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AutoPIPE Interface
Let's begin by opening an existing file.
To do so, we go to the File menu
and select Open,
AutoPIPE Database.
In the Open dialog, we can then navigate
to the directory where we have the file stored.
And once there,
to open a particular file, then we just double-click the file
or select the file
and press the Open button on the lower right corner.
Next, we can
review the various areas of the AutoPIPE screen.
Our main menu appears along the very top
of the screen.
This contains menu items such as File
Edit, View,
etc. Next,
we have three toolbars
available on the
main screen.
The first tool bar, called the Command toolbar,
is located at the top of the screen just below the main menu.
The second toolbar,
the View toolbar,
is located to the left side of the screen.
And the Component toolbar
is located to the right side of the screen.
The Command toolbar contains toolbars for many of the
most commonly-accessed commands
in AutoPIPE.
The View toolbar
provides toolbars for us to control
our viewing of the model in the main window.
And the Component toolbar provides us
quick links to insert particular components into our model.
The Command toolbar
is permanently docked
at the top of the screen and cannot be moved.
However, the View and Component toolbars are dockable, meaning
these toolbars can be moved
to any location on the screen that we wish, or they could be closed from the view,
such that we cannot see them.
The main area of the screen where the graphic of the model is displayed
is called the Modeling Area.
The bottom strip
of our screen is divided into two parts: a command line
and status bar.
The command line
will show for us
the name of the latest command that we have issued, or
will show us information
related to the
command that we currently
have issued.
The status bar provides various pieces of information for us,
such as
the name of the active point,
and we will be discussing the active point momentarily,
the name of the current
segment,
the current pipe identifier.
And the significance of the current pipe identifier is that all pipes that are
inserted into the model
will be inserted using that current pipe identifier
until we select a different identifier or create a new identifier.
Another piece of information in the status bar
is the current units.
These will be displayed at various points throughout
the modeling session to indicate to us
the current units
that are necessary for input for a particular value.
AutoPIPE makes extensive use of
dialog boxes
when we are inserting
components or performing other commands.
This particular dialog box is for inserting a run point into our model, and
we need to understand the various ways of navigating and entering
data in these dialog boxes.
To accept all of the values that are entered in the dialog, and close the
dialog, and then issue the command or insert that particular component,
we simply press the OK
button in the lower right corner of the dialog.
Or you can hit the Enter key on your keyboard.
Some fields in the dialogs have lists associated with them.
Those fields are noted with a downward-pointing arrow just to the right
of the field.
Selecting this arrow will open the list for you, and you can select the
appropriate item
from that list.
Certain fields have units associated with them,
for example, the Length field.
And we can note those units in the lower right corner of the main screen.
Note, for this example
that the length units are in feet.
To navigate between the fields,
there are a couple of ways to do that.
First you can simply click
in any field to move directly to that field.
Or, we can make use of the keyboard.
The Tab key on your keyboard will move you sequentially forward
through the
fields of the dialog.
And the keystroke combination of the Shift key,
along with the Tab key,
will move you sequentially backward
through those fields.
Some options on our dialogs
can be toggled on by clicking the
check box adjacent to the option.
The black check indicates that option is toggled on.
And selecting the box again will toggle that option off.
The Help button in the lower right corner of the dialogs
will pull up the Help menu for that dialog,
provide you a general description of the dialog itself,
as well as links to a
more detailed description of each field, or each item, that is available in a
particular dialog.
Another way of invoking Help
in the
dialogs is to make use of the F1, (or the function one) key on your keyboard.
With your cursor placed in any field in a dialog, you can press the
F1 key,
and this will open
a Help item specific to
that particular field.
I used this option in the Length field. Therefore, I am now seeing
a description of
the Length field.
To close a dialog without
accepting
those values,
or, in other words, canceling the command,
you just simply press the Cancel button
or use the Escape key on your keyboard.
If English units are being used in a model,
and a particular input field on a dialog requires the units of feet,
typically those need to be provided in decimal feet.
However, AutoPIPE does provide
for you to enter that value in feet and inches format.
And AutoPIPE will then automatically convert that
to the decimal feet equivalent.
There are various formats that can be used when inputting
dimensions in feet and inches, as shown by this table.
As an example,
the value 2.2708 feet
can be input in one of several ways.
First, we can use
2' 3.25",
where the single quote represents feet,
and the double quotes symbol on your keyboard represents inches.
Or we could enter this as 2'
3.25
without the inch symbol.
We can also use
2'3"1/4 or
2-3-1/4.
All those values are acceptable in any
input field requiring the units of feet.
And, as mentioned earlier, AutoPIPE will then convert that for us to the decimal equivalent.
All AutoPIPE commands can be accessed from the menu system at the top of the
main screen.
However, a number of AutoPIPE commands can be accessed directly from the
keyboard using hotkeys.
In AutoPIPE, hotkeys are executed by holding down the Ctrl key
and then pressing a letter key.
Additionally, AutoPIPE uses the function keys for some operations.
Note that these hotkeys are displayed in the AutoPIPE pull-down menu, next to the
item that it executes.
For example, on the Edit menu,
an Undo command can be issued
by simply selecting the command from the menu, or
using the keyboard hotkey CTRL+Z.