Changing the stroke style of multiple objects

[Magicbean]

I have searched for this but can't find an answer:

In a document with cables - say mains cables, signal cables, network cables etc. each is represented by a simple stroke with a width and colour.

The cables are all in different groups - some are straight lines, some are (variously) curved. If I want to change the weight of all signal cables, for example, change all the red 1pt lines to purple 2pt.

If I use a 'style' I can't work out how to edit the style to change all the objects with that style.

If I use a symbol, they all have to be the same shape.

I don't want all the cables of a type in the same group so how do I go about changing the colour / width of related objects in different groups together in a controlled way?

[Magicbean]

(If you read this earlier, I accidentally posted it several times in the middle of editing - sorry).

[Oufti]

In the menu Selection, you can choose "same stroke width" or "same stroke color". 

[Magicbean]

Yes, @Oufti, but that also changes objects which have the same stroke width and colour which don't have that meaning. If you change it to a colour and width that is used somewhere else, you can no longer differentiate between the wanted objects and the ones that were previously that colour and width.

I have currently gone through and changed the name of all the 'signal cables' to the same name and then I can select them by name. It works but prevents me from giving them the names that make more sense.

[bbrother]

7 minutes ago, Magicbean said:

It works but prevents me from giving them the names that make more sense.

If that's what you care about, you should use tags and select all with the same tag.

[Magicbean]

I have now tried that and it works, @bbrother; I didn't realise what the tags were for, so thank you.

It's not as useful as being able to redefine a named style and have it affect all layers associated with that style, which is what I was hoping to find, but it appears to be the best option if you can manage with only a few tags.

[HCl]

.

[bbrother]

35 minutes ago, Magicbean said:

It's not as useful as being able to redefine a named style and have it affect all layers associated with that style

I agree with that👍. There should be a true object styles feature that would allow to do this. 

[Magicbean]

Thanks @Return,

That's another useful way to make selections of objects across layers; it looks as though there are quite a lot of options for doing this. But more useful still if I could change the definition of a style and have it affect all the objects that used that style. I think I could do this in Aldus (and then Macromedia) Freehand over 30 years ago - it was incredibly useful and much easier!

But thank you for the reminder about states and queries - that was useful!

[loukash]

13 minutes ago, Magicbean said:

I think I could do this in Aldus (and then Macromedia) Freehand over 30 years ago - it was incredibly useful and much easier!

I hear you!
My FH9 still runs in the SheepShaver OS 9 emulation…  

 

 

[Magicbean]

Yes, @loukash - exactly that!

[bbrother]

Ahh the old Macromedia Freehand. It brings a tear to my eye. Such a great tool.
To this day I hate Adobe for buying the company just to eliminate this program from the market.

[ronnyb]

Global Styles would be a great feature request/upgrade, similar to regular vs global colors…