The Graphical interface.

• The main window.

• The context sensitive toolbar.

• The components palette.

The Graphical interface

The main window

When the application is launched, the user is presented with the following interface:

Figure 1

At the bottom of the interface, a status bar displays the name of the currently active database, the current status of the program, the WindowsÔ login name and the version of the computation engine DLL file.
 

The context sensitive toolbar

At the top of the program GUI, the context sensitive toolbar gives the user access to all of the functionality of the program. The behavior of each button changes according to the currently open window as described below.

Figure 2

Listed from left to right

·         New

·         If no database is currently open, it allows the user to create a new database

·         If a database is currently open, the "Create new" dialog box appears to allow the user to create new components or assemblies

·         Save

·         If pressed while the active window is an assembly schematic, the state of the currently open assembly (assembly name, comments, component locations and logical links) along with all the included components and their properties are saved.

·         If pressed while the active window is a chart, the state of the chart is saved (curve visibility status, color, pen width and line type)

·         Open: allows the user to open an existing database

·         Output: opens output dialog box show here:

·         This window opens the last computation-dll-generated output files using one of three different applications:

·         Default text editor

·         Microsoft Word

·         Microsoft Excel

·         Or disable a particular output file from being opened

·         The three files that can be opened from here are:

·         Header file: General analysis information consisting of all input data.

·         Summary file: Includes the header file plus all computed results.

·         Output file: Comma delimited numeric file including only the computed results and column headings.

For an explanation and more information on these files, see Running the analysis

·         Delete: Deletes the currently selected item (assembly, component, instance, logical link)

·         Copy: Copies the current selection to the clipboard

Note: CSI 6.0 uses an internal clipboard (not available to other applications) for copying and pasting component and assemblies within the application. However, if this option is used from a chart window, CSI places two things in the Windows clipboard: a windows metafile formatted (WMF) picture of the chart area plus the complete data set that generated such chart (see viewing results for more information on why and how to use these features). 

·         Paste: Pastes the contents of the internal clipboard. CSI uses an internal clipboard for copying and pasting components, instances and assemblies within the application. The contents of this clipboard are not accessible to other applications.

·         Properties: Opens the appropriate editing window for the currently selected item.

·         Reload: Replaces the information in the active window with the information currently saved in the database. This is most useful in cases where more than one user is working on the same database. Because this option reloads the information contained in the database, your current changes to the active window are lost.

·         Find: Opens the component listing window where the user can apply various filters to find a particular component definition

·         Go up: Opens the active window's "parent" window

·         If called from the assembly listing, component listing or assembly schematic, this option opens the main database interface.

·         If called from a chart window, this option opens the associated assembly schematic

·         Analyze: Runs an analysis of the currently open assembly

The components palette

At least one database must be open for this toolbar to be visible. Drag and drop components from this toolbar to create new components/instances (see instances vs. components)

Figure 4

Components dragged from this palette can only be dropped onto the hydraulic schematic area of the assembly window, the components listing, assembly listing or database interface but not onto existing components. For a complete description of these components, see the Components reference.

Note that when you drag a component from this palette you are creating a new component having default data that you will need to change to the data you want.  If the component that you want has already been defined and is in the component database, it is better to drag the component from the database rather than the components palette.  See the section on adding existing components to an assembly for more details.