© MatCalc (2008)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
   

T1: Introduction to the MatCalc graphical user interface (GUI)

This tutorial was created on

MatCalc version 5.23 rel 1.025

license: free

database: none

 

This first tutorial provides a brief tour of MatCalc's user interface and explains how to perform basic file operations.

Contents

  • Appearance of the graphical user interface
  • Menus and toolbar
  • Console window
  • Command history
  • Configuring the layout of the GUI
  • The 'File' menu
  • Creating a new workspace file
  • Modifying the working directory
  • Adding workspace information
  • Saving and closing files
  • Getting help

1. The graphical user interface

Screen layout

When MatCalc is first opened, the screen appears as shown below (Windows version).

 

The table below gives brief descriptions of the different areas of the screen.

 

Menu bar The main menu (see below).
Toolbar Icons giving quick access to frequently used functions (see below)
Console Window for entering command-lines; more information is given below and in Tutorial 12.
Options window Context-sensitive options to change the way information is displayed. Tutorial 2, Tutorial 4 and Tutorial 5 give more information about the Options window.
Variables window A list of MatCalc's built-in variables with their current values. See Tutorial 4 and Tutorial 5 for more about variables.
Information on variables Notes on the currently highlighted entry in the variables window (meaning of variable, units, etc.).
Status bar Gives information on the current state of the system (temperature, time, etc.) and on the contents of graphical windows (see Tutorial 4).

Menu bar

As with any typical GUI application, this gives access to a number of sub-menus. The 'File' and 'Help' menus are documented in this tutorial, and the contents of the other menus will be described in more detail in subsequent tutorials.

'File': opening, saving and closing files (see 'File operations' below)
'Edit': text-editing commands such as undo, redo, cut, copy, paste
'Global': commands for setting up the system
'Calc': commands for starting various types of calculation
'Extra': to run scripts (more on this in Tutorial 13)
'View': to configure the GUI and create new windows for the display of results
'Help': see 'Getting help' below

Toolbars

The toolbar area contains a number of icon groups:

 

'File etc'


L-R : New file, open, save, close, print, help

 

'Toolbar'


L-R: Choose working directory, launch script

 

'Edit'


L-R: Undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, search

 

'Calculation'


L-R: Stop, Single equilibrium, stepped equilibrium, search phase boundary, precipitation calculation, choose calculation state, load into calculation state, load into buffer, choose buffer.

 

'Manage windows'

L-R: Show console, create new window

 

Right-clicking on the toolbar area gives a menu allowing the user to control which windows and which icon groups are to be displayed on the screen:

 

Console

This window allows command-line input, as an alternative to using the graphical controls. Commands can also be grouped into script files, for easier and more rapid execution of repetitive or complex tasks. More on the console, command-line syntax and scripts will be found in Tutorial 12: Using the MatCalc console and Tutorial 13: Introduction to scripting. The console can be shown or hidden using View > Show console, pressing F4 key or clicking on icon.

Command history

The command history window can be made to appear by selecting its entry in the menu shown on the picture above. It gives a chronological list of all the commands entered in the Console.

 

 

A command can be selected using the mouse pointer or arrow keys. Right-clicking on the command displays the following menu. On the right-hand side of the menus in MatCalc are keyboard shortcuts for the more commonly used commands. It can be seen from the image below that it is sufficient to press the 'Enter' key to execute the selected command.

 

 

Previously used commands can also be accessed in the Console window itself; pressing the up-arrow key displays the most recently entered command, and pressing it repeatedly scrolls through recent commands in reverse chronological order. The command displayed can be edited then executed by pressing the 'Enter' key.

Configuring the layout

The icon groups in the toolbar can be rearranged by clicking on the double vertical lines at the left-hand side of the group and dragging to the chosen location. They can be detached from the toolbar area and brought into the currently empty main window area (coloured grey); in this case, they are given title bars similar to that of the 'MatCalc console'. The Console, Options, Variables and Command History windows can also be attached to or detached from the left-hand column area as required.

2. File operations

The 'File' menu

Clicking on 'File' in the menu bar opens the following menu:

 

 

Creating a new workspace file

The 'workspace' is the basic file type in MatCalc. It contains all the necessary information on the calculation or series of calculations under consideration, comprising inputs (elements, phases, compositions, thermodynamic and mobility data) and outputs (results of calculations, graphs, etc.). Saving the workspace preserves all this information for future use.

Click on the  icon or open 'New' from the 'File' menu. The following dialogue box will appear:

 

 

Select 'MatCalc workspace' from the drop-box. This runs a script file called 'autonew.mcs', which makes three additional windows appear: 'Output', 'Phase details' and 'Phase summary'. When the new workspace is first created, the 'Output' window displays licence and version information and the 'Phase summary' and 'Phase details' windows show messages indicating that no phases have yet been selected. The workspace is now ready for thermodynamic or precipitation calculations to be set up and performed.

 

Working directory

The 'working directory' is the directory opened by default when saving new files or opening existing ones. Clicking on 'Working directory...' allows the user to designate an existing directory as the working directory or to create a new directory for this purpose.

 

 

The paths of the current working directory and of recently used working directories are listed to the right of 'Recent working dirs...', allowing any of these directories to be selected easily.

 

 

The same information is also available in a drop-box in the toolbar area:

 

Adding workspace information

Clicking on 'Workspace info...' opens a box in which information about the current workspace can be entered. This is useful for details of the assumptions used in the calculation, the sources of experimental data, etc.

 

Save, Save as, close

Workspaces can be saved using 'Save...' or 'Save As...' in the file menu, or the icon on the toolbar. To close a file, choose 'Close Workspace' in the file menu or . Warning: do not close the individual windows on the screen before saving, or their contents will not be saved!

3. Getting help

Click on the icon on the toolbar or open the 'Help' menu to open the help browser. In the Console, typing a question-mark will display a list of available commands. These will be discussed more fully in Tutorial 12.

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