ARRIS++ Enhanced Menus Package: CHANGELOG

Changelog for ARRIS++ Version 8.3 (Spin 118, Rel. 02):

The following lists describe the changes that have been made to the ARRIS++ Enhanced Menus since the previous release (version 8.3 - spin 118, release 01), on January 13, 2006. 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

General Improvements:

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

In standard ARRIS, each time a new repeated item was selected for use, the current RI being used for a RI FILL pattern was also changed. The same thing also happens in reverse with the standard RI being changed if the pattern RI fill was modified. This can be extremely annoying. In ARRIS++ the RI name used for patterns has now been completely isolated from the standard RI. Each one may be changed independently and it will not affect the other.
While fixing this problem, I also addressed a number of other small problems with the way various individual parameters were updated when using MATCH SELECTED PARAMS from the QUERY/EDIT menu. This should work more reliably now and with better user feedback as to what is happening.

In standard ARRIS, when a new RI is selected for use, the RI scale and rotation remain set to their current values. This is almost never what is desired. A new option (discussed in detail below) has been added which allows ARRIS++ to automatically reset the scale back to 1.0 and the rotation back to 0-degrees whenever a new RI is loaded.

A number of existing sigmacs were fixed to stop them from interpreting input strings as separate sigmac commands. This could potentially cause various features in ARRIS to stop working or to work erratically.

Documentation Enhancements:

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

The ARRIS++ master documentation has been updated to reflect all changes reported here.

Menu Modifications:

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

OPTIONS: ARRIS++ Options Menu

ARRIS++ OPTIONS Menu
The following new option was added to the ARRIS++ OPTIONS menu:

RESET NEW RI's SCALE TO 1 AND ROTATION TO 0:
In standard ARRIS, when a new repeated item is selected for use, the current RI SCALE FACTOR and RI ROTATION remain at their current settings. Typically, these values are not appropriate for the new RI. If this behavior is not what you prefer, then this option may be used to force ARRIS to automatically reset the RI scale back to a value of 1 and the RI rotation back to a value of 0 each time a new repeated item is chosen.

ARRIS++ OPTIONS Menu
Selecting this button toggles the option between YES and NO. The default value of NO allows ARRIS to operate with its typical behavior. Setting this option to YES causes the scale and rotation to be automatically reset.

PATTERN: Pattern Scale

PATTERNS Status Menu: Scale Prompt
The prompt for the adjusting the pattern scale was modified to add new selections for 0.083, 0.1, 0.333, 0.667, 5 and 10. These new options will scale the pattern by exactly 1/12th, 1/10th, 1/3rd, 2/3rd, 5 and 10.
The 0.083, 0.333 and 0.667 scales can be useful in many cases when working in imperial units. For example, a tile pattern that was initially created at 1' square can be quickly rescaled to either 1", 4" or 8" square using these values.
The 0.1, 5 and 10 scales may be more useful when working in a metric database.

POINTS: Points Menus

POINTS Overwrite Menu
POINTS Main Flyout Menu

Insert Point Ikon
For completeness, a new insert points command was added to the POINTS menus. Clicking on this button allows individual points to be inserted into a line or wall at the specified location, breaking it into two segments. The command repeats.
Right-clicking on this button allows a point to be inserted at the location where two lines and/or walls intersect, breaking each line or wall into two segments. The command repeats.

TOOLBAR: 26 Box Toolbar

26 Box Toolbar Menu

There was a typographical error in the menu definition for this toolbar that caused box #20 to fail to properly execute its command. This problem has been corrected.

Existing Sigmac Bug Fixes:

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

:mn_dist Fixed problem where the rectangular area value was being reported as a negative number depending upon how the two points were specified. Now the area is always reported as a positive number.

:mn_qrydb On the QUERY/EDIT menu, matching the pattern RI name called this routine which then incorrectly matched all of the pattern parameters. This has been fixed so that now only the Pattern RI name is matched. the MATCH ALL PARAMS button can still be used to match all of the parameters. A message will be displayed indicating that you cannot match the name of a solid fill or line pattern.

:mn_riselect Fixed a strange problem where the RI SELECT menu would stop updating the RI name and description and the catalog and library categories would stop expanding/collapsing.

:gr_dwp :mn__getpt :mn_copy3 :mn_dmsetup :mn_dmstup :mn_edslct :mn_layadd :mn_pinp :mn_pmaps :mn_preset :mn_ridraw :r_dwd :r_mtass :y_dw_crit :y_rf_lin Fixed a bug in each of these sigmacs to stop them from interpreting input strings as commands which could potentially cause various features in ARRIS to stop working or to work erratically.

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_pset Added support for matching scale and rotation for both standard and pattern fill RIs.

:mn_qry Added global variables to allow RI scale and rotation to be saved and reset when returning to the RI menus.

:mn_qrydb Added support to properly match the RI name for both standard RIs and RIs used for pattern fills.

:mn_rin Added code to support automatically resetting the scale to 1 and the rotation to 0 when a new RI is selected for use.

:mn_rirot Added code to allow standard RI rotation to be saved and reset when returning to RI menus.

:mn_riscl Added code to allow standard RI scale to be saved and reset when returning to RI menus.

:mn_riselect Added code to support automatically resetting the scale to 1 and the rotation to 0 when a new RI is selected for use.

:mn_ristart Added code to reset the standard RI scale and rotation values when returning to RI menus.

Added code to keep the RI scale from occasionally being reset back to 0.0. The RI scale can now be set to a very small value, but if it is set exactly to 0.0, it will automatically be reset to 1.0.

`:mn_dist`	Fixed problem where the rectangular area value was being reported as a negative number depending upon how the two points were specified. Now the area is always reported as a positive number.
`:mn_qrydb`	On the QUERY/EDIT menu, matching the pattern RI name called this routine which then incorrectly matched all of the pattern parameters. This has been fixed so that now only the Pattern RI name is matched. the MATCH ALL PARAMS button can still be used to match all of the parameters. A message will be displayed indicating that you cannot match the name of a solid fill or line pattern.
`:mn_riselect`	Fixed a strange problem where the RI SELECT menu would stop updating the RI name and description and the catalog and library categories would stop expanding/collapsing.
`:gr_dwp :mn__getpt :mn_copy3 :mn_dmsetup :mn_dmstup :mn_edslct :mn_layadd :mn_pinp :mn_pmaps :mn_preset :mn_ridraw :r_dwd :r_mtass :y_dw_crit :y_rf_lin`	Fixed a bug in each of these sigmacs to stop them from interpreting input strings as commands which could potentially cause various features in ARRIS to stop working or to work erratically.

`:mn_pset`	Added support for matching scale and rotation for both standard and pattern fill RIs.
`:mn_qry`	Added global variables to allow RI scale and rotation to be saved and reset when returning to the RI menus.
`:mn_qrydb`	Added support to properly match the RI name for both standard RIs and RIs used for pattern fills.
`:mn_rin`	Added code to support automatically resetting the scale to 1 and the rotation to 0 when a new RI is selected for use.
`:mn_rirot`	Added code to allow standard RI rotation to be saved and reset when returning to RI menus.
`:mn_riscl`	Added code to allow standard RI scale to be saved and reset when returning to RI menus.
`:mn_riselect`	Added code to support automatically resetting the scale to 1 and the rotation to 0 when a new RI is selected for use.
`:mn_ristart`	Added code to reset the standard RI scale and rotation values when returning to RI menus.
`:mn_ristart`	Added code to keep the RI scale from occasionally being reset back to 0.0. The RI scale can now be set to a very small value, but if it is set exactly to 0.0, it will automatically be reset to 1.0.