Creating a new display with WinDisp

Once WinDisp has been installed a program group Scientific Computing will be added to the Start menu and WinDisp will be added to this group. To start WinDisp click on the program name and the following opening screen should appear:

This menu provides a number of options for defining a layout, with the default being to start a new layout.

Open an existing layout

Selecting this option and clicking on OK will bring up a Select Existing Layout dialogue box from which an existing layout file and location can be chosen. Once a layout file has been selected and read, the layout defined in the file will be automatically displayed.

Start a New Layout

Selecting this option and then clicking on OK (or by clicking on the Cancel button) closes the opening prompt menu and leaves the current layout in the initial default state. To proceed in defining a layout the user needs to use the File > Read Specification menu item or using the Edit menu item to select and define the layout limits or items to be displayed in the layout. Note that the Display! menu item has to be used to display layouts defined using either of these two approaches.

Display an Image

Selecting this option and clicking on OK will bring up a Select Image File dialogue box from which an existing image file and location can be chosen. Once an image file has been selected and its format determined, the Image Specification menu will be displayed from which the image display style options can be selected. On exiting from this menu the image limits will be used to define the layout area limits and map scale and the layout will be automatically displayed.

Display Contours

Selecting this option and clicking on OK will bring up a Select Contour File dialogue box from which an existing contour file and location can be chosen. Once a contour file has been selected, the Contour Specification menu will be displayed from which the contour display style options can be selected. On exiting from this menu the contour limits will be used to define the layout area limits and map scale and the layout will be automatically displayed.

Display a DXF File

Selecting this option and clicking on OK will bring up a Select DXF File dialogue box from which an existing DXF file and location can be chosen. Once a DXF file has been selected, the limits are read from the DXF file header and used to define the layout area limits and map scale and the layout will be automatically displayed.

Display a TEM File

Selecting this option and clicking on OK will bring up a Select TEM File dialogue box from which an existing TEM data file and location can be chosen. Once a TEM file has been selected, the user is placed in the Multi-Panel definition form from which the user can specify the format and limits for the data file. These limits are then used to define the layout area limits and map scale and the layout will be automatically displayed.

Post Data

Selecting this option and clicking on OK will bring up a Select Data File dialogue box from which an existing Data file and location can be chosen. Once a Data file has been selected, the Data File Specification menu is displayed from which the file format can be defined. After exiting from the Data File Specification menu the Select Posting Style menu will be displayed from which the posting style can be selected and then fully defined using the Post Specification menu. As posting data is more complex than the other types of data, the layout is not automatically displayed on exiting from this menu.

IP Pole and Dipole Data

Selecting this option and clicking on OK will bring up a Select IP Data File dialogue box from which an existing IP data file and location can be chosen. Once a data file has been selected, the user is placed in the IP data definition form from which the user can specify the format and data columns to be read from the data file and also how they should be displayed. These specifications are then used to read the data file, determine the layout area limits and map scale and the layout will be automatically displayed.

Plotting displays with WinDisp

Once a layout has been defined the display may be plotted in a number of ways. The current display can be plotted using the Windows printing option, however some displays (especially those including large images) are best plotted using the PostScript or HPGL/RTL print to file options. These print options are accessed from the File > Print menu item and are described in detail under the Print Specifications menu.

The current graphics window can also be copied to the clipboard using the Edit > Copy menu item. The current image is placed on the Clipboard and can then be pasted into another application.

Modifying Layout Specifications

The current layout specifications are modified by bringing up the individual menu forms and changing the parameters which control the layout components. The forms are activated through the menu items at the top of the main WinDisp form. These menu items are delineated on the WinDisp Menu Items page.

The layout specifications are stored in a file with a default extension of "csf". This is an asci file and so may be edited if there are any difficulties loading an existing layout, but it is not advisable as the data in the file is not easy to identify.

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Last modified: July 30, 2009