Annotations

Annotation Objects

The XMS application family provides a series of tools to annotate the data in an application for presentations, animations and screen shots.

These tools (annotation objects)are accessed through the Annotations Module and include:

• Images
• North Arrows
• Scale Bars
• Text
• Lines
• Ovals
• Rectangles

Screen vs World Space Layers

All annotation layers either contain objects referenced to world or screen coordinates. Objects referenced to world coordinates will change size and position on the screen with the underlying data. This is useful to identify specific locations in your model such as peir locations. Objects associated with screen coordinates do not move on the screen with the underlying data. This is useful for titles, legends such as north arrows and scale bars, and logos. Some types of annotations can only be created in screen space layers including North Arrows, Images, and scale bars.

If the first annotation object you create, could be part of a screen or world space layer SMS will ask which type of layer you wish to create and add the object to. You can create additional layers by right clicking on the "Annotation Data" tree item and selecting "Create Screen Space Layer" or "Create World Space Layer." Layers are differentiated by including an 'S' for screen space layers or 'W' for world space layers in their icons in the project explorer.

If multiple layers exist, any newly created annotation object will be placed in the "current" layer.

Annotation Object Attributes

The extents of annotation objects defined by a frame. The user defines this frame initially when creating the annotation object by left clicking at any point on the screen and dragging a rectangle with the mouse (left button still down). The display will show the frame while you drag with the mouse. (Points and lines defining degenerate frames are not allowed.) When the user creates a annotation, if the frame is too big for the window, it will be resized appropriately. Annotations can't be resized or moved even partially outside of the borders of the window. If the user resizes a annotation through a quick mouse drag and the cursor lands outside the window, the annotation will be redrawn to take up all the window space in that direction.

This frame bounds the region of the screen where the object will appear with the modeling data. The user interacts with the object by interacting with its frame and specifying its attributes or properties (see the section on selection below). The frame anchors the annotation object on the screen. This anchoring defines both the size and position of the object. The x-location, y-location, x-size and y-size are all defined independently as either a pixel value or percentage of the screen.

Horizontally, the user can position the left edge, the right edge or the center of the object. If the user positions the left edge, the object position is defined relative to the left edge of the screen. If the user positions the right edge, the object position is defined relative to the right edge of the screen. If the user positions the center of the object, the object position is defined relative to the horizontal center of the screen.

For example, the left side of the frame may be specified as 100 pixels from the left edge of the screen. Alternatively, the user may specify that the right edge of the frame should be 10% of screen width from the right edge. Finally, the user may specify that the center of the object is 100 pixels to the right of the center of the screen.

The vertical position and sizes of the object are similarly specified in the anchoring attribute of the object.

All annotation objects also have attributes. The specific attributes depend on the type of object. The attributes define color, line thickness, fill properties, associated images, etc..

Screen Space Images

A screen space image is simply a graphics icon mapped to the screen. A typical application would be to display a company, department, or municipality logo next to the numeric model being displayed in the graphics window.

Attributes of the screen space images include:

• General anchoring attributes
• The image file being displayed as part of the project
• Whether the image is being displayed as a scaled (distorted object), scaled based on its original aspect ratio, or locked at another aspect ratio.
• Transparency - The image properties dialog will have a transparency checkbox. When clicked on that will cause the image to be redrawn with the most used color in the image. When that it is clicked on, it will also cause the color checkbox and the tolerance edit field to become available. If the color checkbox is clicked on, it will activate the color button and the color button will have the latest chosen image color painted on it or the most used color in the image, if it has not been activated before. Clicking on the down arrow part of the color button causes a color popup to be displayed with swaths of the 40 most used colors in the image or all the colors in the image, if the image has less than 40 colors. Clicking on one of those colors will cause the image to be redrawn with that color made transparent in the image. The tolerance edit field allows for variation in the matching of the red, green and blue components. The tolerance field ranges in allowable values from 0.0 to 1.0. 0.0 means the red, green and blue components must exactly match. Values higher than 0.0 indicate the degree of variation from the given color. Clicking the transparency checkbox to the off state causes the image to be redrawn with no transparency.

Scale Bars

A scale bar occupies a fixed size of the screen to display the relative size of the objects in the simulation. The user defines the minimum width of the scale bar section (in pixels), along with a minimum and maximum height of the scale (also in pixels). The XMS application adds a "Units" label (meters in the image shown below) and labels for the model distance related to the scale divisions.

The XMS applications will compute a well conditioned number to use as the scale increment that fits in the specified scale bar extents.

Attributes of the scale bar include:

• General anchoring attributes
• The minimum spacing between distance labels.
• The minimum division width (in pixels). The XMS application determines the number of divisions based on the minimum divisiion width and the width of the frame.
• The minimum and maximum height of the scale bar object.
• The font (style, color, size) used to label the scale bar.
• Whether or not the area behind the scale bar will be filled, and if so, with what color.

North Arrows

North arrow objects consist of automatically rotating screen space images. When an XMS application is installed, at least one default North Arrow image will be included in the application's home directory. Users may create or download as many north arrow icons as desired. These icons are displayed at the specified location (anchored with the standard options), but will rotate as the view direction changes so that the "up" direction of the icon always aligns with the "North" or positive "Y" direction.

Attributes of north arrows include:

• See screen space image attributes.

Text

Text can be created in world or screen space layers.

You can enter text by clicking in the graphics window with the create text tool active.

You can set the following attributes for text:

• Font - including size
• Color
• Background - fill behind with the background color or another color
• Border and border thickness

Lines/Arrows

You can create Lines/Arrows using the Create Line Tool. Lines/Arrows can be created in screen or world space layers.

The attributes available for Lines/Arrows include:

• Type - Dashed or solid w/ thickness
• Color
• Arrowheads - location (beginning, end, both) and size

Ovals

You can create ovals by dragging a box with Create Oval tool active. Ovals can be created in world or screen space layers.

The attributes that can be specified for ovals include:

• Line type - dashed/solid with width
• Line color
• Fill and color or No Fill

Rectangles

Rectangles can be created in screen or world space layers. Their attributes are the same as those available for ovals.

Selection

The last toolbar button is used to select and set attributes for annotation objects. This requires that objects exist to be selected. In this case when you press this tool and then left click in the annotation object, the object frame will be drawn around the annotation. In addition to the frame, the XMS application displays grab handles on the corners and edges of the frame. The user modifies the rectangular shape of the annotation by dragging one of the grab handles and changes the position of the object by dragging the annotation (click at any point in the object interior).

When this tool is active the right mouse button will pop up a menu of all dialogs for that particular type of annotation. This will include at least "Attributes" which will display a dialog of the objects attributes for editing.

See also

• SMS
  • Layout of the Graphical Interface