4.5 The bottom widget part: The Action Buttons

4.5.1 Draw

Once you have made your product, press this button and the plot is drawn, from the bottom panel up. If no Draw Window exist, a new one is created. Otherwise the plot is redrawn in the currently active Draw Window.

Any changes you make (new time range, more panels, edited panels, etc.) are only updated the next time you press Draw or Draw New.

However, any changes to the Mouse Action take immediate effect in the current Draw Window.

4.5.2 Draw New

Has the same effect as the Draw button, but here a new Draw window is opened. This window gets a new running number in the title bar and becomes the active Draw Window. Any older draw windows remain on screen for reference but are inactive.

NOTE: The last window drawn in or created is always the active draw window. It is also the window with the highest window number in the title.

This button is inactive when no Draw Windows exist. Use Draw to create the first one.

4.5.3 Print

Same action as Draw or Draw New, but graphics output is redirected to a printer or file, or data output to file, depending on the current setting of the Print Action.

If the Print Action is set to one of the Batch options, a file widget comes up first for you to choose which batch file is to be processed.

   
4.5.4 Annotate

Once a plot has been drawn this becomes active. IDL supplies it's own annotate tool and this has been slightly modified to work with PaPCo. This button calls up the annotate widget (Figure 4.3 which interactively allows you to annotate the currently active draw window. The normal slice functions are disabled while the annotate widget is in use.

  

Figure 4.3: PaPCo annotation widget

This widget is basically the same as the IDL supplied version. It has been modified to use the PaPCo colors, and to save batch files into papco_user_XX/papco_products/annotate by default. To learn how to use it, use the widget's Help button. Here's a quick guide only:

• Any object you draw will only be ``remembered'' after you hit the Save button.
• Most objects can be dragged/resized interactively using the mouse in the draw window. Use the mouse to mark the initial position of an object in the draw window.
• Before you can edit an object already drawn, you need to hit select and mark it with the mouse.
• PaPCo will not ``remember'' any annotation you have made unless you save it to a file. Use the File button's menu choice ``Save as''. Make sure the file gets the extension ``.dat''.
• You can also load up any previously defined annotation file using ``Load''. Make sure you use ``Clear'' to clear the current annotation first.
• Don't use the ``Write Postscript'' and ``Export Bitmap'' options. PaPCo handles output of your annotation to file/printer internally. Those option will give you a copy of the annotation only.
• To finish annotating, save your annotaion to file and then hit ``Exit'' from the File menu.

The annotation file name becomes part of the current product and is saved along with it.

A lot of the draw/redraw activity that PaPCo needs to perform to overlay the annotation onto the current draw window depends on being able to save the bitmap of the current draw window. This is automatically done at the end of each draw loop, but this feature might not be supported on all window systems, AND it also depends on enough memory being available!

NOTE: Use this facility for SIMPLE annotation only. Mor complicated annotation should be done by using a professional package such as xFiG, and importing PaPCo output into it.

4.5.5 Output

Once a plot has been drawn this becomes active. Redraws the plot but also outputs the data to file. This functionality must be supported in the user's module, see Section C.3. It is supported by the PaPCo template plot_type.

4.5.6 Rm. Annot.

Once you have annotated your plot, this button becomes active. It deletes the annotation from your plot.

4.5.7 Reset

Clears the active graphics window and the panel compose list. Keeps the currently set time range.

4.5.8 Back

Load up the PREVIOUSLY drawn product. PaPCo keeps a history of all drawn products from a given session. They are all deleted upon normal exit from PaPCo.

   
4.5.9 Defaults

This brings up the PaPCo defaults window in which the user can set various default formating options (see Figure 4.4). Any change in the default settings will only take effect the next time the Draw button is hit, for changes to the draw window size to take effect you need to hit Draw New.

  

Figure 4.4: PaPCo defaults widget

Draw character thickness:

Sets the thickness of the vector drawn fonts used to annotate the plots.

Draw character size:

Sets the size of the vector drawn fonts used to annotate the plots.

PostScript charsize factor:

Allows additional scaling of the PostScript character size

Non encapsulated postscript:

Either enables or disables non-encapsulated postscript output.

The draw area scaling:

Allows the user to set a fraction of the draw window for output while keeping all the annotation size as if it was for a full draw window (they don't get scaled). This is useful for making camera ready plots of any size while keeping the annotation readable!

Draw PaPCo Ident string:

If yes then a PaPCo identification string is plotted on the far right of your plot, with PaPCo version, date & time and product name information. Can be turned off here for publication output.

US or Europe:

Set the default date time output used, and also selects A4 or letter size print output.

Screen output draw window size:

Draw Window size can be given in pixel sizes and customized for your display.

File output GIF pixel size:

GIF output size can be controlled here in pixel size.

Plot background color index:

selects the color index for the background grey scale to be used - the values range from 0 to 255, 0 for black, 255 for white.

Plot foreground color index:

The drawing color can similarly be chosen - the values range from 0 to 255, 0 for black, 255 for white.

PaPCo Data output format:

For those modules that use the PaPCo supplied output functionality, the output file format is set here.

PaPCo trap user errors:

Any errors occurring in user written interface and/or plot/read routines can be trapped here by PaPCo at the point they are being called. This avoids PaPCo crashing when an error in a module is encountered. turn this off while designing your own modules, in order to be able to debug your module (no error traceback beyond PaPCo is possible if PaPCo traps the error).

Enable getting of remote data:

Enables or disables the remote data get facility. When enabled, PaPCo checks for the existence of wGeT on your system.

The user can modify any of the entry fields: new values are read when the Enter New Values button is pressed - you do not need to press ``enter'' in each modified field.

4.5.10 Font

This button calls up the IDL-supplied widget for choosing a font. The fonts you have available depend on what is installed for your X-window manager. The font you chose here is used for the labeling of all widget text in PaPCo. For the new font to take effect you have to exit PaPCo and restart.

This option is supplied for user customization. At times the PaPCo default font will be too large for the size of your screen, and the whole widget window will not fit. Choose a font of your liking for optimum size for your hardware and for best readability.

4.5.11 Help

Brings up the general help screen for the PaPCo main window.

4.5.12 About

Brings up a brief information window about PaPCo . This is mainly to avoid anyone else copyrighting the package and making us pay for it!

4.5.13 Edit Batch

Brings up a simple widget to choose and edit a PaPCo batch file. The batch files are searched for in papco_user/papco_products/batch.

4.5.14 Load

Loads a previously stored product file. The Load clears the current product and displays the loaded product in the compose window. Draw then displays the plot. The product is loaded together with the time range at the time of saving.

4.5.15 Save

Saves the current product as defined in the Panel Compose Area and time range to a user-selected file. Default directory is HOME/PAPCO_products. The saved product is also tagged with the version of PaPCo that made it. While every effort is made to ensure compatibility of these products across version changes, there is no guarantee of compatibility - we're not that professional yet. Also, if you load a product which includes panels from modules which you do not have, PaPCo will allow you to do that: Delete the unknown panel before plotting, otherwise PaPCo will crash (we hope to fix such problems in the future).

4.5.16 Save & Done

Exits PaPCo, after asking for confirmation, and saves all currently compiled procedures and functions in a file papco_routines.save in the user's PAPCO_USER_XX directory. This file is used for quick startup of PaPCo using the ``Restore'' feature (3.3.4).

4.5.17 Done

Exits PaPCo, after asking for confirmation. At exit, all Draw Windows are destroyed, all temporary postscript plot files are deleted and the current state of PaPCo is stored in a defaults file (stores pre-set paths for products, print files, printer options, see Section 4.5.9).