New Interface

simlogo1

SimQuest 6.4 help

New Interface

On this page it is explained how to perform basic operations on your interface.

For more information on basic operations, click here.

Adding an Interface

To add a New Interface to your application:

1.	In the Library window, select a New Interface.

2.	Drag the New Interface from the Library window and drop it into the Application window.

Renaming an Interface.

1.	In the Application window, select the Interface.

2.	Click right and choose Rename.

3.	Type the new name.

Click OK.

Modifying an Interface

To modify the properties of the Interface itself, act as described below. More information on how to modify each specific Interface Element is found in the Dynamic Widgets and Static Widgets folder.

1.	In the Application window, select an Interface.

2.	Right click and choose Edit. An (empty) Interface will pop up, as well as the Canvas Tool.

3.	Now do not select any elements, click right and choose Properties.

A menu with five tab sheets should have popped up. Below it is first explained how to fill out each of these.

Tab sheet: Basics

1.	Click on the Basics tab sheet.

2.	Decide if you want to have Horizontal or Vertical Scrollbars in your interface. Click the regarding check box.

3.	If you want your interface to have a border, select Bordered.

4.	Click Apply.

Tab sheet: Control On

In the Control On tab sheet you can make the assignment perform certain actions with regard to other elements in the application. You can for instance change the settings in such a way that once a particular assignment is closed, another one will open. Also, you can make explanation elements pop up after all attempts have been used. This chapter will help you smoothly control elements in your simulation.

First, set the Start-up state of the assignment:

1.	Select the Control On tab sheet.

2.	Select the Start-up state using the radio buttons on top of the tab-sheet:

Activated: the assignment will open when the simulation is opened in the learner view.

Enabled: the assignment is visible to the learner in the learner view.

Disabled: the learner can see the explanation, but not (yet) activate it.

Invisible: the learner cannot see nor activate this assignment.

To set the control structure of an assignment, follow these steps:

1.	Decide WHEN you want something to happen. Select one of the elements from the first list.

Activated: the elements below will be activated, enabled, aborted, disabled, or hidden when the assignment is started

Succeeded: the elements below will be activated, enabled, aborted, disabled, or hidden when the assignment is performed correctly

Failed: the elements below will be activated, enabled, aborted, disabled, or hidden when the assignment is performed incorrectly

Exited: the elements below will be activated, enabled, aborted, disabled, or hidden when the assignment is closed before all attempts are used up.

2.	Select a command for the simulation:

No command to: the simulation stays as it is

Compute: the simulation calculates the output value for the given input. Only when Recompute output variables every time a value changes is not selected in Simulation Properties.

Compute and Record: the model runs with the current input values and the results are displayed.

Record Value: only for static models: the most recently computed value is recorded on screen. By default, this happens automatically, but you can change it under Simulation Properties.

Reset: all variables in the simulation will be reset to their initial value.

3.	Decide and select WHAT you want to happen.

Activate: The elements that you dragged into the box below will be started/opened.

Enable: The elements below will be presented in the learner view but not started. The learner has to start them.

Abort: The elements below will be closed.

Disable: The elements below will be presented in the learner view but the learner cannot start them.

Hide: The elements below will not be visible in the learner view.

Please note! The element itself is automatically added to the Exited-Enable page. Therefore, when all attempts have been used up, the assignment will be visible and available.

For additional information plus examples of the Control structure, click here.

Tab sheet: Control Overview

You can use the Control Overview tab sheet to check the controls you set in the Control On tab sheet. You can quickly see what will happen if you activate, succeed, fail, or exit the assignment.

1.	Select the Control Overview tab sheet.

2.	Click Activated, Succeeded, Enabled, Failed, or Exited.

3.	Look at the controls you specified in each category.

Tab sheet: Colour

1.	Click on the Colour tab sheet.

2.	Click a colour in the palette.

3.	Select the part that must get the colour chosen (left click the rectangle). Sel fgrd means Selected Foreground, Sel bgrd means Selected Background.

4.	To remove a colour, doubleclick in the coloured rectangle.

5.	Click Apply.

Tab sheet: Position

Please note! Using this tab sheet to set the position is optional. Instead of dragging and resizing, you can use the Position tab sheet to specify relative and absolute positions.

Click the Position tab sheet.
- Left, Top, Right, an Bottom, refer to the four sides of the element.
- Relative Position refers to the position on the window, where the maximum left and top side of the window refer to 0, and the maximum right and bottom side of the window refer to 1.
- Offset refers to the amount of pixels from the topleft corner of the window.

2.	Determine the relative position of the left, top, right, and bottom side of the element by typing values between 0 and 1 in the appropriate Relative Position boxes.

3.	Determine the size of the element by typing the amount of pixels in the appropriate Offset boxes.

4.	Click Apply.

Interface size

You can resize an Interface as follows:

1.	Edit an Interface: select it in the Application window, right click and choose Edit.

2.	Left click on one of the corners, keep the mouse button pressed.

3.	Drag the Interface to the desired size.

It is generally convenient to store the size of the Interface. This is done in the following way:

1.	Click right in the Interface editor, choose Layout , then Window and then Fixed Size to store the size.

From the same menu, you can also select Min size and Max size, to make the current size the minimum or maximum size respectively. If you set a minimum or maximum size, the learner will not be able to resize the interface beyond these limits. This can be convenient to prevent unwanted overlapping of interface elements.