




Figure: The Environment Viewer -- Specs
Non-obvious actions you can perform on objects in the EnviroView in this
mode are:
- Single-click with left-mouse-button (LMB) on EventSpec Button
-
Will select event spec for display in the view area to the right.
- Single-click with right-mouse-button (RMB) on EventSpec Button
-
Will bring up the edit dialog for the EventSpec.
- Shift-LMB or middle-mouse-button (MMB) on EventSpec Button
-
Extends the selection to include multiple event specs, and can remove an
event spec from the display if performed on an already-selected event
spec.
- RMB on text in the view area
-
Will bring up an edit dialog for that text.
As in the "Edit Events" mode, the "Edit Specs" mode displays event specs
in a scroll box along the bottom left-hand side of the window. It
differs in having a variety of different action buttons above that, and
in the way that the event specs and pattern specs are displayed.
When you click on an event spec, the event spec is displayed in
"skeleton" format in the viewer area. The overall event spec is
represented by a box, within which there are one or more pattern specs,
represented by a grid of pattern elements. At the lower-left of the
pattern spec is a display of four critical pieces of information about
how that pattern is to be presented to the network (type, to_layer,
layer_name, and layer_num, see see section 11.2 Events, Patterns and their Specs for details). The
total number of values in a pattern is indicated by a grey square with
the "n_vals" label on it and a number indicating the number of values.
This can be moved to change the total number of values within the
constraints of the overall pattern geometry.
There are four mutually-exclusive tool selection buttons at the top of
the action area, which operate much like their counterparts in the
NetView:
Select
-
Select mode makes clicking in the view area act to select items. In
select mode, the entire event spec is selected upon the first click, and
then the patternspec under the mouse is selected on the next click, and
then any further sub-level of text is after that. Some of the other
action buttons will update based on what is currently selected.
Move
-
Move mode enables moving of PatternSpecs within the event. The patterns
will be directly selected upon first mouse click, so just click and
drag. You can also determine the total number of values in an event
by moving the grey square that has the "n_vals" label on it, which
typically is located in the upper-right corner of each pattern spec.
You can also move the entire display by clicking on the background and
dragging it around.
ReShape
-
This allows you to reshape the geometry of the PatternSpecs. Simply
click and drag to reshape the patternspec geometry.
ReScale
-
This only works on the background, and serves to rescale the size of the
entire display.
Below that are four buttons that change character depending on what is
selected:
New Spec, New Pattern, Set To Layer
-
If nothing is selected, New Spec will allow you to create a new Event
Spec. If an EventSpec is selected, New Pattern will allow you to
create a new PatternSpec within that EventSpec. If a PatternSpec is
selected, Set To Layer will prompt you for the name of a network Layer,
and will configure the pattern to fit the geometry, etc of this layer
(it will ensure that this pattern fits that layer and will be send to
that layer when presented). Set To Layer is the easiest and safest
way to configure a pattern for a given network layer!
Remove Spec(s), Pat(s)
-
Will remove (delete) selected EventSpecs or PatternSpecs.
Edit Spec(s), Pat(s)
-
Will bring up an edit dialog for selected objects (note: can also use RMB).
Init
-
Rebuilds the display -- should not generally be necessary but use if you
suspect display is not up-to-date.
So, a typical session starting from scratch would be to do New Spec,
then click on each pattern spec in turn and do Set To Layer and select
the layer these patterns will go to. Then, the patterns may have to be
moved around a bit, or new patterns created if there are more than two
that receive environmental input (or one removed, etc). In general,
everything should be managable within the interface.




