OOF2: The Manual

Chapter 4. The Graphics Window
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Chapter 4. The Graphics Window

Table of Contents

4.1. Layers
4.2. The Layer List
4.3. The Contour Map
4.4. Setting the Time
4.5. Toolboxes

The Graphics Window provides visual output from OOF2, and is the home of all operations that require user interaction with graphical representations of Microstructures, Images, Skeletons, and Meshes.

Figure 4.1 shows the structure of the Graphics Window. It consists of five main panes:

  • The Canvas is where OOF2 draws Microstructures, Meshes, and everything else.

  • The Time Controls display and change the time of the Microstructures displayed on the Canvas.

  • The Toolbox to the left of the Canvas controls how OOF2 responds to mouse clicks on the Canvas. The Toolbox also displays information in response to mouse clicks. OOF2 contains many different Toolboxes. The Toolbox Chooser at the top of the Toolbox pane switches between them.

  • The Layer List at the bottom of the window lists the contents of the Canvas. It also provides a quick way of turning different parts of the display on and off.

  • The Contour Map to the right of the Canvas displays the colors used in contour plots.

The menu bar at the top of the window contains commands that adjust the behavior of the window, save the contents of the Canvas, and provide alternate ways of performing some basic tasks. The menu items are described at OOF.Graphics_n.File, OOF.Graphics_n.Layer, and OOF.Graphics_n.Settings.

Figure 4.1. The Graphics Window

The Graphics Window

4.1. Layers

The objects displayed in the Canvas are arranged in Layers. Each Layer obscures the layers below it, and is obscured by the Layer above it (although they can be transparent too). Each Layer displays some aspect of a single OOF2 object, either a Microstructure, Image, Skeleton, or Mesh. Which objects are displayed automatically can be controlled by the New Layer Policy command in the graphics window's Settings menu.

The display also includes a number of auxiliary layers, which draw things like the currently selected Elements and Nodes. These layers are created automatically when a Graphics Window is opened, and are listed in Section 4.2. They can be modified, hidden, or even deleted like any other Layer.

Each Layer is drawn on the Canvas by a DisplayMethod object. The documentation for DisplayMethod lists all of the DisplayMethod subclasses, and indicates which types of object each subclass can draw.

When new Layers are added to a Canvas, OOF2 attempts to insert them so as to minimize the amount of useful information that each Layer obscures in the Layers below it. Layers containing sets of points are drawn above Layers containing sets of lines, and Layers containing lines are drawn above Layers containing filled polygons or bitmapped Images. This ordering can be changed by explicitly moving Layers around in the Layer List.

New Layers are created by the New item in the window's Layer menu. See OOF.Graphics_n.Layer.New for all the details.

4.1.1. The New Layer Policy

When a new object, such as an Image or Skeleton is created, OOF2 needs to know whether or not to create a new Layer to display it in the graphics window. Previous versions of OOF2 had a confusing policy governing which objects would be displayed and when. To avoid confusion, the default policy is now unambiguous and easy to explain:

[Warning] Warning

Nothing is displayed unless you request that it be displayed.

You can set the policy to one of these values:

  • Never is the default. New items are not displayed automatically. To add items to a graphics window, use the OOF.Graphics_n.Layer.New menu item.
  • Always is the opposite of Never. New items are always displayed in all graphics windows. Images will be displayed as bitmaps. Skeletons and Meshes will be displayed by their edges. This probably isn't very useful if you have a lot of objects.
  • Single is the most like the earlier behavior. Objects will be automatically displayed in an existing graphics window but only if the window doesn't already contain a similar object. Each window can contain one Image, one Skeleton, and so forth.

The policy can be changed in two places. The menu item OOF.Settings.Graphics_Defaults.New_Layer_Policy in the main OOF2 window will change it for all new graphics windows, but won't affect windows that are already open. To change the behavior of an open graphics window, use OOF.Graphics_n.Settings.New_Layer_Policy in the window's menu bar.

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