GroIMP's File Explorer shows all those files of the project which have an immediate meaning as files to GroIMP. These are source code files, plain text files, HTML files and the like. Files which are used to define non-file-like objects (e.g., images, 3D geometry, data sets) are not shown in the file explorer panel, they are accessible in the panels of the corresponding object type.
If the file explorer is not already shown, open the panel via the Enter key: On activation, source code and text files are opened in the text editor, HTML files are shown in GroIMP's integrated browser. At the moment, files cannot be renamed, moved or deleted in the file explorer.
menu. As you will know it from your system's file browser, GroIMP's file exporer displays files in a tree-like structure. Files may be activated by a double-click or pressing theFiles which already exist in your file system can be added to a project via the menu item link or add these files: A linked file does not become part of the project, the project just references it in your file systems. Changes to a linked file take effect on the project when GroIMP (re-)opens the file. In contrast to a linked file, an added file is copied into the project, thus, after addition, there is no connection between the original file and the project any more.
. You have the choice toIn Figure 2.2, “File
Explorer”, a file explorer panel is
shown. FTree.rgg
is a source code file,
FTree.txt
a text file which contains some explanations
about the project FTree, and index.html
is a link
(indicated by the small arrow at the lower left corner of the icon) to an
HTML file.
GroIMP is equipped with a simple internal text editor. When you activate a source code or text file entry in the file explorer, it is opened in the text editor and can be edited. The usual editing operations (Cut&Paste, Undo/Redo, Save) are available. Figure 2.3, “Text Editor” shows a screenshot.
For some file types, additional actions are triggered when a file of that type is saved. For example, source code is compiled immediately.
If the jEdit-Plugin is installed, the jEdit text editor is used instead of GroIMP's simple internal text editor. Figure 2.4, “Text Editor jEdit” shows a screenshot. jEdit supports syntax highlighting and contains various edit, search, and print commands. Comprehensive documentation is available via the -menu of jEdit.
Every image used within a GroIMP
project, e.g., a colouring texture of a 3D material, is shown in the
Image Explorer. Its structure is similar to the
File Explorer. New images can be added to a project via
the menu : Currently, this menu contains
only the item which reads an existing
image file into the project. All file formats which are supported by your
installation of the Java Image I/O Framework are readable, these are at least
Portable Network Graphics (png
), JPEG and Graphics
Interchange Format (gif
). If a format you need is not
supported by your installation, see Section 1.4, “Installation of Plugins for the Java Image I/O
Framework”. As for the
File Explorer, you have the choice to link or add image files to the
project.
Another panel which you will encounter often is the attribute editor (Figure 2.5, “Image Explorer, Material Explorer, Attribute Editor”). It is used to edit attributes of a variety of objects: User settings of configuration objects, geometric attributes of scene objects, attributes of resource objects like 3D materials, and others.
Each attribute has a type, and each type brings up specific edit components in the attribute editor. For example, the radius attribute of circles or spheres is a numeric attribute and is editable through a simple input field. The orientation of a cylinder in 3D space is a 3D vector and, thus, it is editable through a set of three numeric input fields. Very complex attributes like 3D materials consist of several subattributes, each of which brings up its own edit components in the attribute editor.
In Figure 2.5, “Image Explorer, Material
Explorer, Attribute Editor”, you can
see the attribute editor for a 3D material of type
Phong. Such a material has the attributes
Channel Input
, Diffuse
Colour
, Transparency
,
Interpolated Transparency
,
Ambient Colour
,
Emissive Colour
,
Specular Colour
and
Shininess
. The Phong
material shown has a Checkerboard 2D surface map as
its Diffuse Colour
, the checkerboard itself has the
attributes Channel Input
, Colour
1
and Colour 2
. As
Channel Input
, an
UV-Transformation is chosen, its numeric attributes
are editable through the input fields. For angles and other attributes which
represent physical quantities, their units are shown, in the this case
deg
which stands for degrees. As Colour
1
, an RGB colour is chosen, whose values are modified by
sliders.
Colour 2
of the checkerboard
is set to an image map. One could have chosen an RGB colour as for the first
colour, a Checkerboard 2D as for the diffuse colour of the material, a simple
constant colour, or some other valid type for this attribute. In GroIMP, there
are many attributes whose values may be of a set of different types. For all
these attributes, a button is shown in the attribute editor which pops up a
menu to choose the desired type. Once a type has been chosen, the attribute
value is set to this type, and appropriate edit components are created. They
are shown within a minimizable subpanel. To minimize it (and to maximize it
later on), click on its upper border where a small button is displayed. For
example, the subpanel for the RGB components of the Opacity attribute is
minimized in Figure 2.5, “Image Explorer, Material
Explorer, Attribute Editor”. A double-click on the upper
border maximizes the subpanel and minimizes all other
panels.
In the Preferences panel, you can configure some options of GroIMP and its plugins, see Figure 2.6, “Preferences Panel (Metal Look & Feel)”.
The group UI Toolkit/Swing UI in the Preferences panel lets you choose the Look & Feel of the Swing user interface and whether window decorations (title bar, borders, etc.) should be provided by Swing or by the native window manager of your system. The set of available Look & Feels depends on your Java and GroIMP installations: GroIMP's binary distribution is bundled with the Kunststoff, Liquid and Tonic Look & Feels, the web page Javootoo provides a rich set of Look & Feels together with instructions how to install them. Figure 2.6, “Preferences Panel (Metal Look & Feel)” displays Java's default Look & Feel, Metal.
If you switch to another Look & Feel in the Preferences panel, the user interface will be redrawn immediately. However, changing the window decorations option only takes effect when a new window is opened. Also, there are Look & Feels which do not support window decorations.
Besides files and images, a variety of other object kinds is displayed within an explorer panel. For example, Figure 2.5, “Image Explorer, Material Explorer, Attribute Editor” shows the Material Explorer panel. These panels are always similar to the file explorer or the image explorer: Objects are shown in a hierarchical tree-like layout, and new objects are created by the menu of the panel. The contents in this menu depend on the explorer: The Image Explorer reads in images from files, the Material Explorer allows the creation of new materials of several material types, etc.