color and width type used on many locations on each page.

Hope it clears up.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, pulseps

While this is not quite possible yet, the following settings would give a result not too far off from what you are looking for, assuming that your document has actual comment items in place (The sample you sent in your previous post does not have any comment data in place).
In this case, the breakdown is by color, instead of by page, while the groupings inside of each "color" category are sorted by page.

I will of course forward this to the Dev team, to see if we can implement some improvements here:

• Chiefly, allowing for a group by "comment type" with sorting "per page > by color" as Willy summarizes there
• Displaying a "total count" of the items in each "group" as you specified after that.

Reviewing this function myself, I also expect the following items would be welcome additions for many people.

• It would also be nice to use "color names" instead of the plain color coding in the summary.
• Having the highlight icon in question change color to reflect the defined color code here would likely be a big benefit for your needs here.

If there is anything specific I have missed, please let me know!

Kind regards,

[PHK]

It is a bit difficult to work on this as I presume the different types and colors are the products of user Comment tools and, therefore, existed somewhere in a Comments panel but those Comments do not show in this image-only file.

But if discrete Comments were to exist, I would use the "Subject" area to establish the groupings. Then in the text box I would add the specifics for each comment. It would look something like this:

image.png

Note also that this "counts" the iterations of same-subject Comments automatically.


Or see file attached.

Highlighting Issues (1).pdf

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello all,

After speaking with the Dev team, we are unsure about the viability of adding yet more to this function. As it stands, offering two levels of sorting is rather involved. If we see extended requests for this, it may be something we look into extending.
For the time being, only 2 levels of sorting is "enough" for the majority we have seen.

Following that, with regards to the "line width" sorting topic. That is something that is still undergoing an internal discussion. I cannot promise it will be possible, as this data is not normally part of the summary, and reading it could slow down the tools processing, especially in very complex files.

Kind regards,

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Hi all,

Personally, I think it is very good idea of @PHK to use the Subject Name for indicating what the comments go about and also for grouping these comments to make and have the totals, like in his example pdf.

The only thing and inconvenient is that the current counting in PDF-XChange Editor works for the whole document and not per page.

@pulseps: at this moment, would it be a solution to put the plans in separate pdf's, one plan per pdf ?
There would be no need to put legends with totals on the plans, because summarizing is possible, on the fly, via the Comments-pane.

@PDF-XChange Support and Development: if this would be a usable solution for pulseps, then would it be possible to have an option in the Comments-pane to have a totalization per page ?

Kind regards.

[PHK]

It is a bit difficult to work on this as I presume the different types and colors are the products of user Comment tools and, therefore, existed somewhere in a Comments panel but those Comments do not show in this image-only file.

But if discrete Comments were to exist, I would use the "Subject" area to establish the groupings. Then in the text box I would add the specifics for each comment. It would look something like this:

image.png


Note also that this "counts" the iterations of same-subject Comments automatically.


Or see file attached.Highlighting Issues (1).pdf

I neglected to add that each of these Comments groups, that is with discrete subject names can share specific properties within that group.

So the subject/group "Finish WD1" (with the blue color perimeter tool with width 6) would have properties like this:

image.png

and the "Finish LQ1" (purple color perimeter tool with width 6) .

image(1).png

[Willy Van Nuffel]

... and even if the comment-type and/or properties are different, the Subject Name can still be the same (if needed) ...

[PHK]

...
Personally, I think it is very good idea of @PHK to use the Subject Name for indicating what the comments go about and also for grouping these comments to make and have the totals, like in his example pdf.

Thanks, Willy.

The only thing and inconvenient is that the current counting in PDF-XChange Editor works for the whole document and not per page.

I agree that it is slightly inconvenient but easy to overcome. If the workflow is altered so that the comments mark-ups are on single-page files, you would have the counts per page. When complete, merge these single-page files using the Combine Files tool to have one consolidated file with all the subject groups and their counts consolidated. That seems elegant to me. Of course, it is easy to create single-page files from a multi-page file using the Extract Pages tool.

image.png

...

[PHK]

@pulseps: If what I have written above is not clear, I would be happy to apply my suggestions to a sample file of your choice. It would have to have all the Comments overlays, however, as opposed to just a flattened image of the page. If you are reluctant to post it on the open Forum, you might consider either privately sending me the file or a link to a cloud file. Just trying to help.

[pulseps]

Thanks everyone for your imput.
@PHK
I am uploading a new document with all comments are still there. I have highlighted all necessary finishes on this plan which I would like to have summery of each finish type with length.

Highlighting Issues 1.pdf

Thanks for helping.

[PHK]

@pulseps. Got it! Hope to get back to you soon.

[PHK]

****FEEL FREE TO IGNORE THIS POST AND EXAMINE MINE OF 3:57 BELOW FOR A 'BETTER' APPROACH


Here's how I would do it.

Highlighting Issues 1.1.pdf

Note that if you allow the mouse to hover over any of the highlights, it should show the footage.

Also note there were three perimeters that did not seem to have labels.

Let me know if I can add any further explanation and how this works for you.

[PHK]

If you want total footage by category, use the Accounting Calculator tool, copying and pasting from the Comment to the AC tool and pasting in the result as here:

Highlighting Issues 1.2.pdf

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello,

Following up on this from our end. I have provided this sample to our Dev team as well for further testing. I still cannot promise what may be coming in the future, but we will look into the possibilities. In the meantime, the previously discussed solutions may be the best available.

Kind regards,

[PHK]

Upon thinking about this further, I have a much simpler approach which only takes a few minutes and might be clearer.

Highlighting Issues 1.3.pdf

Since the types are already color-coded, much of the work has been. The steps are as follows:

• Open the Comments panel and Group by color

image.png

• For each color, modify the Comments Properties/Subject with the appropriate title (WB04, etc.)

• In the Comments panel, Group by subject

image(1).png

• Now Group by Type

image(2).png

• Delete the Ovals.

You now have all the perimeters grouped by type showing the count of each group.

image(3).png

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

[PHK]

P. S. These Comments can be summarized using the tool from the Comments drop-down menu

image.png

and converted to a CSV file that can then be sub-totaled in Excel (or similar) to produce this.

image(1).png

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello,

As for a quick summary by color, some fiddling with AI lead us to this result:

Code: Select all

var pageStats = {};

// Function to convert RGB to a readable string
function rgbToString(rgb) {
    // Check if the color is defined and in the correct format
    if (!rgb || rgb.length < 3) return "No Color"; // Return "No Color" if undefined or malformed RGB

    // Map each color component, ensure it's a valid number, and convert to 0-255 range
    return rgb.map(function(c) {
        if (isNaN(c)) return 0; // If it's NaN, replace with 0 (or any other default value)
        return Math.round(c * 255); // Convert from 0-1 range to 0-255 range
    }).join(",");
}

// Loop through each page
for (var i = 0; i < this.numPages; i++) {
    var annots = this.getAnnots({nPage: i});
    var pageKey = "Page " + (i + 1); // For human-friendly page numbering (1-based)

    if (!pageStats[pageKey]) {
        pageStats[pageKey] = {}; // Initialize a new object for each page if not already created
    }

    if (annots !== null) {
        for (var j = 0; j < annots.length; j++) {
            var annot = annots[j];
            var type = annot.type || "Unknown";

            // Get color for specific annotation types
            var colorStr = "No Color"; // Default to "No Color" if no color is found

            // Check color for specific annotation types
            if (type === "Highlight" || type === "Underline" || type === "StrikeOut") {
                colorStr = rgbToString(annot.fillColor); // Fill color for highlights and similar
            } else if (type === "Text" || type === "StickyNote") {
                colorStr = rgbToString(annot.strokeColor); // Stroke color for text comments
            } else if (annot.strokeColor) {
                colorStr = rgbToString(annot.strokeColor); // Generic stroke color
            }

            // Create key based on type and color
            var key = type + " | (" + colorStr + ")";

            // Increment the count for this type and color combination for the specific page
            if (pageStats[pageKey][key]) {
                pageStats[pageKey][key]++;
            } else {
                pageStats[pageKey][key] = 1;
            }
        }
    }
}

// Output the results
console.println("Annotation counts by type and color, grouped by page:");
for (var page in pageStats) {
    console.println(page + ":");
    for (var key in pageStats[page]) {
        console.println("  " + key + ": " + pageStats[page][key]);
    }
}

Running the above command through the Javascript console (Ctrl+J) in your document can give a quick summary/count of the comment types/colors, on each page:

image.png

Kind regards,

[Mathew]

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on this and came up with a tool, based on Dan's idea above. I've posted it here viewtopic.php?t=46293

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Mathew

That tool looks fantastic Mathew, thank you!

Kind regards,

[PHK]

Excellent!

I hope it meets pulseps' needs and that they get back to us with a report.

[Mathew]

On the file 'Highlighting Issues 1' with the following settings:

image.png

It generates this report:

image(1).png

I don't know if fillColor was the intended grouping, in which case (and turning off "Use Color Names"):

image(2).png

[Mathew]

I hope it meets pulseps' needs and that they get back to us with a report.

Me too! And hopefully it helps others too. It's actually a very convenient way to do material or area take-offs from scaled drawings.

Or based on the hack FringePhil mentioned above: change the subject of the dimension lines to match what you want as a heading, then group by 'subject':

image.png

gives:

image(1).png

Could also get a similar result by associating names with custom colors and using those. You'd need to use this tool to make and assign the custom color names though: viewtopic.php?t=40404

[PHK]

... And hopefully it helps others too. It's actually a very convenient way to do material or area take-offs from scaled drawings.
....

I would think this could be a very powerful tool for those industries (architecture, construction, etc.) where such things are important.

[PHK]

Actually, it is just beginning to dawn on me just how powerful this tool is: using it in just these industries cited above is waaaay too narrow and limiting.

It will work powerfully anywhere you need to aggregate data from diverse sources. For instance, if you have a file of bank accounts and credit cards and you have made medical payments from various sources but now you have to compute aggregates, say, from single providers, you can use these tools to quickly accomplish that goal. That is just one example, I am sure the applications are infinite.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]