TkGenie Overview

Interface Layout

The central element of the interface is the plot area, which is where all graphics generated by the program are displayed. Various interactions are possible within this area by clicking the designated mouse selection button. The selection button can be defined as either the right or middle button (see Program Defaults).

Most tasks are accomplished via the menu bar at the top of the display. This provides File, Select, Operations, Draw, Extensions, Options, and Help menus, which are described below. In addition to the menu bar, some frequently performed tasks can also be accomplished by using the Buttons arranged on the left hand side of the interface.

Above the Buttons lies a check button labelled "Clear before Plot". When checked the plot area is cleared for each new plot and the axes are scaled accordingly; Otherwise new plots are overplotted onto the existing plot area using the same axes, which can be useful for comparing separate data sets. However care should be taken to ensure that the axes are compatible.

The x and y co-ordinates of the mouse cursor, relative to the current plot, are displayed in a box above the check button.

The current set number is displayed on a line at the bottom of the display, along with the file or operation from which it came, and a block number if appropriate.

Buttons and menu items are "greyed out" and disabled if the actions associated with them cannot be performed for some reason. The most common cause for this is either due to lack of data, or because necessary template fields are not defined.

Important Concepts

Data is stored in sets, with up to 100 stored in memory at any one time. A set contains a complete copy of data, including all individual data elements stored as labelled entities called fields. An example of a fields would be "plot title" or "X array". Sets can be created, selected, manipulated, stored, and graphically displayed using the interface; They can also be reviewed or selected by choosing "Select Set" from the select menu.

Templates are used to control the way in which data sets are interpreted. A template must be assigned to a set before it can be used. Several pre-defined templates have been created for certain recognised data formats and these will be assigned automatically, but a different template can be chosen if required. For example, when data from an ISIS RAW file is read into a set, that set will be assigned the standard ISIS RAW template. Templates can be set, viewed, and created by selecting "Select Data" from the Select menu or by clicking the "Browse!" button.

Plot Area Interactions

Clicking the mouse selection button in a clear region of the plot area allows text to be added at that point. A dialogue box will appear, prompting for a text string. This string will initially contain the current cursor co-ordinates, which may be deleted if desired. If the check button is set then the text will be centred.

Clicking the mouse selection button over any graphical object, including text strings, allows the properties of the chosen object to be viewed and modified. For example clicking on the axes would lead to the following window being displayed.

The Remove button permanently deletes the object, but you will be prompted for conformation. In this example many properties of the object can be changed, some of which will be more useful than others. Fonts, Line types, and Colours can be chosen by clicking the appropriate buttons. The text size and line thickness can be set by entering new values into the entry boxes (remember to include the decimal point). The y axis label can also be made to appear horizontally by selecting yhorizontal, numbers can be removed etc. The effect of such changes is best determined by experimenting with the various properties, or by studying the Open Genie reference manual to see what properties the graphical object in question contains, e.g. study the axes command to see what changes can be made to an exes object.

The Menu Bar

The File Menu

The Select Menu

The Operations Menu

The Draw Menu

The behaviour of these operations is controlled by various defaults which can be set (see Graphics Defaults).

The Extensions Menu

Any Tcl extensions which are loaded should add items to this menu. It is initially empty.

The Options Menu

The Help Menu

The Button Panel

Plot Data

This button provides a quick way of plotting the current set. It displays a histogram or line graph depending on the current data format and graphics defaults.

Browse!

This button is simply a shortcut to "Select Data" on the Select menu.

Zoom

This button allows an area of the plot to be interactively selected and zoomed in upon. After clicking on this button, click twice on the plot to define a rectangular region (bottom left and top right). NB Zoom is not currently available on the Windows version of Genie.

Hardcopy

This button is simply a shortcut to "Print" on the File menu.

Limits

This button is simply a shortcut to "Select Limits" on the Select menu.