User Interface Elements (DATAFLOW Designer)

by Marco Wuelser

This Reference Article has been written for Version 2.1 of the DATAFLOW Software. For Previous Releases use the version selection in the navigation bar at the top of this page.

Basic User Interface

When the DATAFLOW Designer is started, a splash screen is displayed that allows the user to check if the correct version of the software has been started. Afterwards, a startup screen is displayed.

DATAFLOW Designer Splash Screen

Home Screen

This screen allows the user to create a new project or to open an existing one. When a project is created or opened, the main window is displayed.

DATAFLOW Designer Home Screen

Main Window

Main Window Areas

The main window of the DATAFLOW Designer contains the following areas:

Title Bar
Quick Access Toolbar
Ribbons
Dockable Windows
Status Bar

Title Bar

The title bar displays the name of the currently opened project and can be used to move the program around on the Windows desktop.

Quick Access Toolbar

This small toolbar can either be placed inside the title bar or below the ribbons. It contains the following buttons:

Save Project
Undo Action
Redo Action

Ribbons

Home Ribbon

The ribbons contain buttons to execute various functions within the software. The buttons are disabled if the function cannot be used in the current context (active window and selected element). Hints with a short description of the button functionality and keyboard shortcut info (if available) are displayed for each Ribbon element when the user hovers with the mouse cursor.

The following ribbons are displayed:

File
Home
Export
Format
Layout
View

In the upper left corner of the ribbon area, the currently signed in user is displayed. Clicking on the username opens the account settings dialog.

File Ribbon

The file ribbon displays a view of the whole area of the main window. In this view, the user can:

Group: Solution

New	Create a new Solution
Open	Open an Existing Solution

Info	Display Info on the current Solution.
Save	Save the open Solution.
Save As	Save the open Solution to a new location.
Close	Close the current Solution.

About	Display information About the software (such as the current version number and used open source licenses). This information is important for bug and issue reports, and therefore it can be selected and copied to the clipboard.
Options	Open the Application Options that are independent of the opened Solution.
Help	Open the Help dialog to access the online user manual

Exit

Exit the DATAFLOW Designer application.

Home Ribbon

The home ribbon provides the basic edit functionality and other often-used buttons and is displayed as the default ribbon when a project is opened.

The following actions can be performed:

Group: General

Save	Save the current solution.
Undo	Undo the last action.
Redo	Redo the action that has been undone last.
Settings	The DATAFLOW server, which can be changed This is only required if a pre-release or custom version of DATAFLOW Designer is intended to be used. Otherwise, the default value “Productive” should be left unchanged. The color theme for the application can be configured.

Group: Clipboard

Paste	Paste the contents of the clipboard into the current editor.
Cut	Cut the selected elements from the current editor and place them in the clipboard.
Copy	Copy the selected elements from the current editor and place them in the clipboard.
Delete	Delete the selected elements from the current editor.

Group: Editing

Find	Find a search string in the whole project.
Select >	Press Select open the drop down menu.
Select all	Select All elements in the active editor.
Clear Selection	Clear Selection in the active editor.

Group: Generate Code

Generate Code	Press Generate Code to generate application code from the open project.
Open Folder	Open the Folder where the generated code is located.
Clear Selection	Clear Selection in the active editor.

Group: Build Configuration

Define	Define a Build Configuration (Define Target Plattform, Language Coding Style, ...) for the selected System or Active Container item.
Edit	Edit the existing Build configuration.
Clear	Clear the Build configuration.
Import	Import a Build Configuration.
Export	Export a Build Configuration.

Group: Toolchain

Define	Define a Toolchain (IAR, VS, GNU, ...) for the system.
Edit	Edit the existing Toolchain configuration.
Clear All	Clear all Toolchains assigned to the selected item.

Format Ribbon

This ribbon contains formatting tools for text and graphical elements.

For the text element, the following formatting is supported:

Group: Font

Bold	Change format of the selected Text to Bold.
Italic	Change format of the selected Text to Italic.
Underline	Change format of the selected Text to Underline.
Strikethrough	Change format of the selected Text to Stirkethrough.
Horizontal Line	Create a line break and add a horizontal line.

Group: Paragraph

Left Align	Change the alignment of the text to Left Align
Right Align	Change the alignment of the text to Left Align
Center Align	Change the alignment of the text to Align Center
Bullet List	Format the selected text as Bullet List.
Numbered List	Format the selected text as Numbered List.

Group: Images

Define	Define a Toolchain (IAR, VS, GNU, ...) for the system.
Edit	Edit the existing Toolchain configuration.
Clear All	Clear all Toolchains assigned to the selected item.

For graphical elements, the following formatting is supported:

Group: Colors

Line	Change the Line color. (Hardware Channel and Box Object)
Background	Change the Background color of Box and Text items. (Box Object)
Text	Change the Text color. (Text Object and Box Object)

Group: Lines

Witdth	Change the Line width. (Hardware Channel and Box Object)
Arrows	Change the Arrow style. (Hardware Channel)
Style	Change the Line style. (Hardware Channel and Box Object)

The Clear Format button makes it possible to clear all formatting from the selected text.

NOTE

Only text objects support text formatting. Box objects also display text, 
but it cannot be formatted except for the text color.

With the ‘Change Image’ button, the image of the selected image object can be changed. A file dialog will appear to select the new image for the image object.

NOTE

Images can be added to the diagram by dragging the PNG or JPG file directly onto 
the diagram as well.

Layout Ribbon

This ribbon provides functions to lay out elements in a diagram:

Group: Arrange

Align	Open the Align drop down menu
Left Align	Change the alignment of the text to Left Align
Right Align	Change the alignment of the text to Left Align
Center Align	Change the alignment of the text to Align Center
Bottom Align	Format the selected text as Bullet List.

Distribute	Open the Distribute drop down menu
Distribute Horizontal	Space selected elements evenly either along the horizontal axes
Distribute Vertical	Space selected elements evenly either along the vertical axes

Bring to Front	Open the Bring to Front drop down menu.
Bring Forward	Bring the selected item forward.
Bring to Front	Bring the selected item to the front.

Send to Back	Open the Bring to Front drop down menu.
Send Back	Bring the selected item forward.
Send to Back	Bring the selected item to the front.

View Ribbon

The ‘View Ribbon’ contains all functions that change the view of the current editor without changing the model:

Group: Grid

Show Grid	Toggle Show Grid in all editors.
Snap to Grid	Toggle Snap elements to grid in all editors.
Snap to Elements	Toggle Snap elements to other elements in all editors.

Group: Zoom

Zoom	Change the Zoom level.
Fit to Window	Fit all diagram content to the diagram editor window.

Group: Window

Explorer	Show/hide the Explorer window.
Property Inspector	Show/hide the Property Inspector window.
Toolbox	Show/hide the Toolbox window.
Message List	Show/hide the Message list window.
Find	Show/hide the Seach window.
Annotation List	Show/hide the Annotation items list window.
Reset Layout	Reset the default layout settings.
Options	Open the Application Options Dialog.

Context Menu

When you right-click on an item or window, a context menu is displayed that allows you to execute actions related to the selected item or window. The context menu will always display the type of the selected item in the title bar followed by the supported actions for the selected item.

Required Module: DATAFLOW Designer

This Article has been written based on V2.1.1 of the DATAFLOW software. 
Latest update 2023-05-31 by WUM.

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