Filling tables

[Sean Ahern]

I often use tables to show an arrangement of similar things, like  
nodes in a cluster computer.  When I color them (fill), I would like  
to fill the entire collection as one item, not the individual items  
that make up the table.

With normal shapes, the procedure to do this is to be sure that they  
are ungrouped, then use the Shape->Union command.  That turns all of  
the individual shapes into a single shape.  The fill options then  
work as I would expect, with gradients progressing across the entire  
collection.

This doesn't seem to be possible with shapes collected in a table.   
First, the fill options apply to the individual items, and I see no  
option to modify this.  You cannot apply the Shape CSG commands to a  
table.  And you cannot ungroup the items in a table (thus removing  
the table concept) so as to Union them.

Ideally, what I'd like is for the fill options to have a toggle about  
whether the gradient calculations take into account all of the  
selections, or just individual elements, as either is desired in some  
cases.  I can see how implementation that might be extremely complex  
in the general case.

Any suggestions that people have are welcome.

-Sean

--
Sean Ahern
Oak Ridge National Laboratory