OrcaFlex Manual - Orcina

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3 USER INTERFACE
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.1.1 Program Windows
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User Interface, Introduction
OrcaFlex is based upon a main window that contains the Menus, a Tool Bar, a Status Bar and usually at least one 3D
view. The window caption shows the program version and the file name for the current model.
Figure: The OrcaFlex main window
Within this main window, any number of child windows can be placed which may be:
3D View Windows showing 3D pictorial views of the model
Graph Windows showing results in graphical form
Spreadsheet Windows showing results in numerical form
Text Windows reporting status
Additional temporary windows are popped up, such as Data Forms for each object in the model (allowing data to be
viewed and modified) and dialogue windows (used to specify details for program actions such as loading and saving
files). While one of these temporary windows is present you can only work inside that window – you must dismiss
the temporary window before you can use other windows, the menus or toolbar.
The actions that you can perform at any time depend on the current Model State.
Arranging Windows
3D View, Graph, Spreadsheet and Text Windows may be tiled so that they sit side-by-side, but they must remain
within the bounds of the main window. The program rearranges the windows every time a new window is created.
3.1.2 The Model
OrcaFlex works by building a mathematical computer model of your system. This model consists of a number of
objects that represent the parts of the system – e.g. vessels, buoys, lines etc.
Each object has a name, which can be any length. Object names are not case-sensitive, so Riser, riser and RISER
would all refer to the same object. This behaviour is the same as for Windows file names.
The model always has two standard objects:
� General contains general data, such as title, units etc.
� Environment represents the sea, seabed, waves, current etc.
You can then use the Model Browser or the toolbar to add other objects to represent the parts of your system. There
is no limit, other than the capacity of your computer, to the number of objects you can add to the model. At any time,
you can save your model to a data file.