General Menu Features:

This section discusses general changes and enhancements that have been made to the ARRIS menus. Specific changes for individual menus are discussed elsewhere.

Flyout Menus:

Main Flyout Menus:


 Example Main Flyout Menu


Special Features:

• A complete set of enhanced flyout menus have been provided for every function in the GEOMETRY and NOTATION sections of the main menus - as well as for many of the application-specific tools. These menus are displayed by right-clicking on any of the main menu buttons. Taking the time to learn to use these menus can result in a significant increase in drawing efficiency. They are particularly useful when working on a certain drawing task and there is a need to perform a single operation of a different type.

Example:

• Assume that walls are being drawn and the WALLS overwrite sub-menu is currently displayed. It is now desired to add a single dimension line and then continue working with walls. The typical sequence would be to load the DIMENSION sub-menu, select the proper dimensioning tool, perform the dimensioning task, and then reloading the WALLS sub-menu. Instead, a much quicker way to accomplish this would be to simply right-click on the DIMENSION button and select the desired tool from the flyout menu. When the dimensioning task was completed the WALLS sub-menu would still be displayed and work could immediately continue.

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Snap Flyout Menus:


 Example Snap Flyout Menu


Special Features:

• When right-clicking on certain drawing function on the application overwrite menus, sometimes a snap flyout menu (as seen above) was presented to aid in locating the first construction point. Unfortunately, in ARRIS the availability of this feature is sporadic and unreliable. In ARRIS++ this problem has been addressed by insuring that a right-click, snap flyout menu is presented for every applicable drawing command (i.e., any drawing command that immediately prompts for a construction point). Learning to rely on these snap menus can save keystrokes while performing drawing tasks.

Examples:

• Assume it was desired to place a RI at the projected intersection of two lines. From the REPEATED ITEMS overwrite menu, simply right-click on the PLACE SINGLE box and then choose the correct snap command.
  
  
• Working on the sheet layer, it becomes necessary to draw a circle with the centerpoint located at a point only visible within a viewport. Since viewport points cannot be located with the normal <F1> or <F3> methods, the easiest way to accomplish this task is to right-click on the circle button and select the SNAP TO POINT IN VIEWPORT tool.

Load Menus:

Typical Load Menu with Navigation Buttons



All file loading menus have been enhanced with a set of buttons which immediately navigate to the following locations:

USR:	HOME	User's Directory	${GRSTD}
STD:	STANDARD	Office Standards Directory	${GRSTD}
WRK:	PROJECT	Project or Work Directory	<name>.pj
DB:	DATABASE	Database Directory	<name>.db
SYS:	SYSTEM	ARRIS Library Directory	${ARRIS}/lib
---	PREVIOUS	Last Visited Directory	(See note below)*



* To make the PREV button be as useful as possible, it remembers the last directory visited that does not match USR:, STD:, WRK:, DB: or SYS:. This insures that it acts as a unique navigational tool by avoiding duplicating the functions of the other buttons.

To aid in navigation, different location in the file system are displayed in different colors:



• Any file or folder located under usr: (i.e., HOME) is displayed on a background using the datafield color. (Typically either dark green or slate blue).
  
  
• Any file or folder located under std: is displayed on a royal blue background.
  
  
• Any file or folder located under sys: is displayed on a red background.
  
  
• Any file or folder located elsewhere is displayed on a background using the pressed color. (Typically either light green or light blue.)

Menu Titles

 Example of Overview Menu Title
• In ARRIS some application overwrite menus support a feature where clicking on the menu title redisplays the previous overwrite menu being used. Because this feature is implemented sporadically, it is unreliable and was used infrequently. In ARRIS++ this problem has been rectified. All revised overwrite menus now support this feature and its use is strongly encouraged.

  Notes:

  • At least two overwrite menus must have been previously selected before this feature will work!
  
  
  
• Occasionally, something will cause ARRIS to become confused and stop displaying information on the menus properly. Many menus have an initialization command associated with them, and for every revised menu that has such a command, right-clicking on the title bar (but not the [X] icon!) will rerun this initialization command, often solving the problem. In the case of application overwrite menus, this may rectify problems with the associated status menu.
  
  

On-Line Help:

For each of the new or revised menus in the ARRIS++ package, detailed on-line help was written for every menu box. This help describes both the standard and the default right-click actions. In the cases where existing help was provided by Sigma Design, that information was reviewed and updated or expanded as necessary.

To access the help information, place the cursor over the desired menu box and press F2 to display the QUICK HELP menu. Then select MORE HELP to display the EXTENDED HELP pop-up menu.


 Example of On-Line EXTENDED HELP Menu

A new user should spend time exploring the on-line help to familiarize themselves with the new menu layouts and especially with the default right-click actions that are now available.

Experienced ARRIS users can also take advantage of this useful information. Review the help material available for 2-POINT PARAGRAPH on the TEXT overwrite menu or the help for the WINPORTS button (in the lower-left corner below the ZOOM button) as two examples of the level of detailed information available. Referring to on-line help can save time spent hunting for information elsewhere. It can also reveal new features of ARRIS that will improve productivity when put into practice.

Application Overwrite Menus

With the advent of the new SELECT pager in ARRIS 2001, a considerable amount of valuable real estate on the overwrite menus was being devoted to the new SELECT buttons. Additionally, there were new buttons for CATALOG (styles), and CREATE which inconsistently duplicated either the existing SELECT or SETUP functions. All of this has been cleared up through the addition of a permanent SELECT button placed immediately below the overwrite menus adjacent to TOOLS and SETUP as can be seen in the following diagram.


 TOOLS / SETUP / SELECT Buttons

Each of these buttons will be described below.

Notes:

• Sometimes, due to the layout requirements of a particular overwrite menus, it was necessary to eliminate the TOOLS, SETUP and SELECT labels that appear above these buttons.

TOOLS / EDIT:

• Selecting the TOOLS button will typically display a pop-up menu containing various drawing tools associated with the current overwrite menu. In some cases, a particular overwrite menu will not have any associated TOOLS and a message will be displayed indicating this.
  
  
• Right-clicking on the TOOLS button will display a pop-up EDIT/COPY menu which is customized for the entity type most closely related to the current overwrite menu.

SETUP / COMMAND:

• Selecting the SETUP button will typically display a pop-up SETUP, CREATE or CUSTOM EDIT menu that allows various parameters to be set and possibly saved as styles. In some cases, a particular overwrite menu will not have any associated SETUP menu and a message will be displayed indicating this.
  
  
• Right-clicking on the SETUP button will execute a special command associated with the current overwrite menu. In some cases a particular overwrite menu will not have any special command assigned to it and a message will be displayed indicating this.

SELECT / CATALOG:

• Clicking on the SELECT button will typically display a pop-up SELECT menu that presents certain entities from the current style catalog, allowing then to be searched and and chosen for use. The current catalog may also be changed in order to access a different set of entities. In some cases, a particular overwrite menu will not have any associated SELECT menu and a message will be displayed indicating this.
  
  
• Right-clicking on the SELECT button will typically display a pop-up CATALOG menu that allows the catalogs associated with the current overwrite menu to be managed. In some cases a particular overwrite menu will not have any associated CATALOG menu and a message will be displayed indicating this.

overwr.tx:

• All of the functions associated with the TOOLS, SETUP and SELECT buttons, including ENTITY-EDIT (right-click on TOOLS), SPECIAL COMMAND (right-click on SETUP) and CATALOG (right-click on SELECT), are managed by an external text file located at:
  ${ARRIS}/ap/cjsa.vn/cjmenus.ap/cj_overwr.tx

  It is possible to customize this file for personal or office-wide use. This is particularly useful when custom application with new overwrite menus have been developed. By making a copy of this file and adding entries for the new menus, it is possible to assign unique function for your application to any or all of these buttons.

  To do this, make a copy of the cj_overwr.tx, rename it as overwr.tx, and place it in the config.dir directory under ${GRSTD} for office use or under ${GRUSR} for personal use. Now, simply edit the file following the instructions contained therein and add the desired new entries. ARRIS will immediately see these modifications and begin using them.

  Notes:

  • It is important that a copy of the original cj_overwr.tx be used as a starting point for further modifications. ARRIS will only search until it has found the first overwr.tx file, looking first under ${GRUSR}, then under ${GRSTD} and finally resorting to the original application control file. If a new file is created that omits some or all of the standard commands for existing menus, ARRIS will no longer be able to perform these functions.

  See Also:

  • Geometry Menus
  • Notation Menus
  • 3D Model/Render Menus
  • Details Menus
  • Site Design Menus

Pop-up Menus

• All revised pop-up menus have been enhanced to allow them to be repositioned on the screen. This is accomplished by right-clicking on the small [X] icon in the upper-right corner of the menu. The cursor will be changed to a rectangle the size of the menu which may be dragged to a new location and dropped there by left-clicking. From that point, until the end of the current ARRIS session, or until the menu is repositioned again, it will continue to display in the new location. This can be convenient for moving a pop-up menu to a different part of the screen so that it does not obscure some critical work.

  
   Example Pop-up Menu

  Notes:

  • When the menu is deposited in a new location, it may jump slightly from where it was dropped. This is normal as ARRIS must position the menu on its underlying menu coordinate grid.

  Bugs:

  • While a number of important pop-up menus have been enhanced as described above, unfortunately there are many other existing ARRIS pop-up menus which have not yet been revised in this package. Therefore, this feature remains somewhat unpredictable. The easiest way to know if a menu may or may not be moved is to simply try it!
    
    
  • When some menus are moved to new screen positions, some of the graphics may be distorted. The typical problem is that very thin (1-pixel wide) lines used as menu box dividers will not be displayed. This is not a problem with the menus but is a display bug in ARRIS. If the menu appears unusable in its new location, try repositioning it and see if things improve.

Right-Click Commands:

One of the primary reasons for recreating so many of the standard ARRIS menus was to add the capability to modify the right-click commands for all of the active boxes. For every new or revised ARRIS++ menu, each box now allows the right-click actions to be set to meet personal requirements.

Let's use an example to see how modifying a right-click action is accomplished. Assume that due to some current project requirement there is a need to constantly draw circumscribed octagons. We find that we keep having to first set the POL value to 8 and would like to not have to constantly select the "circumscribed" option.

The right-click feature is set through the help system, so we place the cursor over the POLYGON box, press F2 to display the QUICK HELP menu and then select MORE HELP to display the EXTENDED HELP pop-up menu. The left and right-click commands are located towards the bottom of the menu as seen in the following image.


 Lower Portion of EXTENDED HELP Menu for POLYGON

To change the right-click command, click on either the DEFAULT RIGHT CLICK COMMAND STRING box or the GOTO button. This will display the RIGHT CLICK (RC) COMMAND SETUP menu.


 RIGHT CLICK (RC) COMMAND SETUP Menu

With a little investigation we discovered that the polygon sides is set with the command:



:mn_inpflg;=#fsides;=8

and the polygon command could be initialized with:



:mn_pol2;='circumscribed'

We select the COMMAND box and enter these two commands separated by a semi-colon. Next we select the DESCRIPTION box and enter a short description for this new command. The menu now appears as follows:


 RIGHT CLICK (RC) COMMAND SETUP Menu

Everything look good so we click on the ACCEPT button followed by EXIT.

Now, when we right-click on the POLYGON button, the polygon sides will be automatically set to 8, the circumscribed construction mode will be automatically selected, the short description we just entered will be displayed on the message line to remind us of what we are doing, and we can immediately begin placing our octagons! The few minutes spent entering this command will save us a considerable amount of time and frustration long into the future.

Don't hesitate to play with this powerful feature. At any time the original default action may be restored by redisplaying the RIGHT CLICK (RC) COMMAND SETUP menu, clicking on the COMMAND box and selecting the USE DEFAULT option.

All right-click customizations are stored in the mn_rc.st file located in the USR:config.dir directory. This file may be copied and placed on another machine to easily migrate your customizations.

Now that this facility is available in a reliable fashion users are strongly encourage to investigate its use as it provides an extremely easy means to customize the menu system without having to know anything about menu or sigmac creation.

See Also:

• New Features