Interacting and Annotating

From CwWiki

Interaction Scheme

The basic interaction scheme is a mouse-based interaction. The application is best run using a two-button mouse with a scroll wheel. In the most recent version of Corelyzer, the mouse clicks and events are context sensitive. This means, depending on what your mouse pointing to, the response of the application to mouse events can vary.

A live demonstration video of interacting in Corelyzer is available in [here].

Panning

To automatically begin panning using the Click-and-drag style, first left-click on the visualization window, making sure not to click on any objects (e.g. core section images, graphs, annotation markers, etc.) If you successfully clicked and are in the panning-mode, then the mouse pointer should change. In Windows, it will likely change to a four-direction pointer. On Mac OS X, it will probably change from a black mouse to a white mouse. To pan, keep holding down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to move the view of the scene.

Zooming

With a mouse wheel If you have a mouse wheel, zooming is as easy as scrolling the wheel back to zoom out and forward to zoom in. Assuming a particular area is of interest and you want to zoom in on it, simply point at that area of interest and use the mouse wheel to zoom in. The area will stay in the same place as the scene changes in scale. Similarly, you can zoom out to see more of the context that surrounds a particular area. Without a mouse wheel Unlike zooming with a mouse wheel, zooming without a mouse wheel will be based off of the center of the visualization window(s). In order to get to this mode, simply left-click into panning mode, then hold down the Control key on your keyboard. At this point, simply drag up or down with right click to zoom in or out.

Sliding a section

To slide a section image, first left-click on the section image, the image will be highlighted by a yellow bounding box. If you successfully do this, the mouse pointer will change to a hand pointer. The core section image will also be brought to the front of the other images. This is noticeable if any of the core section images overlap. At this point you can slide the section image left or right by moving your mouse left or right with Alt key pressed at the same time.

Sliding a track

A track can be slid vertically. To do this, first select a core section image, and then hold down the Shift key. The mouse pointer will remain looking like a hand cursor. Move the mouse up or down and the track will be moved in the direction of the mouse motion. NOTE: Corelyzer loads all images and tracks at the origin. It is recommended to slide a track away so that new images on a different track do not overlap an existing track.

Graphs

Graphs can be created after loading datasets that follow the Corelyzer Data XML Schema. You can select to show it as line graph, points, or cross points. To create graphs first right-click on a section. When you do this, a pop-up menu will appear. Select the Graph Dialog option. At this point the application will create a dialog window.

If there is data for the selected section in a given datafile then the fields will show up as selectable items, as seen in the above image. Otherwise, the listing of fields will be empty. At this point simply click on the check boxes of the fields you would like to be drawn for the section. If you would like all the images on a track to display the same fields, just make sure that the “Apply to whole track?” Checkbox is enabled.

If you do not have pre-defined section imagery available, you can still plot the dataset with the “independent graph” feature. To do so, after you load the dataset files and it is shown in the “Dataset” list, right click on the dataset file that you want to plot, select “Draw Graph”, the similar graph dialog will show up and the heuristic graph section will be created and plot the graph in visualization screen(s). Notice that you will need to create at least a track for it.

Changing properties of a graph

Scale

The three properties of a graph that can be changed are: minimum value, maximum value and the color. The minimum and maximum displayed values can be modified. This will take affect after you hit the Apply button. If you have the “Apply to whole track?” checkbox enabled, all the sections on the track will have their minimum and maximum values modified. This is how you can make sure that the scales of all the graphs for a particular field are the same along a whole track.

Color

To modify the color of a graph, first select the Color button on the dialog. At this point a color selection dialog will open up. Select the desired color and press OK. The color of the graph will immediately change. The change the color of all the graphs of the same field along a single track, make sure that the Apply to whole track? checkbox is enabled and click on the Apply button.

Annotations

Annotations are currently shown using a marker along the top of a core. The marker is a simple interactive visual to indicate that an annotation exists. Different markers can mean different types of annotations. For instance a marker with the letter 'A' indicates a general text and image annotation. Other annotations will be added as development continues.

Creating new annotations

Currently, text and image annotations are supported. As of version 0.6, annotations come in the form of HTML. First an image must be loaded. A user can then right-click on an image, and choose Add Annotation from the pop-up menu. Currently 3 types of annotations are supported, “point”, “span” and “block”. A marker will be made and an annotation dialog will show up. Once created, a user can select the Submit button to finish editing the annotation.

Reviewing & editing existing annotations

After an annotation is created, it can be edited in the future. To edit an annotation, or review it, a user simply right-clicks on an annotation marker and selects Edit Annotation from the pop-up menu. The same dialog used when creating an annotation will display. Currently, the comments will be attached into a discussion thread-like display in an annotation. By clicking the tool buttons at the top of the editing area of annotation window, the user can do simple HTML formatting and insert images and files with URLs or by selecting files from local hard disk.

Any time after the marker is created, the user can change to marker manipulation mode by clicking icon at the toolbox in the upper left screen. Next, select the marker icon and then by click-and-drag the green box to change the region of interest. Drag the annotation marker icon to move marker position. Grab the small green rectangle to change the interval of a spanning marker.

Measuring Mode

Switch to measuring mode by click the measurement icon in the toolbox at the upper left corner. To measure, click two points on the visualization screen, the physical length measurement will be calculated and saved to measuring history. The last value will also be copied to system’s clipboard so you can easily paste to other applications or the annotation.