Frame 

What You Will Learn With This Use Case

This use case illustrates the mechanisms and the interfaces which define the user interface. It mainly concerns the Frame and the Command domains. You will learn concepts which are described in different articles indicated by the number in the bracket:

• In the Frame Domain
• Creating a workbench [1],
• Creating an Add-in [2],
• Making Your Document Independent Command Available in All Workbenches [30]
• Managing transitions between workbench [3],
• Creating standard [4] or customized [5] [32] [33] [34] command headers,
• Using Cameras [6],
• Creating a window to visualize a document [7] [8],
• Creating a Property Page for Application Properties [25] [9],
• Implementing the CATIContextualMenu [10] and CATIContextualSubMenu on a component,
• Implementing the CATIEdit on a component [11],
• Creating a Property Page by implementing CATIEditProperties [12].
• Using ISO [29]
• Using Tools Palette toolbar [35] [36]
• In the Command Domain
• About a state chart command:
  • Creating a simple CATStateCommand [13] ,
  • Understanding each kind of acquisition agent:
    • Agent of Indication  [14] ,
    • Agent of selection  [15]  [16] ,
  • Managing Undo/Redo  [17] [18] ,
  • Using Dialog box to enhance the user interface : in association with a state [19] or with an agent [20] [21],
  • Creating contextual menu [22] ,
• Creating a Dialog Command [23] ,
• Creating an interruptible task [24].
• In the Visualization Domain
• Using ISO [29]
• Using Viewer Feedback [31]

This use case is interesting for at least two reasons. At first, you can study the concepts by reading the articles or directly the code. By this way you have a static view. But you can also have an interactive view  to understand, for example, the call order. Most of the classes display output in the constructor, destructor, and in main methods. 

[Top]

The CAAGeometry Use Case

CAAGeometry is a use case distributed on several frameworks: CAAApplicationFrame.edu, CAACATIAApplicationFrm.edu, CAADialogEngine.edu, CAAVisualization.edu, CAAObjectModelerBase.edu and CAASystem.edu. They illustrate ApplicationFrame, CATIAApplicationFrame, Dialog, DialogEngine, Visualization, VisualizationBase and System framework capabilities.

[Top]

What Does the CAAGeometry Use Case Do

The CAAGeometry use case is mainly a set of commands which group together the main interfaces and behaviors of the frame/command domains. These commands are used to edit the CAAGeometry document. This document has two workbenches: The CAA V5: Geometrical Creation and the CAA V5: Geometrical Analysis workbenches.

The CAAGeometry workshop consists in commands which are located in the menu bar and inside five toolbars, the last three toolbars being add-in toolbars. 

The CAA V5: Geometrical Creation workbench contains two toolbars whose the Operation toolbar which is a Add-in toolbar. ( The menu bar, not described here, contains the commands too)

The CAA V5: Geometrical Analysis workbench contains one toolbar. ( The menu bar, not described here, contains the commands too)

The Basic Elements toolbar contains commands to create the CAAGeometry document elements: point, line, plane, cercle ...

The use case shows the implementation of some interfaces on the elements:

• The CATIEdit implementation

On the Plane element

• The CATIContextualMenu implementation

On the Ellipse element

• The CATIContextualSubMenu implementation

On the Plane element

There are other behaviors:

• The Edit Properties 

On the Circle element

• The Tools Options pages

For the CAA V5: Geometrical Creation workbench

For the CAA V5: Geometrical Analysis workbench

• Customized command header

There are two reasons to customize a command header:

• Set available or not a command depending on a context, [5]
• Customize the default graphic representation. Just below, two examples are given:

The left picture shows a combo of colors [32], on the middle a dynamic list of push items (Item 1,Item 2) [33], and on right two editors [34]. Third are specialized command headers.

• Tools Palette

You can provide to the end user some "options". These options are command header instances integrated in the Tools Palette toolbar. It is a specific toolbar, that the frame application creates. A workbench can added options [36], or a command [35].

On this above picture, you can see a command header instance represented by two editors [34], and inserted in the toolbar by the "CAAGeometry Creation" workbench [36]. The other forth icons are command header instances created in the Cuboid command [35].

The Geometrical Creation workbench contains commands to create components of the CAAGeometry document. These components are the following:

• CAASysPoint , for point elements

• CAASysLine , for line elements

• CAASysPlane, for plane elements

• CAASysPolyline, for polyline, triangle and rectangle elements

• CAASysCircle, for circle elements

• CAASysEllipse, for ellipse elements

• CAASysCuboid, for cuboid elements

• CAASysCylinder, for cylinder elements

The root component,  not created by a command , is CAASysGeomRootObj. This component implements some interfaces whose the main one is CATIUIActivate to provide the workshop of the CAAGeometry document. 

[Top]

How to Launch the CAAGeometry Use Case

To launch the CAAGeometry use case, you will need to set up the build time environment, then compile: 

• The following modules of the CAAApplicationFrame.edu framework:
  • CAAAfrGeoAnalysisWbench.m
  • CAAAfrGeoCreationWbench.m
  • CAAAfrGeoEdition.m
  • CAAAfrGeoCreationWkbAddin.m 
  • CAAAfrGeoDocument.m
  • CAAAfrGeoModel.m
  • CAAAfrGeoSubMenu.m
  • CAAAfrGeoWindows.m
  • CAAAfrGeoWksAddin.m
  • CAAAfrGeoWksAddin2.m
  • CAAAfrGeometryWksTransition.m
  • CAAAfrGeometryWshop.m
  • CAAAfrProgressTask.m
  • CAAAfrSampleDocument.m
  • CAAAfrGeoCommands.m
  • CAAAfrGeneralWksAddin.m
  • CAAAfrCustCommandHdrModel.m
  • CAAAfrCustomizedCommandHeader.m
  • CAAAfrPaletteOptions.m
    
• The following modules of the CAACATIAApplicationFrm.edu framework:
  • CAACafContextualMenu.m 
  • CAACafCtrlToolsOptions.m 
  • CAACafEditColorProp.m 
  • CAACafEditTextureProp.m 
  • CAACafEltToolsOptions.m 
  • CAACafGeoDocument.m 
  • CAACafRootProperties.m 
  • CAACafUseToolsOptions.m 
  • CAACafViewToolsOptions.m
  • CAACafViewerFeedback.m
    
• The following modules of the CAADialogEngine.edu framework:
  • CAADegGeoCommands.m
  • CAADegMultiDocCmd.m
    
• The following modules of the CAAObjectModelerBase.edu framework:
  • CAAOmbGeoNavigate.m
    
• The following modules of the CAAVisualization.edu framework:
  • CAAVisGeoModel.m
  • CAAVisModelForRep.m
  • CAAVisWireBoxComp.m
    
    
• The following modules of the CAASystem.edu framework:
  • CAASysGeoModelComp.m
  • CAASysGeoModelImpl.m
  • CAASysGeoModelInt.m

Launch CATIA. When the application is ready, follow scenarios described below:

The Workbenches Transitions scenario

• In the Start menu choose Infrastructure and click CAA V5: Geometrical Creation
• In the Start menu choose Infrastructure and click CAA V5: Geometrical Analysis
• In the Start menu choose Infrastructure and click CAA V5: Geometrical Analysis

Two CAAGeometry document's windows are open.

The Creation Objects scenario: (The complete scenarios are described in the article given in the brackets)

With the CAAGeometry workshop commands:

• Create points with the Point Command [19]
• Create lines with the Line Command  [28]
• Create planes with the Plane Command [15]
• Create circles with the Circle Command [14]
• Create ellipses with the Ellipse Command  
• Create rectangles with the Rectangle Command ( In the Insert/Multi-Lines menu ) [13]
• Create triangles with the Triangle Command ( In the Insert/Multi-Lines menu ) 
• Create polylines with the Polyline Command ( In the Insert/Multi-Lines menu ) [20]

With the CAA V5: Geometrical Creation workbench commands

• In the Start menu choose Infrastructure and click CAA V5: Geometrical Creation
• Create Cylinders with the Cylinder Commands
• Create Cuboids with the Cuboid Command

With the CAA V5: Geometrical Analysis  workbench commands

• In the Start menu choose Infrastructure and click CAA V5: Geometrical Analysis
• Select the Type of Element Command  [22] 
• Select the Logical Command [22] 
• Select the Numerical Command 

The Edition scenario  [11]

• Double click on a plane 
• Double click on a point 

The Contextual-SubMenu / Contextual Menu  [10] scenario

• Right click a plane, select Plane.x Object and select Element Count...
• Right click an ellipse and select Circle

The New Window scenario: [7]

• Select Window->Histogram Chart Window
• Click OK

The Edit Properties scenario [12]

• Right click the circle, and select Properties in the contextual menu
• Click More
• Click OK

The Tools/Option scenario [25] then [9]

• Select Tools and click Options
• Click Infrastructure in the left part of the dialog box
• In the list of workbenches displayed, click CAA V5: Geometrical Creation
• Change some options 
• Click OK
• In the Start menu choose Infrastructure and click CAA V5: Geometrical Analysis
• Select Analyse->Circle discretization
• Select Tools and click Options
• Click Infrastructure in the left part of the dialog box
• In the list of workbenches displayed, click CAA V5: Geometrical Creation
• Change some options 
• Click OK

The Interruptible Task scenario [24]

• Launch the Progress Task command to see the Interruptible Task dialog box:
• In the Mathematical Analysis toolbar or
• In the Analyse menu, click Progress Task 
• Click Compute 
• The Computing Dialog box appears without the Cancel button. Wait until the end of the process
• Check  Interruptible Task in the  Interruptible Task dialog box
• Click Compute 
• The Computing Dialog box appears with the Cancel button. 
• Click Cancel before the end of the process.
• Click Compute 
• The Computing Dialog box appears with the Cancel button. Wait until the end of the process
• Click Close in the Interruptible Task dialog box.

The Bounding Element scenario [23]

• Launch the Bounding Element command to see the Model Bounding Sphere dialog box:
  • In the Mathematical Analysis toolbar or
  • In the Analyse menu, click Bounding Element
• Click Compute 
• Click Close in the Model Bounding Sphere dialog box

The Temporary Objects/ISO scenario [29]

• Create some Point elements
• Launch the Clipping By Box command in the Clipping toolbar
• Select the ISO Selection text ( first temporary object) located at the origin of the model (0,0,0)
• Select a Point, the origin of the clipping box. A trihedral is located at the selected point (second temporary object) 
• Move the mouse, click left to define the clipping box size and end the command. ( the temporary bounding box is the third temporary object) All the points outside this bounding box are removed from the model.

[Top]

Where to Find the CAAGeometry Code

The CAAGeometry use case is made of a several modules "repartis sur plusieurs framework" 

• CAAApplicationFrame.edu
• CAACATIAApplicationFrm.edu
• CAASystem.edu
• CAADialogEngine.edu
• CAAVisualization.edu
• CAAObjectModelerBase.edu

which are inside:

where InstallRootDirectory is the directory where the CAA CD-ROM is installed.

CAAApplicationFrame.edu

CAACATIAApplicationFrm.edu

CAASystem.edu

CAADialogEngine.edu

CAAVisualization.edu

CAAObjectModelerBase.edu

[Top]

Step-by-Step

Each articles named below contains a Step-By-Step section. Here are given the main articles to customize the V5 frame:

• Creating a Workbench

• Creating an Add-In

• Creating a Property Page for Application Properties

• Implementing the Statechart Diagram

• Creating a Command that Consists in a Dialog Window

Once you have created you own feature, refer to the Mechanical Modeler articles for details, you can study the articles as follows:

• Inserting Commands in Contextual Menus

• Editing Objects

• Creating a Property Page for Object Properties

[Top]

In Short

The CAAGeometry use case enables you to understand the main mechanisms of the V5 user interface and to customize it.  

[Top]

References

History

Copyright © 2000, Dassault Systèmes. All rights reserved.