Changelog for ARRIS++ Version  8.0   (release 01):

The following lists describe the changes that have been made to the ARRIS++ Enhanced Menus since the previous release (version 7.1.a5 - release 01). Note that there are links in the following material pointing to more detailed information contained in the main documentation.

This changelog is divided into the following sections:



• General Improvements
  
  
• Menu Modifications
  
  
• Existing Sigmac Bug Fixes
  
  
• Existing Sigmac Enhancements
  
  
• New ARRIS++ Sigmacs

General Improvements:

The following table lists general improvements that have been made to the ARRIS++ menu system.

The documentation for the $mnikon() command was updated in the ARRIS Menus: User Interface Manual to detail how to work around the long standing ikon color bug.

The following commands were added to the TOOLBAR command database: COMMAND DESCRIPTION CATALOG EDIT Display the NOTE CATALOG MANAGER pop-up menu which allows note catalogs to be created, reviewed and/or changed. CATALOG SELECT Select a new note from the CATALOG NOTE PLACEMENT pop-up menu and place it on the drawing. CATALOG SET Display the CATALOG NOTE PLACEMENT pop-up menu which allows a different notes catalog to be selected for use. KEYNOTE LEGEND Create a keynote legend from existing notes and place it on the drawing. NOTE CLEANUP For all notes within the specified fence area, reset the scale to 1 and the rotation to 0. NOTE COPY Copy and existing note from the drawing. NOTE EDIT Select an existing note from the drawing and display it in the EDIT NOTE pop-up menu where it can be revised. NOTE FREEZE Freeze an existing note on the drawing into its component parts. Command repeats. NOTE MANUAL Display the MANUAL NOTE PLACEMENT pop-up menu which allows custom notes to be created, edited and placed on the drawing using current note parameters. NOTE PARAMS Display the NOTE PARAMETER pop-up menu which allows various note parameters to be set and saved. NOTE QUERY Query notes, displaying the selected entity's parameters in a pop-up menu. NOTES MENU Display the NOTES overwrite menu. DETAIL SHEET Display the DETAIL SHEET LAYOUT pop-up menu which allows a sheet to be designed. STOP Terminate the current operation and reset the ARRIS system to a sane state. This command may be used in conjunction with the _ikstop stop sign ikon in the sys:rilib.sys repeated item library to place a mouse-selectable stop button on the toolbar.

Menu Modifications:

The following table lists changes and additions made to the ARRIS++ menu system.

MAIN MENUS:	ARRIS Main Menus:  ARRIS Main (DRAW) Menu In ARRIS 8.0, attributes have been integrated as a component of repeated items (RIs) and are no longer treated as separate entities. The obsolete ATTRIBUTE button was removed from all of the main menus. The new NOTES button (discussed below) was added to all of the main menus in the location previously occupied by the ATTRIBUTE button. Right-clicking on this button displays the new NOTES main flyout menu.
DESKTOP:	Desktop Menu:  DESKTOP Menu On the DESKTOP menu Sigma Design has eliminated the space around the menu buttons and stretched the boxes vertically into non-square proportions. Since this results in an extremely ugly appearance, a decision was made to leave the individual buttons as they currently appear in ARRIS++. SDI also decided to eliminate the UNDO step count display. Since this was deemed a useful feature, it was retained in ARRIS++.
	Object Snap:  OBJECT SNAP Menu The SNAP button on the DESKTOP menu was modified to display the completely redesigned OBJECT SNAP pull-down menu by Sigma Design. The on-line help for the SNAP button was expanded to explain all of the new functionality.
DETAILS:	Details Main Menus:  DETAILS Main Menu The new DETAIL SHEET LAYOUT button was added to the DETAILS main menu. Appropriate on-line help information was written as none was provided by SDI.
EDIT:	Attribute & Zone Editing:  Top Portion of EDIT Menu The EDIT and EDIT SHORT pull-down menus were modified to perform native editing on attributes and zones in the same fashion as all other entity types. The old pop-up editing menus for these two entities have been eliminated.
	Reset Scale & Rotation:  Bottom Portion of EDIT Menu A [C] button was added to both the EDIT and the EDIT SHORT menus to immediately reset the scale factor back to a value of 1 and the rotation back to a value of 0. Either of these values may be reset individually by right-clicking on the respective boxes.
	Rotation Direction: As seen in the image above, a new rotation direction button was added to both the EDIT and the EDIT SHORT menus to match the layout found on the corresponding COPY menus. Selecting this button toggles between cw (clockwise) and ccw (counter-clockwise).
LABELS:	Edit Label Text:  EDIT LABEL TEXT Button The EDIT LABEL TEXT button on the LABELS--MARKERS pop-up menu was modified to execute the the new label attribute text editing function of ARRIS 8.0.
LINES:	Line Status Menu:  LINES Status Menu The ST_LINE line status menu was revised to eliminate the FONT box which is no longer being used.
NOTES:	Notes Menus: Automatic Notes is a new feature introduced with ARRIS 8.0 that provides a means for creating a catalog of construction notes which can then be selected and placed on the drawing as either standard text or as keynote symbols which reference the actual text residing elsewhere in a keynote legend. The initial implementation of Automatic Notes was very rough and a number of serious shortcomings have been addressed by the changes noted below. As always, detailed on-line help has been provided for each of the following menus and every menu button has been redesigned to support right-click customization.  NOTES Overwrite Menu  NOTES Main Flyout Menu New Features: The NOTES overwrite menu layout was completely revised to provide a cleaner appearance and more consistent operation with the rest of the ARRIS system. The titlebar of the NOTES overwrite menu was fixed so that it will toggle back to the previous overwrite menu, similar to other ARRIS menus. Right-clicking on the titlebar will execute the notes initialization command which can be used to refresh the status menu should it ever become garbled. A NOTE CATALOG box was added to the menu to display the name of the current (active) notes catalog. Clicking on this box toggles the display of the CATALOG NOTE PLACEMENT pop-up menu which allows a different note catalog to be selected. Right-clicking on this box toggles the display of the NOTE CATALOG MANAGER pop-up menu which allows note catalogs to be created, reviewed and/or changed. The PARAMETER SETUP, CATALOG SELECT and CATALOG MANAGER functions were assigned to the standard buttons located at the bottom of the NOTES overwrite menu. A note-specific QUERY button was added to the NOTES overwrite menu. A SPELL CHECKING button was added to the NOTES overwrite menu. If the optional ARRISplus module is installed on the system and currently loaded, then this function will allow text on the drawing to be verified for proper spelling. This is identical to the function found on the TEXT overwrite menu. A new NOTES flyout menu was created as there was none provided in standard ARRIS. When placing a note using CATALOG SELECT, the prompts for note placement now repeats, allowing multiple copies of the selected note to be located on the drawing without having to constantly reselect the note from the catalog. When locating a note on the drawing, the prompts for left and right leader line placement have been revised so that, regardless of the leader settings on the status menu, it is now possible to skip the placement of the left and/or right leader simply by pressing <CR>. This means that you can specify the type of leader line(s) desired on the status menu and then do not have to constantly be changing them between each note's placement. Right-clicking on the TOOLS button now displays the LINES AND CURVES EDIT/COPY pop-up menu.
	Note Parameters Menus: The NOTE PARAMETERS pop-up menu was revised to provide a better appearance and significantly improved operation.  NOTE PARAMETERS Pop-up Menu New Features: Right-clicking on the [X] icon in the upper-right corner allows the NOTE PARAMETERS menu to be repositioned on the screen. The original ambiguous Apply button has been changed to SAVE in order to more clearly indicate its function. This button saves the current note parameters to disk so that they become the default configuration for future note placement. If unsaved changes have been made to the default parameter configuration, the SAVE button will display in yellow to indicate this condition. Left-clicking on this button will display a confirmation prompt while right-clicking will bypass the prompt and immediately save the current parameter configuration to disk. Previously, it was impossible to make temporary changes to the note parameters and use those changes, without first overwriting the default configuration which was stored on disk. This bug has been corrected. The EXIT button now immediately dismisses the NOTE PARAMETERS menu and allows the current settings to be used. To help avoid the accidental loss of work, if there are unsaved parameter changes and the NOTE PARAMETERS menu is attempted to be exited by clicking on the titlebar (rather than the EXIT button), a prompt will be displayed allowing an appropriate action (CANCEL, SAVE CHANGES, EXIT (NO SAVE) or RESET DEFAULTS) to be taken. A new RESET button was added to the menu to allow the note parameters to be immediately reset to the default configuration stored on disk. Left-clicking on this button will display a confirmation prompt while right-clicking will bypass the prompt and immediately reset all default parameters. In general, prompting for most parameter input was improved. Previously, it was necessary to guess at the desired color and enter its number from the keyboard. This serious limitation has been eliminated and the SELECT DESIRED COLOR pop-up menu is now always displayed when prompting for a color. Improved display of the keynote symbol RI and leader symbol so that they are shown with an accurate color. If the associated color is set to <None> then the symbols will now be shown in color #1 (typically white). Font selection was not properly implemented. Originally, only ten fonts (at most) were being offered as choices. This bug has been corrected and now all available fonts are displayed for selection from a scrolling prompt list. Full coordination was provided between this menu and the expanded status menu discussed below.
	Note Status Menu: The notes status menu (NOTESTAT) was completely revised to make it much more useful. Previously, there was no indication as to the status of the notes being placed on the drawing since all of the important information was hidden on the NOTE PARAMETERS menu. The status menu was redesigned to allow the most important parameters to be displayed and adjusted.  NOTES Status Menu New Features: The redundant CAPS mode button was eliminated from the menu. This was not necessary since in ARRIS++ the current CAPS mode is always displayed to the left of the toolbar menu. The status menu has been divided into a number of sections, displaying various note modes and parameter settings. To the left is the note type. The next section to the right controls the keynote symbol and text note frame parameters. This is followed by a section for text parameters and then another section for leader line parameters. Finally, there is spelling check. The NOTE TYPE button toggles between TEXT and KEYNOTE mode. Frame Parameters Section: The FRAME button toggles between on and off and determines whether a rectangular box (frame) will be drawn around a text-type note. The MASK button toggles between on and off and determines whether an invisible solid fill pattern will be placed below the keynote symbol or note text in order to mask out any other existing graphic entities. The KEYNOTE SYMBOL box displays the RI to be used when placing keynotes. Clicking on this box toggles through all of the available symbols while right-clicking on the box cycles through the symbols in the reverse direction. The PEN and COL boxes indicate how the keynote symbol or text frame will be drawn. The SIZE box indicates the size of the keynote symbol RI. Text Parameters Section: The TEXT FONT box indicates the font used to draw the text note or the label within the keynote symbol. The PEN and COL and SIZE boxes indicate how the note text or keynote label will be drawn. Leader Line Parameters Section: The LEFT and RIGHT boxes indicate the type of leader line to be used to the left and right of the note text or keynote symbol. Clicking on either of these these boxes toggles between NONE, a straight arrow, a two-segmented arrow with a bend, a two-segmented arrow with a bend and multiple pointers or a curving arrow. Right-clicking on either box will cycle through the leader styles in the reverse direction. The PEN and COL boxes indicate how the leader lines will be drawn. The ARROW box indicates the type of pointer symbol to be used. The size of the pointer symbol is indicated in the lower box. Clicking on the upper box will toggle the symbol between four different styles of arrowheads and a filled circle while right-clicking on the box cycles through the pointers in the reverse direction. The SPELL CHK box indicates the spelling check mode. Clicking on this box toggles between single, area or all. To initiate a spelling check, select the button on the NOTES overwrite menu or right-click on this box. (Note that for spell checking to work, the optional ARRISplus module must be installed. Click on the links for more information about spell checking or ARRISplus.) The status menu was fully coordinated with the NOTE PARAMETERS pop-up menu.
QUERY:	Query Menu:  QUERY Menu The new NOTE QUERY button on the QUERY pull-down menu was added. Appropriate on-line help information was written to replace the erroneous abbreviated help SDI provided which did not apply to this function.
RIs:	Repeated Items Overwrite Menu:  RI Overwrite Menu The ORIGIN OFFSET button on both menus was renamed to PLACE OFFSET. The reasons for this are discussed below. A new EDIT button was added under the ATTRIBUTES section of the REPEATED ITEMS overwrite menu. This allows attributes associated with existing RIs to be selected for review and modification. A new REGEN button was added under the ATTRIBUTES section of the REPEATED ITEMS overwrite menu. When selected, the REGENERATE ATTRIBUTES pop-up menu is displayed, offering tools to allow RI attributes to be remade using different display parameters.
	RI Attributes: Beginning in ARRIS 8.0, attributes have been more closely integrated as sub-elements of repeated items. In ARRIS++, a number of improvements have been made to make working with the new attribute system easier.  RI ATTRIBUTE Button  SET RI ATTRIBUTE Menu When an attributal RI is selected, the ATTR label will appear on the status menu to the right of the RI name. When this label is displayed, left-clicking on the button will toggle the display of the SET RI ATTRIBUTE pop-up menu. This can be a convenient way to quickly check the status of the attributes for the current RI and then dismiss the menu from the screen. Occasionally it is desirable to place an attributal RI without its associated attributes. This can accomplished by selecting the SUPPRESS PLACEMENT OF ATTRIBUTES button on the pop-up menu. However, an easier method is to simply right-click on the ATTR button to toggle attribute placement on/off. When attributes are being suppressed, the ATTR button will be greyed out as shown in the image below.  RI ATTRIBUTE Button  SET RI ATTRIBUTE Menu
	RI Origin Offsets Menu: Beginning with ARRIS 8.0, SDI introduced new SET and CLR OFFSETS buttons on the repeated items status menu in order to provide easier management of these parameters. In ARRIS++ this facility has been enhanced to make it more useful.  RI OFFSETS Button: OFF  RI OFFSETS Button: ON When the RI X, Y and Z-axes offset values are all set to zero, the OFFSET box on the status menu displays off, as seen in the left image above. When one or more axis offsets are non-zero, then the box displays on with a red warning background as seen in the right image above. Left-clicking on the OFFSET box displays the RI ORIGIN OFFSETS pop-up menu.  RI ORIGIN OFFSETS Menu This menu displays the current offsets to be applied to any new repeated item placed on the drawing. Each of the three axis values may be set or cleared individually or the SET XYZ OFFSETS button may be used to set all three axes values at one time. The EXIT button dismisses the menu, using the offset values specified. The CLEAR OFFSETS button may be used to reset all offset value back to zero. By right-clicking on the OFFSETS box on the status menu, it is also possible to immediately reset the offsets to zero without having to display the RI ORIGIN OFFSETS menu. Right-clicking on the [X] icon in the upper-right corner allows the menu to be repositioned on the screen.
	RI Placement Offset Menu: Since ARRIS 8.0 includes the new ORIGIN OFFSETS feature discussed above, it was important to distinguish this from the placement offset feature (previously labeled ORIGIN OFFSET) on the REPEATED ITEMS overwrite menu. This button was relabeled PLACE OFFSET in order to more clearly indicate that this tool actually set the placement offset for the RI (i.e., the temporary handle used to locate the RI on the drawing) and does not affect the actual RI origin location.  RI PLACEMENT OFFSET Menu The RI PLACEMENT OFFSET Menu was completely redesigned to provide the following improvements: Detailed on-line help information was written for the entire menu. All menu buttons now support right-click customization capability. A new box was added to display the actual RI ORIGIN OFFSET currently in effect. If this value is non-zero, the offset value will be displayed on a red background, similar to the way the OFFSETS button is displayed on the RI status menu. Left-clicking on this box allows the origin offset value to be changed, while right-clicking on the box immediately resets the origin offset back to (0,0,0). Clicking on the PLACEMENT OFFSET box now allows the placement offset value to be entered numerically from the keyboard, just as if the OFFSET button had been selected. Right-clicking on this box toggles the current placement offset value on/off. Right-clicking on the menu title executes the initialization command for the menu to redisplay the contents should it ever become garbled. A bug was fixed that did not allow the RI to properly display within the window if an origin offset value was in effect.
STAIRS:	Stair Section: The SECTION button on the STAIRS overwrite menu was eliminated since the code for the proposed ARRIS 8.0 stair section generator was never introduced.
VIEWPORTS:	Viewport Complex Masks:  Viewport Mask Buttons The DEFINE COMPLEX BORDER (MASK) button on the VIEWPORT LAYOUT pull-down menu was activated with the new masking feature and the new DELETE COMPLEX BORDER (MASK) button was added. Appropriate on-line help information was written to replace the erroneous help SDI provided which was intended for another unrelated function.
ZONES:	Zones Menu:  ZONES Overwrite Menu A new button was added to the ZONES overwrite menu which allows a RECTANGULAR BOX PLACEMENT method to be defined for zone boundaries. A new button was added to the ZONES overwrite menu which displays the LINE PARAMETERS FOR ZONE pop-up menu, allowing the zone boundary line parameters to be displayed and set. The ADD/SUB AREA button on the ZONES overwrite menu was modified to execute the new :mn_znopng command.

Existing Sigmac Bug Fixes:

The following table lists fixes that have been applied to existing sigmacs to correct problems and bugs.

:gap	Fixed bug that was not allowing command to terminate when either F10 or <CR> was entered.
:mn__lyent	This sigmac was modified to unhighlight the current entity when the command was exited normally by entering a <CR> at the prompt. Previously, the entity remained highlighted.
:mn__query1	Fixed a new bug introduced by SDI during modifications for ARRIS 8.0. This sigmac failed to set the global variable smn_ent properly when text entities were matched, keeping the TEXT overwrite menu from properly loading and the text entity from properly initializing.
:mn_dgmenu	The mouse motion commands and labels of the MOUSE MCI menu were being replaced by ':' or ':>' when a user attempted to cancel a command by either hitting or selecting the OPTIONS menu titlebar. This has now been fixed so that the command string or label remains unchanged in these situations.
:mn_dgusrld	SDI moved the mouse motion command files from the 'usr:' directory to 'usr:config.dir' subdirectory sometime during ARRIS 7.0 or 7.1. However, this routine which loads commands from these dg_*.st files, was not properly updated to be able to locate the relocated files. This bug has been fixed.
:mn_edslct	Modified the sigmac to properly support the incomplete change made by SDI for text font handling using the string global variables smn_edtxfont, smn_edatname and smn_edzntype.
:mn_gencol	This sigmac was supposed to accept up to three optional, user-selectable prompt arguments. The manner in which the third option was being handled was inconsistent and led to a number of functional problems. This difficulty has been corrected and proper documentation describing how to use the sigmac was added to the file.
	This sigmac failed to perform proper checking against the first optional prompt argument, rendering it worthless. This bug has been corrected.
:mn_lyent	Added code to make routine unhighlight the currently selected entity if the user terminates the command by entering <CR>.
:mn_notes	Modified the code to allow catalog note placement to repeat. This means that multiple instances of the same note may be located on the drawing without having to be constantly reselected.
	Fixed the code so that even if the left and/or right leader line are specified on the status menu, it is possible to skip their placement by entering a <CR> at the prompt.
:mn_notesm	Changed call to only load the notes status menu (NOTESTAT) if it is not already loaded. This eliminates an annoying bug that caused menu "flashing" on the screen.
	Fixed a bug that prevented note catalogs shipped with plug-in applications from being properly recognized.
:mn_notesparam	If notes parameters were changed but not saved to disk, it was impossible to create notes with these revised parameters since the default disk file contents was constantly being reread from many locations in various sigmacs. A check was introduced to insure that the parameters were only initialized once, fixing this serious bug.
	Due to a bug, when a notes parameter was changed but not saved to disk, ARRIS was losing track of the save status of the parameters and not properly highlight the SAVE (previously Apply) button when the NOTES PARAMETERS pop-up menu was redisplayed. This situation has been corrected.
	Fixed a bug in the way the keynote and leader symbols were being displayed. Previously, if the associated color was set to <None>, the symbol would be displayed in the current color which was incorrect. Now, these symbols will be shown in color #1 (typically white) to indicate that they will inherit the default color of the current layer.
:mn_projlist	A new bug was introduced in ARRIS 8.0 that completely broke project selection from the PROJECT SELECT pop-up menu if the project parent directory path had been specified using an abbreviation such as std: or usr: rather than as a fully qualified path. This has been corrected.
:mn_projsel	A new bug was introduced in ARRIS 8.0 that completely broke project selection from the PROJECT SELECT pop-up menu if the project parent directory path had been specified using an abbreviation such as std: or usr: rather than as a fully qualified path. This has been corrected.
:mn_riorgn	Fixed a bug that kept the RI PLACEMENT OFFSET pop-up menu from properly displaying the RI when an actual RI origin offset value was set.
	Modified the sigmac to stop it from automatically resetting the RI placement offset value back to zero each time the RI PLACEMENT OFFSET pop-up menu was displayed.
:mn_txfont	This command is executed when the font is picked from the text status menu (ST_TEXT). There has been a long standing bug that did not allow the display of many fonts when the MORE prompt option was selected. The first page of fonts would simply be redisplayed. This has been corrected so that all fonts can now be accessed.
:mn_xhopng	This command cuts openings in existing patterns. There was a long standing bug having to do with the improper updating of the reference point that caused the F2:box placement mode to fail when a relative numeric value was entered for the second box point. This has been fixed.
:xhst	Fixed a bug that was causing this routine to ignore the current RI origin offset value when modeling the drag cursor during RI placement. This was responsible for the situation where the RI would be placed on the drawing at a different location from the cursor's position. This no longer occurs. The cursor will now properly indicate the RI when an origin and/or placement offset value is specified.

Existing Sigmac Enhancements:

The following table lists revisions that have been made to existing sigmacs in order to provide some expanded or new capability beyond that offered by the original command.

:mn_notesm	Added new code to update the display for the expanded notes status menu (NOTESTAT).
:mn_notesparam	The prompting for the 'exit' command in the NOTES PARAMETERS pop-up menu was significantly improved and made more consistent with the remainder of the ARRIS system.
	Added new code to update the display for the expanded notes status menu (NOTESTAT).
	Added support for the new RESET button added to the NOTES PARAMETERS pop-up menu.
	On the NOTES PARAMETERS pop-up menu, the annoying '.lt' suffix was eliminated from the display of the font names.
:mn_riattrib	Modified sigmac to manage the placement/suppression of attributes by right-clicking on the ATTR box on the ST_RI repeated item status menu. The menu box is greyed out to indicate when attribute placement is currently being suppressed.
	Support was added to update the CAPS box on the ARRIS++ toolbar menu when the setting was changed from the RIATTRIB repeated item attribute pop-up menu.
	Added an option to toggle the display of the RIATTRIB pop-up menu so that this can be controlled by clicking on the ATTR button on the repeated item status menu.
:mn_rin	When a new RI is selected the placement offset value is automatically reset to zero. Code was added to unhighlight the PLACE OFFSET button on the REPEATED ITEMS overwrite menu when this occurs.
:mn_rioff	Added a new 'init' command to allow the RIOFF pop-up menu to be self-initializing.
	Added a ne 'xyzoff' command to allow all three axes offsets to be set at once - either to the same value or to three different values.
	Added code to update the origin offset values on the RI PLACEMENT OFFSET menu if it is displayed.
	Added code to update the cursor parameters when the RI origin offsets were altered. This allows the :xhst routine to properly model the drag cursor when placing RIs on the drawing.
:mn_riorgn	Added code to coordinate with the new RI ORIGIN OFFSETS pop-up menu.
:mn_riselect	Modified sigmac to support the display of the current repeated item library and name on the new ST_DLINK datalink status menu.
:mn_sample	Added support to update the display for the new notes parameters (NOTESPARAM) and the notes status (NOTESTAT) menus when the systemwide color is changed.
:mn_xhopng	Improved some of the user prompt strings.

New ARRIS++ Sigmacs:

• The following new sigmac routines have been added to the current release of ARRIS++.

  NEW COMMAND	CLASS	DESCRIPTION
  :cj_nt_catmenu	notes	Toggle the display of one of the note catalog pop-up menus
  :cj_nt_init	notes	Initialize the notes overwrite and status menus
  :cj_nt_init2	notes	Initialize the notes overwrite menu only
  :cj_nt_param	notes	Manage all function for the expanded NOTESTAT notes status menu.
  :cj_nt_qsave	notes	Perform a quick save of the current notes parameters