Changelog for ARRIS++ Version  8.3   (Spin 104, Rel. 01):

The following lists describe the changes that have been made to the ARRIS++ Enhanced Menus since the previous release (version 8.2 - spin 102, release 01), on September 22, 2004. 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
  
  
• Documentation Enhancements
  
  
• 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.

Automatic Startup: The ARRIS++ program has been enhanced to automatically load the Expert Translator module (assuming it is installed on the system) in addition to the 3D, Architect, Details, Site Design and ARRISplus modules.

Stop Command: A new sigmac named :cj_stop has been added. This enhanced command is intended to replace the use of the <ESC> key and may be attached to a mouse motion or a toolbar button for quick execution. In addition to terminating the current ARRIS operation, this command will: Automatically deactivate the object snap cursor Dismiss all pop-up menus Insure that the line-thru editing mode is turned off Makes sure that the reference blip is turned on Reset the cursor to normal mode Clear any search window lines from the screen Clear the message line In addition, when working within a viewport, when executed, the Viewport Outline will be redisplayed assuming the user has turned on this feature for ALL COMMANDS AND CONTROLS on the ARRIS++ OPTIONS menu.

The following ARRIS++ commands were added to the TOOLBAR command database: COMMAND DESCRIPTION COL MAP user11 A 256-slot colormap which includes the original 48 ARRIS colors as previously defined in user1.cm COL MAP user11R Same as user11 except that black and white are swapped to produce a white screen COL MAP user12 A 256-slot colormap which includes the modified pastel colors in the 32-63 range as previously defined in user2.cm COL MAP user12R Same as user12 except that black and white are swapped to produce a white screen COL MAP user13 A 256-slot colormap based upon user2.cm which provides access to the complete pre-8.1 ARRIS color set. COL MAP user13R Same as user13 except that black and white are swapped to produce a white screen COL MAP user14 A 256-slot colormap based upon user13.cm which provides a smoother set of pastel colors in the 32-93 range. COL MAP user14R Same as user14 except that black and white are swapped to produce a white screen LOAD COLORMAP Prompt for the colormap to be loaded, offering a selection of all standard ARRIS and ARRIS++ colormaps. Once the new colormap has been loaded, the screen and menus will be automatically updated to display the new color scheme. NOTE C PARAM Display the NOTE CATALOG MANAGER PARAMETERS pop-up menu. NOTE D PARAM Display the DEFAULT NOTE PARAMETERS pop-up menu. NOTE: Those commands marked with a * require that the ARRIS++ optional sigmac library be installed.

Documentation Enhancements:

The following table lists general modifications and enhancements that have been made to the ARRIS++ menu system documentation.

The ARRIS Enhanced Menus Package documentation was updated to reflect all changes made to accommodate new ARRIS 8.3 features as well as the additional enhancements discussed here.

A new cj_browser Korn-shell script was added which is used to launch the HTML documentation browser from within ARRIS on UNIX systems. This script adds some new intelligence for the Mozilla, Foxfire and Netscape browsers which should improve performance under a wider range of conditions. This script can now test to see if a browser session is currently running an then determine whether it should start a new session or open a new window for the currently running session. There is also better support for user's having multiple browser profiles.

Menu Modifications:

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

COLOR:	Colormaps  Colormap: user13.cm A new colormap named user13.cm was added which supports the standard ARRIS++ menu and revised pastel colors from the previously released user2.cm colormap. Colors in slot 64 and up retain the same format and color distribution as was found on older versions of ARRIS prior to the introduction of high resolution colormaps. This may be of use for certain special functions and backwards compatibility.  Colormap: user14.cm A new colormap named user14.cm was added which is a cross between the previously released user12.cm and the new user13.cm colormaps. The even color slots between 32 and 62 have the new pastel colors taken from user12.cm while the remainder of the colormap from slot 64 and up have the colors found on earlier versions of ARRIS as seen in colormap user13.cm. As with all custom colormaps in ARRIS++, additional colormaps named user13rev.cm and user14rev.cm have been added which are identical to their counterparts with the exception that colors 0 (black) and 1 (white) have been swapped, resulting in a white screen with dark lines.
	Loading Colormaps All of the ARRIS++ custom colormap files may be found in the ${ARRIS}/ap/cjsa.vn/cjmenus.ap/lib directory. To make one of these colormaps the default, copy the appropriate file into the ${GRUSR} directory and rename it user.cm. The next time ARRIS is started these colors will be automatically loaded. To facilitate the use of all colormaps, a new sigmac command name :cj_cm_load has been created. When executed, it prompts as follows:  :cj_cm_load Command Prompt If a user.cm and/or user_rev.cm colormap file exist at either the ${GRUSR} or ${GRSTD} locations, they will be listed in addition to all of the standard ARRIS and ARRIS++ colormaps. Each name is tagged with either a (64) or a (256) to indicate whether it is an older 64-color, or newer, high-res, 256-color colormap. Unlike the standard ARRIS commands which require manual intervention (a screen and menu redraw) to get the new colors displayed, this command will automatically update the graphic screen and the menus to immediately display the new color scheme. If you often switch colormaps, it might be convenient to assign this as the custom right-click command for the COLOR button on the DESKTOP menu. It is then just a single click away. A set of special commands has been created to allow these colormaps to be loaded at any time without having to first copy them to the ${GRUSR} directory. These commands are located on the TOOLBAR COMMAND ASSIGNMENT MENU under the group titled ARRIS++: COLORMAP and may be easily loaded onto the toolbar for use. For additional information on this procedure, see the section titled Toolbar Command Database.
NOTES:	Notes  NOTES Overwrite Menu  Inactive PREV NOTE Button  Typical PREV NOTE Message The note placement feature (i.e., SELECT NOTE FROM CATALOG) was previously enhanced so that more than one copy of a given note could be located on the drawing without having to reselect it from the note catalog. However, there are many situations where an adjustment to ARRIS interrupts note placement. To make it easier to restart, a new PREV NOTE button has been added. Selecting this button will display the previous keynote number and note text on the message line and immediately initiate note placement. By right-clicking on this button, the number and text of the previous note can be reviewed without initiating placement mode. If no note has been previously selected, then this button will be greyed out to indicate that it is inactive (as seen in the upper-right image above). Any attempt to select the button while in an inactive state will cause an error message to be displayed.
	Default Notes Parameters  DEFAULT NOTE PARAMETERS Pop-up Menu New Features: The title of this menu was changed from NOTE PARAMETERS to DEFAULT NOTE PARAMETERS to better describe its true function. The menu code has been fixed so that the keynote and leader symbols will still be visible if the current color is set to zero. A new EDIT CURRENT CATALOG PARAMETERS button has been added. Selecting the button dismisses this menu and displays the NOTE CATALOG MANAGER PARAMETERS pop-up menu which allows the note parameters for the current catalog to be reviewed. If the user has write permission for note catalogs, the default note parameters may be overridden for any individual catalog.
	Notes Catalog Manager Parameters  NOTE CATALOG MANAGER PARAMETERS Pop-up Menu The NOTE CATALOG MANAGER PARAMETERS menu was completely revised for this release. Special Features: The menu was reformatted for improved readability and consistency. Various formatting errors were also corrected. Complete on-line help has been provided. The menu code has been fixed so that the keynote and leader symbols will still be visible if the current color is set to zero. A new EDIT button has been added at the upper-right corner of the DEFAULT NOTE PARAMETERS box. Selecting this button will dismiss this menu and display the DEFAULT NOTE PARAMETERS pop-up menu where the default parameter values may be modified - assuming you have write permission for note catalogs. The original ambiguous Apply button has been changed to SAVE in order to more clearly indicate its function. This button saves the current catalog, including any customized parameters, to disk so that they become the default configuration for future notes selected from that catalog. If unsaved changes have been made to the current catalog, the SAVE button will display in yellow to indicate this condition. All prompts were significantly improved to be more consistent with the remainder of the ARRIS system. Each prompt now displays the current value as a default response which is retained if <CR> is entered. All color prompts now immediately display the color selection menu rather than forcing the user to first select the MENU option. Support was added for the ARRIS++ enhanced color selection menus. The prompt for the text font has been fixed to allow all active fonts to be displayed and selected rather than just the first ten.
	Notes Status Menu  NOTES Status Menu The notes status menu was significantly revised for this release. New Features: A new PARAMETERS box has been added. This box displays either <DEFAULT> if the current note catalog is using all of the default note parameter settings, or displays <CATALOG> if the current note catalog uses custom parameter settings that override the system defaults. Selecting this box causes the NOTE CATALOG MANAGER PARAMETERS pop-up menu to be displayed where both the default and the catalog's custom settings may be reviewed and managed. The boxes for the RI symbols, font, pens, colors and sizes are now read-only with the information displayed on a greyed background. These give the user a clear understanding of the parameters currently in use. However, altering these values is now restricted to either the DEFAULT or CATALOG PARAMETERS menus. Any attempt to change these values from the status menu will result in the message: Parameter cannot be changed from this location. Try the PARAMETERS box. Previously, the status menu only showed parameters from the DEFAULT NOTE PARAMETERS menu. This has now been changed so that any custom catalog parameters from the NOTE CATALOG MANAGER PARAMETERS menu which override the defaults are now displayed. The menu code has been fixed so that the keynote frame symbol will still be visible if the current color is set to zero.
OPTIONS:	ARRIS++ Options Menu  ARRIS++ OPTIONS Menu In standard ARRIS, when entering a viewport with a rotated view, the workplane and cursor typically remain oriented with the database and are consequently not aligned with the current screen view. A new feature has been added so that when entering a rotated viewport, it is possible for ARRIS++ to automatically set the workplane and cursor to match that view. Since this may not be desirable for some users, an entry on the ARRIS++ OPTIONS menu allows this feature to be turned on or off.
QUERY:	Query Menu  QUERY Menu  Query DISTANCE Menu The DIST button on the QUERY pull-down menu has been modified so that a right-click will reset both the CURRENT and the HISTORICAL running total distance values to zero before launching the command.
RASTER:	Raster Menus  RASTER Overwrite Menu  RASTER Main Flyout Menu The raster menus have been reorganized to add support for new features added with this release of ARRIS. All of the utility functions remain and perform their original functions, but the buttons have been rearranged. A new CREATE PDF section has been added: The new button labeled CURRENT will display the EXPORT TO PDF pop-up menu (which is also accessible from the PLOT menu). This menu allows the currently loaded sheet or drawing to be exported as a PDF file as well as allowing existing PDF files to be displayed using the Acrobat Reader. The button labeled BATCH performs the same function as the old PDF button on earlier menus. On Windows systems only, this will load the RenderPlus PDF application module and display the Create PDF File pop-up menu which allows batch conversion of ARRIS drawings to PDF files.
RIs:	Repeated Item Status Menu  Partial RI Status Menu The repeated item status menu was enhanced in the following ways: A new box was added to the status menu which shows an image of the current repeated item. This will be displayed in either the RI's native color(s) or in the current color, depending upon how the RI was originally created. Clicking on this box immediately displays the REPEATED ITEM SELECT pop-up menu where another RI may be selected from an existing RI catalog or library. A bug introduced in ARRIS version 8.3 caused the arrow icon on the button which toggles the RI SCALE FACTOR mode to be lost. A new icon has been added in its place.
	Repeated Item Attributes  EDIT Menu Special Attribute Editing Buttons When the attribute entity is selected on the EDIT pull-down menu, the special editing commands seen above are displayed at the bottom of the menu. Some attribute editing commands were honoring the current CAPS mode setting while others were not, making attribute editing totally unpredictable. The EDIT VALUES and CHANGE VALUE commands have now been fixed to honor the current CAPS mode setting.
WALLS:	Wall Point Display The wall points button on the WALLS menu was modified so that a left-click will immediately display all wall points currently visible on the screen. Right-clicking on this button will still prompt for the various display options. This change was made as a matter of convenience. The speed of modern computers allows the display of wall points for multiple walls to be very quick and prompting for the display method just slows this operation.

Existing Sigmac Bug Fixes:

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

:cj_mn_dtclr	Fixed a bug that was causing the workplane box on the DESKTOP menu to become unhighlighted even though the the workplane was still set to a non-zero rotation.
:menld	Fixed a bug that was causing all of the on-line menu help text to become completely garbled.
:mn__txfont	Fix problem in scrolling prompt where use of $chr(254) and $chr(255) which were previously valid are now undefined and cause display problems.
:mn_dgusrld	Fix bug that kept the 2D STD and 3D STD mouse motion command sets from being loaded when the associated buttons were selected from the MOUSE MCI menu. (Note: This was a bug created due to previous ARRIS++ modifications.)
:mn_dim2	Fixed a bug where manual dimensioning was not always obeying the current CAPS mode setting.
:mn_edatt	Fixed command to honor the current CAPS mode setting while editing attribute names and/or values.
:mn_getfil	Fixed prompt to avoid use of the now obsolete $chr(252) and $chr(253) arrow characters.
:mn_nctmgr	Fixed bug where exiting from the NOTE CATALOG MANAGER PARAMETERS menu without saving changes was failing to clear the "save" flag as it was being done when exiting from the NOTE CATALOG MANAGER menu.
:mn_nctmgrp	Changed sigmac level from 1u to 1s to make this a system sigmac.
	Fixed a serious bug that when prompting for a new font, arbitrarily limited the selection to just ten fonts. Now, the command prompt provides a scrolling list to allow access to all active fonts.
:mn_notepmt	Fixed a display problem that caused the keynote and leader symbols to be invisible on the menu when the symbol's color was set to 0.
:mn_notesm	Fixed a display problem that caused the note frame symbol to be invisible on the status menu when the frame's color was set to 0.
:mn_riattent	Fixed command to honor the current CAPS mode setting while editing attribute values.
:mn_ril	Fix problem in scrolling prompt where use of $chr(254) and $chr(255) which were previously valid are now undefined and cause display problems.
:mn_ripage	Fix problem in scrolling prompt where use of $chr(254) and $chr(255) which were previously valid are now undefined and cause display problems.
:mn_ristart	Fix the problem of attempting to place the now obsolete $chr(253) character on the RI_ST repeated item status menu. This menu now supports its own icon.
:mn_ttfonts	Fix problem in scrolling prompt where use of $chr(254) and $chr(255) which were previously valid are now undefined and cause display problems.
:which	Fixed output message to avoid use of the now obsolete $chr(253) arrow character.
:z_dspappl	Eliminated use of the now obsolete $chr(252) and $chr(253) arrow characters around the background module's name on the _MAIN menu. The background module name is now contained within angled brackets.

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_gencol	Increased allowable prompt string length from 24 to 30 characters.
:mn_nctmgr	Reformatted all prompts to eliminate the improper use of capitalization which was totally inconsistent with the remainder of the ARRIS system.
:mn_nctmgrm	Fixed a display problem that caused the frame and leader symbols to be invisible on the menu when the symbol's color was set to 0.
:mn_nctmgrp	Added support for the ARRIS++ enhanced color selection menu.
	Improved prompts for color selection to immediately display the color select menu rather than forcing user to first select the MENU prompt option.
	Reformatted all prompts to eliminate the improper use of capitalization which was totally inconsistent with the remainder of the ARRIS system.
:mn_notes	Added code to update the NOTES overwrite and status menus when a new notes catalog was selected.
:mn_sample	Added support for the NOTE CATALOG MANAGER PARAMETERS, DEFAULT NOTES PARAMETERS, NOTES status menus and the REPEATED ITEM status menu.
:mn_riselect	Added support for the new RI ikon display box on the RI status menu.
:mn_ristart	Added support for the new RI ikon display box on the RI status menu.
:mn_vport	Added new code to automatically set the workplane and cursor to match the view when entering a rotated viewport. This action can be controlled through the global variable icj_vp_rotwkp.

New ARRIS++ Sigmacs:

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

NEW COMMAND	CLASS	DESCRIPTION
:cj_stop	misc	An enhanced command intended to replace use of the <ESC> key.
:cj_nt_prev	notes	Place the previously selected note
:cj_ut_lcase	utility	Convert string in stored scj_ut_string to all lowercase
:cj_ut_ucase	utility	Convert string stored in scj_ut_string to all uppercase