A New Look for Spatial Data Display TNT products V5.5

  V5.50 –– October 1996

The main visualization process in TNTmips V5.5 has a new, streamlined interface and a variety of options to increase ease of use for the beginner and provide additional control for the advanced user. The process even has a new name. MicroImages' clients with TNT products prior to version 5.5 know the process as Display / 2-D; it is now Display / Spatial Data. The name change reflects the new features (described elsewhere) for incorporating 3-D groups into a layout.

The streamlined interface means all you have to do is click here

to select an object for display. This icon is equivalent to the Layer / Quick-Add / Any option.

 

 

When you add a group or open a layout with multiple groups, the Groups panel in the control window opens automatically:

Thus with the new interface design, you can click on the first icon in the Display / Spatial Data control window and choose any object type for display. The selected object is automatically drawn with the new default display options.

The default options are set with the beginner in mind; experienced users that routinely work with complex layouts may not want as much automatic redrawing as the default options provide. You can set a variety of redrawing and saving preferences, even to function just like in version 5.4 and earlier, by choosing Options� from the View menu in the control window.

These options include

  • automatic redrawing when a layout is changed,
  • automatically drawing a layout when opened,
  • drawing layers when unhidden, and
  • updating the view incrementally as each layer is drawn.

(An automatic redraw toggle is also found in the group controls window.) You can also set whether to be prompted to save layouts with separate settings for display and hardcopy modes. The order of the Layer, Group, and View panels also is now individually configurable. As always, TNTmips provides more options and lets you decide which best suit your working style.