Create
The options under the
Create
option let you add new objects to the drawing.
Most of the options under the
Create
submenu correspond to the buttons in the Object Palette on the left side of the Builder window. You can create the object by choosing its type from this menu, or by clicking on the corresponding button in the palette.
If an object has an icon in the drawing primitives palette, the icon is shown next to the object description. If an icon is not displayed, the object may be created only by using the Object, Create main menu.
See page 162 for basic instructions on drawing objects.
Polygon
The
Polygon
options let you create the following kinds of polygons:
Open polygon 
Closed polygon 
Filled polygon 
To create any type of polygon, click on each point to be used as a vertex, then click the right mouse button (or use the Esc key) to complete the polygon. For the closed and filled polygons, the Builder joins the first and last vertices, closing the polygon.
Rectangle
The
Rectangle
options let you create the following kinds of rectangles:
Rectangle 
Filled rectangle 
Although the GLG object set does not include a rectangle object, the
Rectangle
options are provided for convenience. Drawing a rectangle actually creates a specialized parallelogram with perpendicular sides. The sides are not constrained to remain perpendicular, though they remain parallel unless you explode the object.
To create a rectangle, click on two points to define the diagonal corners of the rectangle.
Parallelogram
The
Parallelogram
options let you create the following kinds of parallelograms:
Parallelogram
Filled parallelogram
To create a parallelogram, click on one point, and then click on two other points. The second and third points define two vectors from the first point; they specify the angles and lengths of the opposing sides. The opposing sides of the parallelogram remain parallel when the object's control points are moved. To remove this constraint, explode the object.
Arc
The
Arc
options let you create the following kinds of arcs:
Arc 
Chord arc 
Segment arc 
Filled chord arc 
Filled segment arc 
An arc is a many-sided regular polygon, like a circle; however, an arc does not encompass 360°. A simple arc is just the segment of a circle's perimeter connecting the points you choose. A chord arc closes the shape with a straight line from one end of the arc to the other. A segment arc closes the shape with two straight lines from each end of the arc to the center, like a wedge of pie.
To create any type of arc, click on the center point, a point to define the radius, and a point to define the angle of the sector.
You can convert an arc to a circle by editing its
StartAngle
or
EndAngle
attributes.
The control points of an arc or a circle are unusual for graphical objects. See the description of a circle (below) for an explanation.
Circle
The
Circle
options let you create the following kinds of circles:
Circle 
Filled circle 
A circle is a many-sided regular polygon. Its
Resolution
attribute specifies the number of sides used to render the circle. At low
Resolution
values, the shape no longer resembles a circle; for example, a circle with a
Resolution
of 5 is a pentagon.
To define a circle, click on the center point, then on a point to define the radius.
In GLG, both circles and arcs are rendered using an Arc object type. A circle is a special case of an arc with a StartAngle of 0 and an EndAngle of 360.
Circles and arcs have an arrangement of control points different from other graphical objects. Each circle has two control points that initially appear superimposed at the center of the circle. (The move point is moved slightly away from the center to avoid confusion.) The two points define a line to which the circle is perpendicular. The length of the line is ignored. This means that you can grab one of the control points, and tilt the circle by moving it. However, a circle has no control points on its perimeter for resizing it; to change its radius, change its
Radius
attribute or use the
Resize Box
.
Spline
The
Spline
options let you create a multi-point Bezier cubic spline used to render curves in 2D or 3D space:
Spline 
Filled spline 
To create a spline, click in the drawing area to define the number of spline control points, then click the middle or right mouse buttons (or use the Esc key) to complete the spline. The spline will render a smooth curve defined by the control points. The shape of the curve may be changed by moving the control points.
Marker
A marker is an object that indicates the position of a single point. Markers are made by selecting one or more shapes from a set of predefined shapes such as squares, crosses, and circles. Unlike other graphical objects, marker objects do not change their size when the viewport is resized.
To create a marker, select
Object, Create, Marker
and then specify the point.
Since markers are always drawn the same size, they are not affected by transformations. To change a marker's size, change its
Size
attribute.
Image
An image object may be used to display an image in the GIF or BMP (on Windows only) formats. The
Image
options let you create the following kinds of images:
Fixed Size Image 
Scalable Image 
To create an image, select the type of the image: fixed size or scalable, define its position (one control point for the fixed image and two points for the scalable image), and select the image file.
For images of fixed size, the
Anchoring
attribute may be used to control the image's position relative to its control point.
Text
The
Text
options let you create the following kinds of text objects:
Fixed Text presents a string. To create a fixed text object, click in the drawing to define the text's position, then type the string in the text entry box. 
Scaled Text presents a string within a bounding box. Resizing the bounding box changes the font size of the string. To create a scaled text object, click on two points to define the diagonal corners of the bounding box, then type the string in the text entry box. Note that the text is scaled by selecting different size fonts from the viewport's font table, not by changing the dimensions of the characters. Depending on the selection of sizes defined in the font table, this may appear to give incorrect results when the text object is resized. 
Spaced Text presents a string within a bounding box, with flexible orientation. Changing the box repositions the string. To create a spaced text object, click on two points to define a line, then click on a third point to define the height of the bounding box. Finally, type the string in the text entry box. 
. The third control point is used for line positioning when the text object has several lines.
A text object is a graphical object that presents a string. The text object itself just sets the boundaries of the text. The text object's data attribute defines the string that appears in the drawing.
You can transform the text object itself using the transformations that apply to geometric data; the transformations affect the bounding box that contains the text. You can transform the text object's
String
attribute using any of the transformations that apply to string data; they can be used to display a numeric value or another string. For a complete list of transformations and details on text object types, see GLG Objects.
Font Availability
All the text objects can display any font that is available in the GLG Graphics Builder. The final appearance of the string depends on the font table attributes of the viewport that contains the text object. To set the font table attributes:
Select the viewport and use
Object
,
Properties
to see the viewport's attributes.
In the
Selected Object Properties
dialog for the
Viewport
object, click on the ellipsis button 
for
More
, to see the attributes of the
Screen
object.
In the
Selected Object Properties
dialog for the
Screen
object, set the
Default Fonts
attribute to
NO
, and click on the ellipsis button
for
Fonts
, to see the attributes of the
Fonttable
object.
In the
Selected Object Properties
dialog for the
Fonttable
object, use the buttons to set the attributes for the
Fonttable
object. This object refers to a font table, which is an array of data that includes the font specification and available sizes.
To see the fonts in the selected font table, click on the ellipsis button
for the
Fonts
attribute and edit Font objects in the font table. Each font object allows defining fonts for both Windows, Unix and Java run-time environments, as well as for PostScript printing.
GIS Object
A GIS Object provides a way to embed GIS maps generated with the GLG Map Server into GLG drawings. It automatically handles all aspects of the low-level interaction with the Map Server to display, zoom and pan GIS map data. The GIS Object 
provides attributes to control projection, center and extent of the map.
To create a GIS Object:
Select
Object
,
Create
,
GIS Object
and choose rectangular or orthographic projection to create the GIS Object.
Click on two points to define a rectangular area to use for the map display.
When prompted, select a dataset file that describes the GIS data to render.
The GIS Object will display the map specified by the dataset file. The map may be positioned by changing the GISCenter and GISExtent attributes of the object. The GIS Zoom mode of the drawing's Integrated Zoom feature may be used at run time to zoom and pan the map. Refer to Viewport of GLG Objects on page 61 for details.
Group
A group is a container for other objects. It lets you manipulate all members of the group as if they were a single object.
To define a group, select
Object
,
Create
,
Group
and drag a rectangle through the objects you want to include in the group. Any object touched by the defining rectangle is included in the group. The groups created using this method are permanent. Refer to Multiple Selection on page 164 for information about temporary groups.
The
Arrange
and
Traverse
menus provide options to let you work with a group object. The
Arrange
, Create Permanent
Group
option is equivalent to the
Object
,
Create
,
Group
option.
You can use the Builder to create groups of graphical objects, but groups can contain any objects, graphical or not. The polygon, for example, contains a group of point coordinates. It is not uncommon to see non-graphical objects grouped using the GLG API.
Container
A
container
is a subtype of the reference object used to hold other objects, preserving their coordinate system. The container provides a single control point for moving all objects it contains. See Reference for information on creating different types of reference objects, including the container. 
Viewport
A viewport is a rectangular object that acts as a container for other objects. The viewport represents the final stage in the visualization of a drawing object; it presents the objects within the drawing area and may be used as a widget in different run-time environments. 
To create a viewport object, click on two points to define the diagonal corners of the viewport. To place objects inside the viewport, use
Traverse
,
Hierarchy Down
to open the viewport, or use
View
,
Set Focus
; see page 245.
A drawing can contain multiple viewports, viewports nested within viewports, or no viewports at all. However, to use the drawing as a widget, the drawing must contain a viewport named
$Widget
that contains all the objects in the drawing; see Details of using GLG Standard API for C and C++.
Note:
Due to features of the Windows graphical environment, there could be an inconsistency when moving or resizing a viewport with a native widget type (such as a button or scrollbar). The native widgets may intercept mouse events, so an extra mouse click may be required to finish when dragging the viewport with the mouse. Also, Microsoft Windows does not report mouse events which happen on the window's border. To handle this situation, the Builder allows you to create an offset between the actual mouse position and the position of the control point being moved. You can choose a position in the center of the control point (the default), slightly below and to the right, or above and to the left. Use
Ctrl+Z
to toggle between the three possible values of the offset.
Series
A series object is a set of dynamically created copies of a
template
object. Typically, you use a series object to create a set of entities with identical, or at least very similar, characteristics, such as the bars in a chart. A series object consists of a template, a
factor
indicating the number of copies, a path along which to arrange them, and a set of generated instances. 
To create a series:
Select an object to use as a template.
Select
Object
,
Properties
to set the attributes of the template object so that its instances will inherit appropriate characteristics. Name the object.
Select
Object, Create
, then select
Line Series
or
Path Series
to create the instance objects.
Click on two points to define a line path for a Line Series, on which to arrange the series instances. For a Path Series, define a transformation to be used for replicating instances.
Enter a factor to specify the number of instances to create.
When you create a series object, the Builder names the instances using the template object name and an index; for example, a template named
Rect
with a factor of 3 creates three instances named
Rect0
,
Rect1
, and
Rect2
.
To edit the template object, use
Traverse
,
Hierarchy Down
. When you finish editing, use
Traverse
,
Up
to see the instance objects.
Square Series
A square series is a special type of series object, which presents the instances of its template in rows and columns. The number of rows and columns in the square series determines the number of instances in the series. A square series object consists of a template and a set of generated instances.
To create a square series:
Select an object to use as a template.
Select
Object
,
Properties
to set the attributes of the template object so that its instances will inherit appropriate characteristics. Name the object.
Select
Object
,
Create
,
Square Series
to create the instance objects.
Click on the center point for the square series, and click on two points to define two vectors from the first point; they specify the arrangement of the series instances.
When prompted, enter the number of rows, then the number of columns. These values specify the number of instances to create.
When you create a square series object, the Builder names the instances using the template object name and an index. The names are ordered in a simple sequence, even though there are two dimensions to the series. For example, a template named
Rect
with two rows and two columns creates four instances named
Rect0
,
Rect1
,
Rect2
, and
Rect3
.
To edit the template object, use
Traverse
,
Hierarchy Down
. When you finish editing, use
Traverse
,
Up
to see the instance objects.
Polyline
A polyline is a specialized series that can be used to draw line graphs. Like a series object, a polyline consists of templates and a set of instances. For the polyline, the instances are the line and the markers at each point of the line. A polyline can rendered as a single polygon or as a collection of individual segments, depending on the value of the
Segments
attribute.
To create a polyline, click on two points to define the beginning and end of the polyline. The Builder prompts you for the factor, which controls the number of data points along the line.
By default, the polyline has
Marker
and
Polygon
resources that contain the template marker object and the template polygon from which the line segment characteristics are derived. If the
DrawMarkers
and
Segments
attributes are turned on, two groups,
Markers
and
Polygons
, appear among the resources of the polyline. These contain the instances of the template objects.
In order to control a polyline, you must name the control point of the template marker. Use
Traverse, Hierarchy Down
to edit the marker template. This creates a third group of resources within the polyline, called
Points
, which contains the instances of the marker control point. The coordinates of these points control the position of the polyline's points.
Polysurface
A polysurface is a specialized three-dimensional object that can be used to anchor a set of objects along its surfaces. It is used primarily for patching of curved surfaces. Like a square series object, a polysurface consists of a template and a set of instances; for the poly-surface, the instances are polygons arranged in rows and columns.
To create a polysurface, click on a point to define the center of the polysurface, and click on two points to define two vectors from the center point. The Builder prompts you for the number of rows and columns in the surface; these values control the number of surface polygons.
By default, the polysurface has a
Marker
, and a
Polygon
resource, that contain the template marker object and the template polygon from which the instance polygons' characteristics are derived. You only see the instances of the polysurface templates if those objects are named. The template objects of a polysurface are named by default. If the objects are named, two groups,
Markers
and
Polygons
, appear among the resources of the polysurface. These contain the instances of the template objects.
In order to control a polysurface, the control point of the template marker must also be named. The default name is
Point
. Use
Traverse, Hierarchy Down
to edit the marker template if you want to change its name or other characteristics. The instances of the marker control point are found in a third group of resources within the polysurface, called
Points
. The coordinates of these points control the position of the polysurface's points.
Frame
A frame object organizes other objects in a specified arrangement. The points on the frame act as anchors, so other objects can be constrained to them. These are the
frame points
. There are five frame types:
Point Frame allows anchoring to a single point. Click once to define the point.
Line Frame allows anchoring to points along a line. Click twice to define the start and end of the line. The Builder prompts you for the factor, which controls the number of anchor points along the line frame.
2D Frame allows anchoring to points inside a parallelogram defined by three control points. Click on a point, and click on two points to define two vectors from the first point. The Builder prompts you for the factor, which controls the number of anchor points on each segment of the frame.
3D Frame allowing anchoring to points inside a parallel prism defined by four control points. Click on the center point, and click three times to define three vectors for the axes of the frame. The Builder prompts you for the factor, which controls the number of anchor points on each dimension of the frame.
Free Frame allows anchoring of points to a free-form polygon. Click on each point in the polygon, and click the right mouse button to finish drawing.
Because the control points of the frame coincide with the anchor points, use
Options
,
Show Frame Points
to get access to the anchor points of the frame. You can move the anchor points of the frame by moving its control points.
Reference
A reference is similar to a series object with a template and a single copy (instance) of that template. There are two types of reference objects that are used to implement two completely different types of functionalities:
A
Container
reference object is used to hold a template and preserves the template's coordinate system when the container is moved. This may be used to preserve the center of rotational dynamics when the object is moved. The container draws its template directly, without creating any additional instances of it.
An
object reference
(
Reference
) is used to replicate a template in different locations in the drawing, as well as implement object dynamics, changing the object that gets displayed. One important feature of the reference is that a copy of it refers back to the same template used by the original reference. This is useful when constructing drawings that contain many copies of a single object used as a sub-drawing or a model. By using the reference, you can make a drawing file smaller than it might be otherwise, since only one copy of the template is saved. You can also edit a template in one place to change all of its copies in the drawing. 
A
file reference
(
Subdrawing
) is used to replicate instances of another drawing. By using the reference object, you can make a drawing file smaller and load faster. You can also edit one referenced drawing to change all of its copies in the drawing. 
A
palette reference
is similar to the object and file reference objects, but uses a palette embedded in the drawing as its template.
To create a container:
Select an object to use as a template.
Select
Object
,
Properties
to set the attributes of the template object so that its instance will inherit the appropriate characteristics. Name the object.
Click on the
button, or select
Object
,
Create
,
Container
menu option to place the selected object in a container, then click in the drawing to define the container's position.
To create an object reference:
Select an object to use as a template.
Select
Object
,
Properties
to set the attributes of the template object so that its instance will inherit the appropriate characteristics. Name the object.
Click on the
button, or select
Object
,
Create
,
Reference, Object Reference
menu option, then click in the drawing to select reference's anchor point.
If the template contains several named objects used as icons for object dynamics, enter two colon-separated resource paths, to one of the objects (
ObjectPath
) and its anchor point (
OriginPath
), and press
OK
. To display the whole template, press
OK
without entering
ObjectPath
.
To create a file reference:
Click on the
button, or select
Object
,
Create
,
Reference, File Reference
menu option, then click in the drawing to define the subdrawing's position.
Select the drawing file to use. This drawing may contain
$Widget
or
$Drawing
resource to specify the object in the drawing to be used as a template.
If the drawing contains several named objects used as icons for object dynamics, enter two colon-separated resource paths, to one of the objects (
ObjectPath
) and its anchor point (
OriginPath
), and press
OK
. To display the whole template drawing, press
OK
without entering
ObjectPath
.
To create a palette reference:
Select
Object
,
Create
,
Reference, Palette Reference
and
click in the drawing to define the reference object's position.
If the palette contains several named objects used as icons for object dynamics, enter two colon-separated resource paths, to one of the objects (
ObjectPath
) and its anchor point (
OriginPath
), and press
OK
. To display the whole palette, press
OK
without entering
ObjectPath
.
Edit reference object's properties and enter palette object's resource path in the
SourcePath
attribute.
When you create a reference object, the Builder places it at the current level of the hierarchy. There are two resources within the reference. The first one, called
Instance
, is a copy of the original template (or of it's subobject if
ObjectPath
is defined) and is also visible in the resource hierarchy under its original name. The second resource, called
Template
, is the original template object. For containers, the template is drawn directly and both objects refer to the template. For file references, the
Template
refers to a loaded instance of the subdrawing. This instance is cached and is used by all instances of the subdrawing.
You can use a reference to create a set of objects that refer to the same template, but can be positioned independently. To create additional referenced instances, select and copy the first reference object, positioning created copies as desired. All copies will share the same template object. Reference's bindings may be used to assign local values and change behavior of attributes of a particular instance.
When you copy a container, each copy will store its own copy of the template.
If reference objects are used to represent connected nodes, the reference's control point may be used for constraining connecting lines that represent edges.
To edit the template object, use
Traverse, Hierarchy Down
. When finished, use
Traverse, Up
to go back to the top level.
Connector
This option creates a connector object which may be used to connect other objects in the drawing. It is useful when implementing node and edge functionality or connecting objects in a diagram.
There are two types of connectors:
A Recta-Linear connector connects objects with linear segments, maintaining right angles between adjacent segments. There are Horizontal 
and Vertical 
recta-linear connectors.
An arc connector connects objects with an arc 
.
To create a connector, select the connector type, then click in the drawing to define its shape. For the arc connector, select 3 points to define the arc. For the recta-linear connector, select any number of points to define one or more recta-linear segments and press the Esc key or the middle mouse button to finish.
Properties
Properties
displays a dialog that lists the attributes of the selected object and provides access to their transformations, alarms and tags. Note that, within the context of the GLG Toolkit, properties and attributes are synonymous.
The generic properties common for all GLG objects, such as object name or HasResources, are displayed at the top of the dialog, and the properties that depend on the type of an object are listed below. For explanations of the generic object properties and attributes of specific object types, see GLG Objects.
The buttons at the bottom of the dialog provide access to adding and editing geometrical dynamics attached to the object, such as move, scale or rotate. The Custom Props button at the top of the dialog provides a shortcut for accessing custom properties attached to the object. The selection buttons in the top right corner of the dialog may be used to rotate selection in case when several objects are selected by the mouse.
The Properties Dialogs
When you select an object and then use
Object
,
Properties
, the Builder displays a dialog that shows the properties (attributes) of the object.
For attributes that are also objects, the
Selected Object Properties
dialog presents an ellipsis button
that lets you edit the attribute interactively. Clicking on the ellipsis button displays the
Attribute Object
dialog; see below. If an attribute has dynamics, alarms or tags attached, the `X', `A' and/or `T' buttons will be displayed on the right side of the attribute row to provide a quick access to the corresponding transformation, alarm or tag object.
For attributes that are not objects in themselves, the Builder does not present a separate dialog. Such attributes include the
Name
, the
HasResources
flag, and the
Global
attribute.
The contents of the dialog depend on the type of the object (e.g. polygon, group, polyline). Here are some of the object-specific features of the
Selected Object Properties
dialogs:
For all graphical primitives (such as polygon or text objects) and the viewport object, the Add/Edit Rendering button can be used to add and edit rendering attributes of an object, such as gradient or shadows.
For text objects, the Add/Edit Text Box can be used to add a box around the text and edit its attributes.
For a group object, the dialog includes a set of buttons that give you access to the members of the group without exploding the group. These buttons act as equivalents to the
Traverse
Menu options
Select Next
,
Select Bottom
, and
Edit All
and the
Arrange
Menu options
Add Object to Group
and
Remove Object from Group
.
For a viewport object, the
More
button provides an access to the attributes of the screen object, which can be thought of as a second set of attributes for the viewport object. Click on the
Back
button to return to the viewport properties. See page 260 for information on font handling for a viewport. The Add/Edit Light button adds a light object and lists its attributes.
For a screen object, the Add/Edit Fonttable button allows to define a custom font table and edit its list of fonts. The Add/Edit Colortable button allows to add and edit attributes of a custom colortable.
For the font table, the Save Font Table and Load Font Table buttons save or load the fonttable object from a file. The Mark Font Table button marks the font table for reuse, while the Use Marked Table button replaces the fonttable with the marked fonttable. The Options, Attribute Clone Type menu controls constraining of the marked fonttable attributes.
For rendering and box attributes, as well as fonttable, colortable and light objects, the Delete button at the bottom of the attribute list deletes the object. The Mark button at the top of the Properties dialog stores the object for reuse with the Edit, Add Marked Object menu option.
The Attribute Object Dialog
Some objects are both attributes and objects. For these objects, the
Selected Object Properties
dialog for the object includes ellipsis buttons
that let you edit the attribute objects. Clicking on the button displays the
Attribute Object
dialog for the attribute.
The
Attribute Object
dialog displays the following attributes:
The
HasResources
attribute, which control the position of the attribute's attributes in the resource hierarchy.
The
Global
attribute, which controls the behavior of the attribute during cloning. This attribute changes its label depending on its current setting; the default label is
Local
.
A list of values or a palette for setting the value of the attribute. For text strings, it also contains a text editor field for entering multi-line text.
A set of buttons on the right of the palette for manipulating the attribute object, which are grayed if they are not relevant to the attribute. The Add/Edit Alarm button at the bottom can be used to add or edit an alarm to monitor the value of the attribute.
A
Value
entry field for changing the attribute's value. The value is a double-precision number for D attributes, a triplet of numbers for G attributes, and a text string for S attributes. If the text attribute contains a multi-line string, the Value field is read-only and the text editor field should be used to edit the string.
An
XfValue
field showing the final transformed value after any transformations attached to the attribute are applied.
The
Dynamics
buttons at the bottom of the
Attribute Object
dialog provide the only method of attaching a transformation to the attribute. The Add/Edit Tag button at the top of the dialog can be used to add a tag for database connectivity.
The Control Point Dialog
You edit a control point's attributes by Shift+clicking over the point. The
Control Point
dialog is similar to the
Attribute Object
dialog. However, it includes a set of arrow buttons for positioning the point, and a
Position
text entry box showing the position of the control point after all transformations have been applied. This field may also be used for setting its position using different coordinate systems. You can reposition the point by typing in the
Value
or
Position
text entry box, or clicking on the arrow buttons.
