Issue 17008: Add method to Entity interface to “getReferencePoint (tacsit-ftf)
Source: SimVentions (Mr. Matthew Wilson, mwilson(at)simventions.com)
Nature: Revision
Severity: Significant
Summary: There is no way to get even a general understanding about where an Entity exists at a general interface level.

Suggested Resolution:
Define a new method in the entity interface:

GeodeticPosition getReferencePoint();

This is logically consistent across any entity type.  An entity could still consist of multiple points (e.g., isPointEntity() would return false), and still  return a center point.  This keeps the conceptual integrity of the entity interface, but expands its utility.

One such concrete example of the utility:  Creating a user interface component for scaling a Viewport to a set of points.  The most common use case is for those points to be entity positions.  The QueryManager can be used to retrieve a list of entities, but from that point on you have to dive into implementation specific details to convert the Entities to a position to choose from.

AGREED

Resolution: 
Revised Text: 
Actions taken:
January 19, 2012: received issue
Discussion: 

End of Annotations:=====

m: Matt Wilson <mwilson@simventions.com>

This is issue # 17008

Issue . Add method to Entity interface to .getReferencePoint.

Severity:  Significant

Issue Description:

There is no way to get even a general understanding about where an Entity exists at a general interface level.

 

Suggested Resolution:

Define a new method in the entity interface:

 

GeodeticPosition getReferencePoint();

 

This is logically consistent across any entity type.  An entity could still consist of multiple points (e.g., isPointEntity() would return false), and still  return a center point.  This keeps the conceptual integrity of the entity interface, but expands its utility.

 

One such concrete example of the utility:  Creating a user interface component for scaling a Viewport to a set of points.  The most common use case is for those points to be entity positions.  The QueryManager can be used to retrieve a list of entities, but from that point on you have to dive into implementation specific details to convert the Entities to a position to choose from.

 

AGREED