Project Data Control Bar - Plots

To access this sub-folder:

The Plots folder is a sub-folder of your Project Data control bar. It can be expanded to reveal further categories of data.

The Plots window with its comprehensive suite of data source drivers, can use data from a huge variety of sources and bring it all together into a single model showing all the characteristics and properties you choose, and in whatever format you select to maximize the presentational impact.

The Plots folder of the Project Data control bar allows you to access plot-specific information about your loaded data objects, and to configure report-ready plots for presenting.

The Plots menu is comprised of the following items:

The Plots folder in the Sheets control bar is used to access sheet-, projection- and overlay-related display functionality. As with the Design folder, this area shows a hierarchical structure. Each available Sheet folder (Plan, 3D or Section Name) contains sub-folders showing the current Projection (or set of projections if a set exists). Expanding the Projection folder shows a list of available Overlays, e.g.:

The context menus available for each section differ, and are described below:

Plots Folder Menu (Sheets control bar only):

Right-clicking the Plots folder icon allows you to perform the following actions:

New Plot Sheet: allows you to add a new sheet, and cascades options for a Vertical Section, Plan or Custom Sheet. These commands are identical to the ones found in the Plots window Insert menu.

Paste: if you have previously copied a sheet using the context menu at sheet-level (see below) you can paste a copy of this data into the Plots folder using this option. If no data currently resides on the clipboard, this command will be unavailable.

Sheet, Projection and Overlays Menu:

Right-clicking a Sheet, Projection or Overlay shows the following context-menu (note that not all options will be available if data is not currently copied to the clipboard). You will only be able to paste new items of a specific level in the hierarchy by right-clicking the containing folder icon. For example, to create a copy of an overlay item, you will need to select Copy on the item itself, and a Paste option by right-clicking the Overlays folder:

Select/Deselect All: select all items of the current sheet, overlay or projection.

Data Object Manager: launches the Data Object Manager to allow you to modify loaded data objects.

[Data Type] Properties: shows the properties dialog for the selected item.

Insert: opens the Plot Item Library, allowing you to insert a sheet-specific plot item.

When inserting plot items with this command, at the Sheets level or above, it is important to remember that any plot items that relate to a particular projection (for example, a title bar that will list the description of a projection) should not be added at this level, instead, they should be added by right-clicking the relevant Projection folder and selecting Insert...

Copy [Data Type]: allows you to copy the currently selected item to the clipboard. Note that if an item is copied, it can be pasted (as a copy) into the containing folder by right-clicking that folder icon and selecting a paste option.

Insert...: displays the Plot Item Library dialog, allowing you to choose a plot item for insertion into the current plot. The contents of the displayed dialog will depend on the type of data selected. For example, if the Overlays menu (or a Plots overlay) is selected, the resulting library will contain only overlay plot item types, such as a 3D overlay, line overlay and so on.

Insert copy of...: you can insert a duplicate of the currently copied item using this item. As mentioned above, this option is only available if you right-click the containing folder of the originally copied item.

Paste Plot item/Format/Special: methods for pasting data. See copying plot items for more information.

Quick Legend: displays the Quick Legend dialog for simple legend creation and editing.

Display Legend: if a specific overlay project is selected, displays the legend for the select overlay.

Wizard: opens a Object Summary dialog allowing you to view and (optionally) amend properties related to the selected item.

Reset: reset the selected overlay to default settings.

Rename: rename the selected overlay.

Overlay names (i.e. the overlays listed under the Overlays folders in the Sheets control bar) will track object names (i.e. the object names displayed in the Loaded Data control bar) until the overlay has been renamed by the user. After this point, the overlay will retain the user-defined name, even if the base object is renamed.

Delete...: delete the currently selected item.

In addition, if a sheet is selected, the following option is available:

Lock/Unlock Overlay updates: if a sheet is 'locked' it will not be altered when new data is loaded into memory. If locked, the 'unlock' option will appear, enforcing an update of all associated projections when data is imported. Note that any unload operation will override a locked sheet; it is not possible to show data in a plot sheet that does not exist in memory.

If all overlays are locked for the entire sheet - that sheet is shown with a black 'lock' symbol in the Sheets control bar. Conversely, if all sheets are unlocked, no lock icon is shown. If a proportion of the overlays displayed within a given sheet (but not all) are locked, a lock icon is still displayed, but in grey:

Consider the following example where a sheet contains two projections. If the overlays for both projections (and thus, all overlays for the sheet) are locked, the following icon appears:

Whereas if only one of the two projections is locked, the icon will appear as a light grey version:

Finally, if no overlays are locked for any displayed projection, a 'normal' icon is shown:

	Related Topics
	Project Data Overview Project Data Control Bar Studio Survey Database Overview Add To Database