Strings and points

You use this command to display and set the drawing styles for a specified string interval. Drawing styles include presentation attributes for:

a label for the style for legend purposes
drawing method (such as for lines, markers, and attribute values)
line colour
line thickness
line pattern
face colour
reflectance colour
transmission colour for transparency effects
gloss effects
face pattern
edge colour
edge thickness
edge pattern
text colour
marker symbol
marker size
text characteristics, font, and size

To run this command: Select Display > Display properties > Strings and points or Customise > Display properties > Strings and points or...

In the Function Chooser, type STYLES STRING, and press ENTER.

Fields on the Set Drawing Styles form

Field	Description
Range	The string range that the drawing styles in this row will apply to. For example, 10,20,5 or 10;15;20. If a string number is defined twice, the first one is used.
Label	The label of the presentation style when a legend is created of the drawn data. Use this field only if there is going to be a legend.
Entity	Associate the string or strings in Graphics, with a plotting entity from the Plotting module. If a string is associated with a plotting entity, and you plot the string, for example using Autoplot, the string is displayed in the plot with the characteristics defined in the entity. For example, if you associate a string with the DASHED LINE entity, the string is plotted as a dashed line. Note:When you open the string in Graphics, Entity does not affect how the string is displayed.
Drawing Method	Drawing method determines how strings and segments are drawn. You can use keywords separated by commas. For example, `line, marker, z` draws the specified string with a line and at each point on the string there is a marker with the Z value drawn. Note: If the drawing method is blank, a simple line style is drawn. The following Drawing method table describes the full range of drawing method keywords and a description of how these keywords affect the drawing of the strings.
Save styles when form is applied?	Selected: Save the changes made to the form after clicking the Apply button. Cleared: Do not save any changes made to the form after clicking the Apply button.
Output styles	The name of the styles file.

Drawing method

Field	Description
arrow	Draw a direction arrow, that is, a ">" symbol to show the direction of the segment.
line	Draw each segment of the string as a simple polyline. Click the Line field to choose the properties of the polyline.
polygon	Draw each segment of the string as a colour-filled polygon. You can only draw segments that are co-planar. Click the Polygon field to choose the properties of the polygon.
marker	Draw a marker at each point of the string. Click the Markers field to choose its properties. There are two important and useful qualifiers for the marker drawing method. They are: # and !. # - By preceding the marker keyword with the # qualifier, like #marker, the marker is drawn only at the first point of a segment. ! - By preceding the marker keyword with the ! qualifier, like !marker, the marker is drawn only at the centre point of a segment, which is calculated by taking the average of the minimum and maximum X- and Y-values of the segment.
x, y, z, d1, d2, d3, etc.	The value from the specified attribute field of the string point is drawn at each point of the string. Additionally, alignment characteristics can be defined for each of these point attributes to determine where the attribute is drawn in relation to the point. The alignment characteristics are defined using a combination of the following special alignment codes: < Left align the point attribute with respect to the point. This means that the left hand edge of the text will be closest to the point. > Right align the point attribute with respect to the point. This means that the right hand edge of the text will be closest to the point. ^ Top align the point attribute with respect to the point. This means that the top edge of the text will be closest to the point. v Bottom align the point attribute with respect to the point. This means that the bottom edge of the text will be closest to the point. * Centre align the point attribute with respect to the point. This means that the centre of the text will be closest to the point. The individual alignment characters may be combined to define in total 9 distinct locations surrounding each point, for example, <^ will result in left-top aligned text with respect to the point. Another special alignment code can be used to have the point attribute value drawn at a specified frequency along each string segment. This is particularly useful for presenting contours on the screen. This special alignment code takes the form of attribute name/frequency/size where the attribute name is one of the point attribute field names such as (x, y, z) frequency is a value expressed in real world units to define the interval between annotations size is a value expressed in real world units to define the text height of the annotation. In this instance, the text height does not use the text characteristics defined below. An example of this method is z/100/2 giving the Z value from the first point of the segment at intervals of 100 and a text height of 2.
label	The drawing method name for drawing a string. This label appears as a legend item, if a legend is specified.
#label	The value from the label field of the string styles is drawn at the first point of each segment .
#string-no	The string number is drawn at the first point of each segment .
#string-segment-no	The string and segment number are drawn at the first point of each segment in the form sss.sss.
layer-point-no	Draw the point number within a segment.
none	Do not draw anything.
marker,z	Draw a marker, and a Z value.
line, z/200/5	Draw a line with a Z value every 200 units along the line. The size of the Z value symbol is 5 units.
line,arrow/100/5	Draw a line with an arrow symbol every 100 units. The size of the arrow symbol is 5 units.
#string-segment-no,line,marker	Draw a line with markers at the data points. At the start of the segment, the string number and the segment number is drawn.
#string-segment-no,line,marker,arrow/100/5	Draw a line with markers at the points. An arrow symbol (5 units in size) is drawn every 100 units. At the start of the string the string number and segment number will be drawn.

Line

Fields on the Edit Properties form

Field	Description
Colour	The colour of the triangle edges.
Thickness	The thickness of the lines used for drawing the triangle edges.
Style	The line style for drawing the triangle edges.
Join Type	The style of the joins of line segments.
End Type	The style of the ends of the lines.

Markers

Fields on the Edit Properties form

Field	Description
Marker	The marker symbol to be drawn.
Size	The size of the marker symbol in Graphics.

Text

Fields on the Edit Properties form

Field	Description
Font Style	The font style for the text.
Units/Size	The size of the text in the specified unit to be drawn. Options are: oru: Object relative units. The text becomes larger as you zoom in and smaller as you zoom out. sru: Subscreen relative units is a percentage of screen height. The text stays the same size as you zoom in and out. wru: World relative units. When you zoom in the text becomes larger as you zoom in and smaller as you zoom out. pt: Points. The text stays the same size as you zoom in and out. px: Pixels. Very much display-dependent but the text stays the same size as you zoom in and out.
Orientation	The orientation of the text in degrees or a path. The path is the X, Y, and Z values of a vector. The following are some examples: 1 0 0: horizontal text 0 1 0: vertical text 1 1 0: inclined text at 45 degrees 1 1 1: inclined text and "sticking up into the air"
Slant	The angle for the font. Valid values range between -75 and 75. Slanted text produces italicized text.

Polygon

Fields on the Edit Properties form

Field	Description
Colour	The colour of the polygon face.
Reflectance Colour	The colour of light that is reflected from the shiny spot on a polygon face when lights are simulated in the scene. With most nonmetallic objects, the reflection colour is a shade of white. A reflectance colour of black results in a dull, non-specular surface, while a value of white gives a shiny material. Metallic surfaces, however, tend to have coloured reflections. For example, the `glare' from a piece of polished brass illuminated by white light has a yellow-orange tint. This tint could be described by a reflectance value of `orangish white'. The specular response of a material also depends on its gloss value.
Transparency Colour	The colour that can show through the polygon faces. The Transparency Colour box must be selected for this item to be accessible. Transparency calculations are very computing intensive. They should only be used when special effects are required. The benefit of transparency is for polygons to be translucent so details are visible inside the objects.
Style	The colour of drawn polygon edges.
Thickness	The thickness of the lines that are drawn for any polygon edges.
Glossiness	The area of the glare off a surface. A high gloss value gives a small glare while a low gloss value results in a less polished, more scattered reflection.
Pattern	The pattern of the polygon faces. The pattern can be a solid colour or a predefined pattern.

Output

The appearance of the strings displayed in Graphics changes to match the drawing style that you specified. If you chose the save styles when form is applied option, the drawing style is saved in the styles file you specified.

Tip: If you want to apply the styles file to the strings displayed in Graphics at a later time, run STYLES LOAD.

String Properties

This function permits the display properties of a string to be modified by selecting the string graphically. The properties that can be modified are identical to those as described in the documentation above so are not repeated here.

To run this function: Choose Display > String properties > , or...

In the Function Chooser, type STRING PROPERTIES, and press ENTER.

Select the point of interest

Position the mouse and select the point on the string whose properties are to be modified to display the String Drawing Properties form.

Modify the display properties as required and press the Apply button to change the display properties of the selected string.