Main Toolbar
Introduction
The main toolbar contains a set of icons that is explained below. The user should know the meaning and effective use of these symbols in order to work efficiently and with confidence.
The icons are organized in groups according to their use and meaning. It is also possible to create user groups of selected icons that are relevant for display and otherwise treatment of data in a project.
In this section:
List of icons
Some of these icons might not be visible on the toolbar initially. In that case the toolbar icons can be turned on, under the View menu.
Icons | Description of Main Toolbar icons |
---|---|
Will cancel any mouse action that is started but is regretted and should be ended without any operation. | |
Start a mouse action that when clicked on a graphical object will delete that object. | |
Start a mouse action that when clicked on a graphical object can set appearance parameters for that object. The appearence parameters are: Opacity, Reflection, Diffusion, Ambience. | |
Start a mouse action where the user is supposed to click on a surface that is map with scalar values. The mapping range of the scalar values according to the color table can then be adjusted. | |
Start a mouse action that when clicked on a graphical object will highlight the corresponding data object in the project. | |
Start a mouse action where the user can click and draw a rectangle around displayed data and Geocap will list all dataset names and locations. | |
Will create a new graphical window on the same window Tab. A practical case is to display two surfaces representing different interpretations in separate windows and tile and connect the two windows to study the surfaces simultaneously. | |
Will open a text page for script editing and execution. A script is executed by right click and Execute. The script window is found under toolbar Windows. A nice feature of the script window is the ability to indent a script written in an editor. | |
Will start a new project equivalent to File > New > Project. | |
Will start a new workflow equivalent to File > New > Workflow. | |
Will open a file that will be transferred to a new text window of the same name. The file should therefore be an ASCII file and presumably a script file that can be executed. A practical use is when developing a script that is attached to a Toolbar list. Executing new versions of the script will add this to the toolbar list. | |
Will show all windows (graphical and text) in a cascade appearance. | |
Will show all windows (graphical and text) in a side wise tiled appearance. Can be very practical when viewing several object simultaneously. | |
Will show all windows (graphical and text) in a vertical tiled appearance. | |
Message area for Geocap. Can be docked or stand alone. Very important for system messages and error messages that can be studied and/or reported. | |
Text area for history logging of script commands that are executed. Mostly for the advanced user and script developer that can see what actually was run. | |
Will delete all graphics in the current viewport or window (if the window holds only one viewport). The corresponding references to actors in the project are deleted. Frequently used in free interactive work. | |
Will delete the last graphical object (also called and actor) that is displayed. Frequently used to erase a graphical object that shall be removed. Note: Redisplaying data from the project using the same command will erase the previous corresponding actor. | |
Will set the graphical window in 2D mode; i.e. only pan and zoom is allowed. The view direction (x, y or z) depends on the corresponding setting. In 2D mode the left button on the mouse is used for immediate cursor response for instance in digitizing. | |
Will set the graphical window in 3D mode; pan, zoom and 3D rolling is enabled. The default 3D mode renders in perspective view; i.e. parallel lines are not parallel on the screen, but shows a perspective. The non-perspective isometric 3D mode is found under toolbar View > Perspective > 3D Isometric. | |
Will turn the z direction of the graphical window upwards; i.e. the positive direction of the z axis points upwards. | |
Will turn the z direction of the graphical window downwards; i.e. the positive direction of the z axis points downwards. This is the default case because most surfaces are below the zero level, but still have positive z values. | |
Will show the graphical window as a frame box. It is important to use this icon to check the graphical window or whenever some display comes out weird if the display algorithm uses the graphical window to set display parameters. | |
Will draw default axes for all visible axes directions. No tick marks are display for simplicity, but the exact location of an annotation position starts at the beginning of the annotation. | |
Will open a Navigator which is a convenient menu for navigating a 3D graphical scene. To some (especially newbies) it can be difficult to use the mouse buttons to orientate the graphics. Be aware that rotation is around the focal point which also can be set by pointing the cursor mouse at a any location on a solid object and push keyboard x. | |
Will zoom in towards the focal point. The graphical window is not changed, although the graphical frame may lie out the visible part of the screen. | |
Will zoom out from the focal point. | |
Will View from above. This icon also contains sub-icons for viewing in other directions. | |
Sub-icon of . Will view from above. | |
Sub-icon of . Will view east (+x). | |
Sub-icon of . Will view west (-x). | |
Sub-icon of . Will view north (+y). | |
Sub-icon of . Will view south (-y). | |
Sub-icon of . Will view from below. | |
If several windows are created on the same Tab, this icon connects the selected windows to the same visual camera. Very useful when different surfaces that shall be compared are displayed in separate windows that are connected and show the same under all graphical movements. | |
Will show the viewport menu that allows for a quick way to create viewports inside a window. The number and layout of the viewports are determined by just double clicking on the lower right frame in the veiwport menu. If the viewports are connected they can also by used for simultaneously display of surfaces or features that shall be compared. Here is an example of a viewport display for presentation purpose. | |
Enables the light source to be moved around in the graphical scene. Will create shadows and highlight features. Usefull for presentation graphics and detailed studies of special structures. | |
Will scale the graphical scene with all its actor up or down. Very important for selecting a good view. The scaling should also preferable be set in the Project Settings so that the preferred view comes up when loading a project. | |
Will show up a 2D compass in upper right that follows the rotation of the graphical window. Another click on the icon will remove the compass. | |
This icon enables the user to create a group of preferred extra icons. A click on the group icon reveals a list of commands from which a suitable selection can be done. Below is a few typical selections that are convenient to have and use when displaying data from a project. | |
Highlight a dataset in the project and click on this map icon and the default scalar map appears | |
Highlight a dataset in the project and click on this point icon and the default point display appears. |
There are other icons like project icons and workflow icons.