User interface guide

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Basics

The user interface for AToM3 was designed for speed (minimize number of clicks and mouse dragging), reliability (doesn't do something completely unexpected, which you see in a program like yED with it's overly aggressive UI), and for ease of use (all functions are available via a Right-Click to the popup-menu which also provides the short-cut/accelerator keys).

However, for those who want a reference to tuck under their pillows, here it is: AToM3 User Interface
NOTE: A few modifications have been made that didn't make it to that reference. They are fairly minor though, like HOME/END/PageUP/PageDOWN can now be used to scroll around the canvas...

How to do some of the tricky stuff...

  1. Scale an entity
  2. Move an entities dynamic text (ie: it's name label)
  3. Scale an entities dynamic text
  4. Make the canvas larger
  5. Export your model as an image/postscript
  6. Make 'perfect' straight/curved arrows automatically
  7. Cut, copy, paste, undo, redo (limitations)
  8. Copy attributes information in one entity to another entity
  9. Something else you want explained... d3n14@yahoo.com

Scale an entity

Select the entity or entities to be scaled, press R (or Right-Click then choose Re-Size Selected), then drag your mouse around.
Left-click to confirm the re-size, Right-click to reset to default size.

Move an entities dynamic text (ie: it's name label)

Press spacebar (or Right-Click then choose Enable Label Dragging) to change to text dragging mode.
Select and drag entities as usual, except that now text is moved instead of the entities...

Scale an entities dynamic text

Press spacebar (or Right-Click then choose Enable Label Dragging) to change to text dragging mode.
Select the entity or entities, then press R (or Right-Click then choose Re-Size Selected) to change to re-size mode.
Drag your mouse around to change the size, then Left-click to confirm the re-size, Right-click to reset to default size.

Make the canvas larger

Press Z (or Right-Click then choose Layout, then choose Zoom & Fit Graph).
Change the CanvasXMax and CanvasYMax to suit your needs.
You can also contract or expand all the entities co-ordinates on the canvas using the Stretch option.
The zoom method is not recommended...

Export your model as an image/postscript

Note: if you want image to be viewed on-screen (ie: on a webpage), then you'll get best results by simply taking a screenshot!
Turn off the Snap-Grid first though... F10 (or Right-Click then choose Layout, then Toggle Snap Grid)

For printing purposes, postscript is your best bet. So press F5 (or Right-Click then choose File Menu, then Generate Postscript From Model)
You then get a few options, choose Landscape mode if your model is wider than it is tall...
You then see the boundary box. Left-Click on a boundary (or as near to it as possible) to select it.
You can now drag the boundary where you want, and Rick-Click to set its new position.
When done, Right-Click anywhere to generate the postscript within the defined boundaries.

Make 'perfect' straight/curved arrows automatically

Select your arrows and press F12 (or Right-Click then choose Layout, then Arrow Optimizer)
You can configure what the optimizer does at: Right-Click then choose Layout, then Arrow Optimizer Settings

Cut, copy, paste, undo, redo (limitations)

Essentially this is a hack, whereby models are actually saved to a file, then loaded back into AToM3.
As a result, these functions should be considered unreliable and used sparingly (for your own sanity).
These functions must be DESIGNED into a system, inserting them into an existing system like AToM3 is virtually impossible :(

Copy attributes information in one entity to another entity

Put your cursor over the "donor" entity, press Alt-C (or Right-Click then Copy-Attributes)
Put your cursor over the "reciever" entity, press Alt-V (or Right-Click then Paste-Attributes)
Voila, your done. The reciever entity should now have the same values as the donor for every attribute name they share in common.
NOTE: Doesn't work for the original Entity Relationship formalism...



Author: Denis Dube
Updated April 3, 2005