Parent Topic: IWORKS

Preferences

Certain configuration items for ImageWorks may be stored in an ImageWorks preference file. The preference file is named imageworks.prf (or imagewor.prf on systems with an 8.3 name space like Microsoft Windows 3.1).

The preference file is a simple text file containing text lines with a preference name, a colon and a value. For instance, the preference file can control the default cursor colour in ImageWorks; the preference name is ``CursorColour''. The following line in the preference file would set the default cursor colour:

 CursorColour: Red

Much like other PCI files, it is possible to have a preference file in various locations: in the local directory, your home directory, the group procedure directory, and the system-wide procedure directory. If more than one of these files is found, they will all be read in order with the most local files being processed last and taking precedence over the more global files.

imageworks.prf (most local)
$HOME/imageworks.prf
$PCIGROUP/etc/imageworks.prf
$PCIHOME/etc/imageworks.prf (most global)

Adding Menu Items

The Menu preference can be used to add menu items to the ImageWorks main menubar menus. In fact new menus can also be added.

The data arguments to the Menu preference have the following fields.

field 1: The name of the procedure to run if the entry is selected, or an empty string in double quotes if this item is to be a new pulldown menu.
field 2: The visible text to be placed on the menu item.
field 3: The name of the pulldown menu under which to place the new menu item, or the name of the new pulldown menu if field 2 is an empty string. The existing pulldown menus in ImageWorks are named FileMI, EditMI, ViewMI, ToolsMI and HelpMI.
field 4: The name of the new menu item (should be unique).

The names of all the menu items in ImageWorks can be established by running the DUMPMENU procedure in the ImageWorks modelling window.

Example:

This item in the preference file would add a new menu item to the Tools menu (which is named ToolsMI). The new entry would be named BounceMI, and have visible text "Bounce...". When selected the EASI+ procedure BOUNCE.EAS would be run.

 Menu: BOUNCE "Bounce..." ToolsMI BounceMI

The following example would create a new menu called Misc (and named MiscMI), and add one item to that menu which would invoke the EASI+ procedure AUTOLOAD.EAS.

 Menu: "" "Misc" MiscMI
 Menu: AUTOLOAD "Auto Load" MiscMI AutoLoadMI

Disabling Menu Items

The Disable-Menu preference can be used to remove menu items, or whole menus from the ImageWorks main menubar. This is primarily useful for making a simplified version of ImageWorks available, or to remove a menu item so that a replacement can be provided using the ``Menu'' preference.

The data arguments to the Disable-Menu preference are the list of names leading to the particular menu item to be disabled. The names of all the menu items in ImageWorks can be established by running the DUMPMENU procedure in the ImageWorks modelling window.

The Disable-Menu preference is applied to the ImageWorks menubar before the Menu preference, so it is possible to disable a PCI provided menu item, and replace it with a user provided EASI script.

Example:

The following preferences would remove the filter item on the Tools menu and remove the entire View menu.

 Disable-Menu: ToolsMI FilterMI
 Disable-Menu: ViewMI

Button Bar

The Button Bar preference can be used to decide whether or not the Button Bar should be shown. By default the Button Bar is shown. To change this default behaviour, the following can be added to the preference file:

IWHasButtonBar: False

Message Bar

The Message Bar preference can be used to decide whether or not the Message Bar should be shown. By default the Message Bar is shown. To change this default behaviour, the following can be added to the preference file:

IWHasMessageBar: False

In addition, the individual components of the Message Bar can be set to be visible or not. By default, all the components of the Message Bar are set to be visible. To change this default behaviour, the following preferences can be used:

 WMBHasMessage: False
 WMBHasZoom: False
 WMBHasCursor: False
 WMBHasNumeric: False
 WMBHasMapping: False

Cursor Colour

The CursorColour preference can be used to modify the default colour of the cursor in the image display windows. The default is white, but this value will be overridden if you change the colour in the Cursor Control panel.

The value of this preference may be any recognised cursor colour, or any RGB colour in the format ``(RGB: RRR GGG BBB)''.

Example:

The first line would set the default cursor colour to Red, while the second would set the default colour to an explicit RGB value (red=200, green=128, blue=64).

 CursorColour: Red
 CursorColour: (RGB: 200 128 64)

Graphic Colour

The Graphic#Colour preference can be used to establish a default colour for a specified graphic plane. The ``#'' sign is replaced by the number of the graphic plane, and the argument value can be any recognised colour name or RGB tuple.

Example:

Set the first three graphic plane colours to shades of grey.

 Graphic1Colour: 50 50 50
 Graphic2Colour: 125 125 125
 Graphic3Colour: 200 200 200

Naming A Colour

The NamedColour preference allows the user to defined a new named colour to the system. This colour should appear in option menus used to select a colour.

The value arguments to the NamedColour resource should be a name for the new colour followed by the red, green, and blue components of that colour. If the colour name is more than one word, it should be enclosed in double quotes.

Example:

Create a new colour called Slate Grey with the specified RGB value.

 NamedColour: "Slate Grey" 40 40 40

Default File Extensions

The DefaultExtensions preference allows the user to define the default extension, or extensions they would like to see in database selection dialogs. They can select multiple extensions they would like see; however, on some systems (such as X/Motif) only the first extension will have an effect.

Note that this preference only affects the primary file selection mechanism for image and vector files, not the file selectors used to access ancillary text files.

The list of extensions should be separated by vertical bar (pipe) symbols, and there should be no space in the list of extensions. Each extension should be formed with an asterix followed by a dot followed by the extension as shown in the example below. In the example, the user requests to see files with the extensions .pix (PCIDSK), .tif (TIFF) and .jpg (JPEG JFIF).

Example:

 DefaultExtensions: *.pix|*.tif|*.jpg

Compact Vectors

The CompactVectors preference can be used to request that ImageWorks store vectors in a more compact form in memory than is the default. However, this imposes a price on redraw performance. The CompactVectors preference can have the following values:

OFF: Use the default (memory intensive, but fast) in memory storage form for vectors.
ON: Use a compact form to store the vectors in memory that is slower but doesn't lose any information.
2D: Use the compact (ON) format, and don't bother storing a Z coordinate for any of the vertices.
Float: Use the compact (ON) format, and don't keep full double precision (8 byte binary numbers) accuracy for vector points. Instead use floats (4 byte binary numbers) imposing a modest penalty in speed and accuracy in order to save more memory.
2D Float: Apply both the 2D and Float options at the same time.

The CompactVectors preference can be set, or overridden with an environment variable called CompactVectors. The value of the environment has the same interpretation as the preference.

Example:

 CompactVectors: ON

Shape Save Limit

The ShapeSaveLimit preference allows the user to define the maximum number of shapes that can be saved in the Vector Editor's undo/redo buffer when changes are made with a vector editing operation. The default for this preference is 100 shapes. Hence, if a user performs a single vector editing operation that affects more than ShapeSaveLimit shapes (such as a Move), then the changes caused by this operation will not be saved in the undo/redo buffer so they cannot be undone, and all of the previous editing changes will be cleared from the undo/redo buffer.

Start up options

The following options control the startup configuration of ImageWorks. These options may be overridden by the use of command line options or the presence of a PRM.PRM. Any changes to the configuration will be saved when ImageWorks terminates.

 DataX - The data x size
 DataY - The data y size

 ViewX - The viewer window x size
 ViewY - The viewer window y size
 
 Image8  - The number of 8-bit image planes
 Image16 - The number of 16-bit image planes
 Image32 - The number of 32-bit image planes

 graphicPlanes - The number of graphic planes can be 8 or 16

Example:

 DataX: 1000
 DataY: 1000
 ViewX: 512
 ViewY: 512
 Image8: 1
 Image16: 1
 Image32: 1
 GraphicPlanes: 8

The lines above configure ImageWorks to have a 1000x1000 data size viewed with a 512x512 window and has three different image planes. There is one image plane for each of the available 8,16 and 32-bit types. There are also 8 graphic planes.

Parent Topic: IWORKS
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