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294 lines
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294 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
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<title>JMRI: Panel Editor Help</title>
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<meta name="author" content="Pete Cressman">
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<meta name="keywords" content="JMRI help Panel Editor"><!--#include virtual="/help/en/parts/Style.shtml" -->
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<div id="mainContent" class="no-sidebar">
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<h1>The Panel Editor</h1>
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<p><img src="images/PanelEditor.png" class="floatRight" alt="Panel editor"><br>
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A Panel is a set of Icons representing various components of a layout. Some of the Icons
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available in JMRI include Turnouts, Signals Masts and Sensors. You can include a background
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icon to display your layout on your Panel and add the contents of Memory, LogixNG Global
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Variables and/or Reporter Variables.</p>
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<p>The controls on the Panel itself are described on a <a href="PanelTarget.shtml">separate
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Panel Help page</a>.</p>
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<p>Panels created with the Panel Editor allow you to place images to represent Turnouts,
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Sensors, Signal Heads, Signal Masts, trackwork, etc.</p>
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<p>For clinics showing how each of these things are actually done on the computer screen,
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please see the <a href="https://jmri.org/community/clinics/">JMRI Clinics page</a>.</p>
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<h2>Contents of the Panel Editor</h2>
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<p>The Panel Editor consists of the following items:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Two text fields, <strong>x:</strong> and <strong>y:</strong>, specifying where (in
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pixels) new components will be inserted on the panel. You can generally ignore these, as
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once the components has been inserted you can drag it around by holding the meta (Apple,
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command; Linux & Windows, right button) key down.</li>
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<li>A button to set the title of the Panel you are editing. Press the button and you will
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be prompted to enter the text.</li>
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<li>A button to add a text label. Put the desired text in the field and click the button.
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You can slide the label around after inserting it and you can edit the text by context
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clicking and choosing "Edit Text...".</li>
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<li style="list-style: none"><img src="images/PanelEditor2.png" class="floatRight" alt=
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"Panel editor 2">
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</li>
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<li>A dropdown menu where you may choose the type of icon or data you may put into the
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panel.
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<ul>
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<li>Right Hand Turnout</li>
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<li>Left Hand Turnout</li>
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<li>Slip/3-Way Turnout/Scissor</li>
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<li>Sensor</li>
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<li>Signal Head</li>
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<li>Signal Mast</li>
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<li>Memory</li>
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<li>Block Contents Label</li>
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<li>Reporter</li>
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<li>Light</li>
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<li>Background</li>
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<li>MultiSensor (i.e levers and switches)</li>
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<li>RPS Reporter</li>
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<li>Fast Clock</li>
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<li>Global Variable (LogixNG)</li>
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<li>LogixNG table (see <a href="../../../../html/tools/logixng/reference/Chapter11_1.shtml">LogixNG Table Icon</a>)</li>
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<li>Audio (see <a href="AudioIcon.shtml">Audio Icon</a>)</li>
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<li>LogixNG (see <a href="../logixng/InlineLogixNG.shtml#logixng_icon">LogixNG Icon</a>)</li>
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<li>Icon (unassociated to any JMRI device)</li>
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</ul>
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<p>In most cases, selecting one of these items will open a window from which icons or
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values can be chosen. For the items referring to a JMRI device (e.g. turnout, sensor,
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etc.) a pick list of the available devices is displayed. From there you select the device
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and the icon to represent it in the panel. Exceptions to this are the Memory, LogixNG
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Global Variable and Reporter items where the selection puts the value of item into the panel.
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The Background item provides images for the background of the panel. Further details on
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using these windows are described on the <a href="IconAdder.shtml">Icon Editors page</a>.</p>
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<p>The two choices for icons that do not open windows are RPS Reporter and Fast Clock.
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These items install their icons directly into the panel.</p>
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</li>
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<li>A checkbox for making popup menus active. When checked a small popup menu will appear
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when you right click an icon. Most icons allow you to rotate and remove the icon. There are
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other options depending on the type of icon, for example, you can disable a turnout so it
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doesn't actually control anything.
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<p>The popup menu may also change if the configuration of an item is changed. For
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example, if you add feedback to a turnout, the popup menu includes a new item choice
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called "Tristate". Tristate allows you to use the inconsistent icon, which is one of the
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four possible icons available for a turnout. Normally when you first click on a turnout
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icon it commands the layout to change the state of the turnout. If you use feedback for a
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particular turnout, the icon display will wait to hear from the layout before modifying
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the turnout icon to the closed or thrown icon. By using Tristate, the icon will change
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immediately to the inconsistent icon when the turnout is clicked. Inconsistent in this
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case means that I've commanded the turnout to change and now we're waiting to hear if it
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actually happened. If and when the layout returns the actual or "known state" of the
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turnout, the icon will change to that state. If you don't use Tristate, when you click on
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the icon, it may take some time (milliseconds to seconds depending on the system) before
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the icon responds with the known state of the turnout.</p>
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</li>
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<li>All panel items can be repositioned. When checked you can move items in your panel by
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selecting and dragging them with the meta key. Linux and Windows users can hold the right
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click down and drag. By default new items can be repositioned even if this box isn't
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checked.</li>
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<li>Panel items control layout. Normally you want to control your layout, so leave this box
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checked. Otherwise, uncheck the box if you don't want your panel to send commands to your
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layout.</li>
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<li>Show all hidden items. Individual items can be set to hidden. If this option is
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unchecked, those items will be hidden. This option is linked to the popup menus item.
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If popup menus is active, this option will also be be active which means that nothing
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will be hidden.</li>
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<li>Show Tooltips for all items. When checked, the icon tooltips will be enabled.
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See <a href="Tooltips.shtml">Tooltips</a> for more information.</li>
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<li>Panel has menu. Once you don't need to change or edit your layout, you can disable the
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ability to use the panel editor. The only way to re-enable the editor is to edit the panel
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file. Using a simple editor (Notepad for Window users will work) or XML editor, open your
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panel and find panelmenu="no" and change "no" to "yes" and save the file. The panel will
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now show the menu the next time you load the panel in PanelPro. Note: This option does
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not appear to work anymore (checked at 4.26, probably much earlier).</li>
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<li>Panel scrollbars. Allows you to choose which scrollbars to display.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>After Creating A Panel</h2>
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<p>After getting the panel the way you want, you need to store your changes. <span class=
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"since">since 4.23.3</span> You can use <strong>File ⇒ Store ALL table content and
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panels...</strong> {<em>Old: <strong>Store Pamels...</strong></em>} from the PanelEditor menu
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or you can use <strong>File ⇒ Store ALL table content and panels...</strong> from the main
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PanelPro menu. See <a href="../../../../html/apps/LoadStoreWork.shtml">Loading and Storing
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Your Work</a> for details.</p>
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<h3>Available Icons</h3>
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<p>The JMRI library contains lots of contributed icons for representing CTC panels, LEDs,
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etc. You can browse through them using the file tree in the Change Icon frame.</p>
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<p>Each of the Icon Editor windows has a <strong>Find Icons</strong> Menu that provides
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several ways to find and acquire additional icons to place into your panel. See the <a href=
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"IconAdder.shtml">Icon Editors page</a> for more details.</p>
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<h2>Other types of panels</h2>
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<p>Because this type of panel is icon-based, you can create panels that look any way you
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want. For example, instead of using track-schematic icons for turnouts, you could use small
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images of the levers and plates on CTC machine. This would give you "mechanical" levers you
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can flip back and forth with a click.</p>
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<p>In JMRI it's possible to create a panel where the "track" lines change color to indicate
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whether the block is occupied by switching to either <a href=
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"ControlPanelEditor.shtml">Control Panel Editor</a> (using Indicator Track icons) or <a href=
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"LayoutEditor.shtml">Layout Editor</a>.</p>
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<h2>Manipulating Icons</h2>
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<p>To move an icon around on the panel, you "meta-drag" it. On macOS, that's "hold the cmd
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key and drag with the cursor"; on Linux or Windows, "hold the right mouse click and drag with
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the cursor".</p>
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<p>There's also a pop-up menu (ctrl-click on macOS; right-click on Linux and Windows) that
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will provide various ways to manipulate the icon. It will let you rotate the icon so that it
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points in whatever direction you want. Text labels can have their font, size and color
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changed. You can also remove icons from the panel with the popup menu.</p>
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<h3>Rotating and Scaling</h3>
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<p>When the checkbox for showing an icon's coordinates is checked, the icon can be scaled or
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rotated an arbitrary number of degrees. When this checkbox is checked, two additional items
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appear in the icon's popup menu - <strong>Rotate (degrees)...</strong> and <strong>Scale
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(percentage)...</strong>. When these item are selected, a text box will appear near the icon
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and ask for a number. In the case of 'Rotate (degrees)', a positive or negative integer will
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rotate the icon that number of degrees. In the case of 'Scale (percentage)', a positive
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number is the percentage to increase or decrease the size of the icon.</p>
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<p>The <strong>Rotate (Orthogonal)</strong> item rotates the icon 90 degrees each time it is
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selected. Choosing an alternative rotation item resets the former rotation to the default
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icon image. For example, if the icon has been scaled to 75% and set to 30 degrees and then
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'Rotate (Orthogonal)' is selected, the icon will return to its original size and
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orientation.</p>
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<h3>Group Moving and Aligning</h3>
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<p>When the checkbox for repositioning icons is checked, groups of icons can be selected.
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Pressing the mouse button down in an open area and dragging will draw a dotted red rectangle.
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All the icons that lie within this "fence" are items that are selected. Those icons within
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the "fence" that do <strong>not</strong> have the <strong>fixed</strong> or <strong>Lock
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Position</strong> checkbox marked in their popup menus can be moved as a group. Dragging any
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one of the repositionable icons within the fence will move the entire group. Clicking in an
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open area will remove the "fence" and ungroup the icons.</p>
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<p>In addition, grouped icons can be aligned horizontally and vertically. When grouped, the
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icons have two additional menu items in their popup menus: <strong>Align Vertically</strong>
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and <strong>Align Horizontally</strong>. Once again, the grouped icons that are not fixed or
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locked can be aligned with either their left edges (x coordinate) equal, or top edges (y
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coordinate) equal. These menu items disappear when the icons are ungrouped.</p>
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<p>Another feature of grouped icons is they can be locked (fixed) and unlocked (unfixed) as a
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group when any one of the group's popup menu item for lock or fix is checked.</p>
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<p>When placing icons on top of one another, the upper icon may prevent moving the icon
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underneath. For example when labeling a turnout, you may not be able to reposition the label
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without dragging the turnout above it. However, if you press the Shift key before dragging
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the label the turnout will remain in place while you reposition the label. That is a
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"Shift-Drag" leaves the top icon in place and only moves the icons beneath it.</p>
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<h3>Multi Slice Backgrounds</h3>
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<p>For users that need to build a classic US&S panel there are several options. The first
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is to simply select the 15 position panel background from icons/USS/background/uss-15.gif.
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Another option is to use a pixel based image editor to create your own background image. Save
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the image as a .gif or similar file. (see info above on where to store new images) Yet
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another option is to create the background image from multiple slices of the whole panel.
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JMRI supports using multiple background images so, by simply positioning each image properly,
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a complete panel of any reasonable size may be created.</p>
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<p>Currently there are two sets of image 'slices' available. One set is 718 pixels high, and
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the second set is 900 pixels high. Choose the set that best fits your display. These 'slices'
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are located at icons/USS/background/. The 900 pixel high images include a "-9" in their
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names. The left and right edge images are each 12 pixels wide. The main panel 'slices' are 65
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pixels wide. This allows you to precisely position each slice simply by changing the x: and
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y: coordinates in the Panel Editor. The advantages of building backgrounds with slices are
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that you can make virtually any length of panel that is required, and the plates will be
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precisely located automatically.</p>
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<p>First set the coordinates to x:0, y:0 and select icons/USS/background/Panel-left.gif. (or
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icons/USS/background/Panel-left-9.gif) This gives you the left edge of the panel. Change the
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coordinates to x:12 y:0 and choose the next slice. It may be blank, include a switch plate,
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include a signal plate, or include both plates. Only the "x:" coordinate needs to be changed
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as you continue to add additional panel sections. The 'slices' are each 65 pixels wide, so
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simply add 65 to the x: value for each additional slice. For example; to build up a 15
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position panel from slices, use x:0 for the left side, then x:12, x:77, x:142, x:207, x:272,
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x:337, x:402, x:467, x:532, x:597, x:662, x:727, x:792, x:857, and x:922 for the individual
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slices. Finally set x:987 and complete the panel with
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icons/USS/background/Panel-right.gif.</p>
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<p>To change the style of any individual slice (e.g. to add a new plate to your panel) first
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check the "Show item's coordinates in popup menu" check box in the editor window. Next, right
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click in a blank area of the old slice to raise the pop up information including the
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coordinates of that slice. Put those numbers in the editor's coordinates, then remove the
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slice. Finally, choose a new slice and it will appear where the old one was.</p>
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<h2>Communicating with Multiple Systems</h2>
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<p>PanelPro can communicate with more than one layout hardware system. To configure JMRI® to
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talk to multiple systems, select them in the Preferences panel (Edit -> Preferences >
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Connections (tab at left) -> click on the + tab to add the system information for your
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second System Connection.</p>
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<p>If you add a Turnout, Sensor or Signal Mast to a Panel using just a number, e.g. "23" in
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the Add... pane of a table, its System Name will be created using the System Connection
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Prefix as set in the Preferences panel -> Connections tab (e.g. LT1 for a turnout on the L
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LocoNet connection). As a second system connection is required to use a different prefix, it
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is simple to use more than one hardware system at the same time (for JMRI naming rules see
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<a href="../../../../html/doc/Technical/Names.shtml">System Names</a>).</p>
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<p>Back to the <a href="../../../../html/apps/PanelPro/index.shtml">PanelPro help
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page</a>.</p>
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