Operating on Canvas Views


This section describes some general operations on a Canvas View, which represents the contents in an assembly.

Creating Components

To create new parts in the model, see the Creating Parts section. Parts are always snapped to a grid point and each grid point can only accommodate one part.

To create links, see the Connecting Parts with Links section.

To create subassemblies, see the Creating Subassemblies section.

Selecting Components

To select any component on the canvas, first make sure that the Select button with an arrow is pressed down in the Build toolbar.

You can double click on the component to invoke the associated Properties dialog for examining and modifying its properties.

Selecting a Group of Parts

There are two ways to select a group of parts:

Group operations currently available are moving, deletion and building completely connected graphs, explained later in this section.

Resizing a Part

Initially, a part is displayed with an icon on the canvas. There may be situations that a part needs to be resized:

SansGUI allows any part to be resized to a desired rectangle no smaller than the icon size. Do the following to resize the part:

Setting a Part's Z-Order

When there are enlarged parts, it is possible to have parts overlapping each other. Some may be opaqued by others. SansGUI maintains the depth (Z) of the Canvas View for each part. To change the Z-order for the overlapping parts, do the following:

Moving Components

Components in the Canvas View can be moved for better arrangements. Before moving, make sure that the Select button in the Build toolbar is depressed.

Deleting Components

For deletion operations, you need to make sure that the Select button in the Build toolbar is depressed.

Undo and Redo

There may be accidental operations that require to be reverted. The Canvas View maintains an undo and a redo buffer for multiple levels of undo and redo operations. Each canvas operation is recorded in these buffers so that the undo and redo operations can be available to you. Right click on any empty area in the Canvas View to obtain a context menu. From the context menu you will find Undo <Action> and Redo <Action> menu items where the <Action> may be substituted with the actual action to be undone or redone. Select the Undo or Redo actions as necessary. As the menu items indicated, you can use the keyboard short cuts Ctrl+U for undo and Ctrl+R for redo operations. You can also find Undo <Action> and Redo <Action> in the Edit pull-down menu.

You can adjust the levels of undo and redo operations stored in the buffers according to your needs and your system's memory configuration. This is described in the Tuning Environment Parameters section in Chapter 7.

Zooming In and Out

The Canvas View has been tuned to work with most of the supported screen resolutions, display monitor sizes, and printing with the default 100% zoom factor. In certain combinations or operations, zooming in or out may be desirable. To do this, simply use the zooming buttons in the View toolbar. The Canvas View has to be active for the View toolbar to be effective; otherwise, click on any empty spot in the Canvas View to activate it.

Panning the Canvas View Window

There are three ways to pan the Canvas View Window:

You can use the Center button in the View toolbar to immediately center the Canvas View. Also, when a part or link is selected from a Tree View in the left pane while it is outside the Canvas View Window, SansGUI will put the component into view by scrolling it to the center of the window.

The upper-left corner of the Canvas View window provides the printing mechanism with a reference origin, i.e., the printed output will start from the upper-left corner of the Canvas View and expand to the right and down until the right and bottom edges of the canvas space or the paper edges are reached. Use File>Print Preview or the Preview button in the File toolbar to see an approximation of the printed output.

Displaying Labels

The labels (names or identifiers) of the parts, ports, and links can be toggled on and off in the Canvas View. Simply click on the Part Label, Port Label, and Link Label buttons in the Build toolbar, respectively.

Using Link Value Mode

There are two modes to display links in the Canvas View:

Use the Link Value button in the Build toolbar to toggle between the two modes.

Changing Link Display Options

The display properties of a link can be accessed through the link's context menu, obtained by right clicking on the link path:

Snapping to Grid Points

Here are the rules of the Canvas View grids, having two different resolutions:

Use the Grid button in the Build toolbar to toggle the display of the lower resolution grid. Use the Snap button in the same toolbar to toggle snapping of the intermediate link points.

Printing out Canvas Views

To print out the canvas or a section of the canvas, you can apply the procedures in zooming, panning, toggling on and off labels, the lower resolution grid, or the Link Value mode to satisfy your output requirements. You can use File>Print Preview or the Preview button in the File toolbar to see the output before sending it to a printer. You can also select Print Canvas View... or Print Preview from the right-click context menu to perform these tasks.

Cloning a Part

To clone a part, right click on the source part to be used for cloning and select Clone Part menu item from the context menu. When the source part contains a subassembly, the entire subassembly tree will be cloned accordingly. The new part will be created near by the source part. You can then move the new part to a place you like.

Navigating through Assembly Levels

Right click on any part that is derived from the Assembly_Generic object to obtain a context menu and then select the Open Subassembly menu item to move down the assembly level. To move up to the parent assembly level, use the Move Up button in the Build toolbar, or right click on any empty area of the Canvas View and select Move Up Assembly Level menu item from the context menu.

Special Operations

There are some time-saving operations available in the Edit pull-down menu for building models:

 



C:\FH_Suite\htmlgifs\home.gif Examining Parameters and Ports Operating on Grid Views

SansGUI Modeling and Simulation Environment Version 1.2

Copyright © 2000-2003 ProtoDesign, Inc. All rights reserved.

http://protodesign-inc.com