Operation


The ECMLink application includes a huge number of keyboard accelerators, actions and navigation controls.  This page documents those and outlines the basic operation of common components.

Value Adjustment Graphs

There are a number of adjustment graphs in the ECMLink application.  An example of one is shown below from the MAF Clamp tab.

Edit Graph Example

It probably seems strange at first to see a graph component without labels on the axes.  We understand this, but screen space is tight on a laptop and since we really want to present tabular data as well anyway (for direct value editing), the decision was made to simply use the table data for reference.  As you can see in this example, as values are selected in the graph, the same values are highlighted in the table.  This makes it very clear which points are selected and their exact values.

Point selection

To select multiple points, hold the shift key down as you use the arrow keys to move left and right.  In the table, you can also use the up/down arrow keys.  You can also use Ctrl-A to select all.  The Home/End keys will position the selection at the first/last points.  Home/End with the Shift key down will extend the current selection to the first/last points.

Value adjustment

If you have a number of points selected in the graph, you can use the up/down arrow keys to change all the values at once.  If you are using the table component and have multiple values selected, hold the Ctrl key down while using up/down to adjust the selected values.  In the graph, you can also drag a selected range up/down to change the values.

Keyboard summary
  Component with focus
Keystroke combo Graph Table
Left/Right Select prev/next Select prev/next
Shift+Left/Right Extend select to include prev/next Extend select to include prev/next
Up/Down Change selected values Select prev/next
Shift+Up/Down Zoom in/out Extend select to include prev/next
Ctrl+Up/Down Change selected values Change selected values
Ctrl-A Select all Select all
Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right
Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down
Pan a zoomed-in graph
Undefined

Value Adjustment Tables

Large tables like the OpenLoopMinOct table also have a few keyboard functions defined.

Table edit example

 Most things work as expected.  Arrow keys change selection and you can extend the selection box using the Shift key.  But the one item that does need special mention is that you use Ctrl+Up/Down to change all selected values at once.

Datalog View

Necessarily so, the datalog view has the most extensive list of keyboard shortcuts and navigation tricks of any other screen in the application.  This component has received a lot of usability tweaks already and will continue to get more as the application is developed further.

Usage notes

The datalog view was designed with quick navigation as the driving force.  When you're sitting in the staging lanes trying to make a quick change before the next pass, being able to efficiently navigate the most recent datalog is critical.  With that in mind, the datalog view has panning (moving left/right) and zooming features at its core.  These are the most fundamental and most easily accessible features of the datalog view.  Once you get used to it and tweak the sensitivity settings to match your laptop's configuration, you'll learn to absolutely love this mode of operation.

Datalog example 1

Mouse drag notes (pan/zoom)

You can click the right mouse button (see Platform notes below) and drag the mouse to pan (left/right) or zoom (in/out) the view.  This is a very efficient means of navigating a datalog.  But there are a few things to keep in mind.

The application has to decide how much mouse movement is considered a "trigger" for a zoom to occur.  The "comfortable" value for this varies from one laptop/desktop setup to the next and even from one person to the next.  Configuring this trigger point takes a little trial and error.  You do that in the Graph Preferences dialog in the Global settings tab by adjusting the Drag zoom-trigger value.  If you find that the graph is constantly zooming in and out as you're trying to drag left to right, then you need to increase the Drag zoom-trigger value so that more movement is required to trigger the zoom.

You can adjust how quickly the view pans left to right using the Drag pan-factor. A larger value will pan the view faster per mouse movement.

Platform notes: Unfortunately, mouse gestures change from one platform to the next.  Under Windows, for example, a pop-up menu isn't typically triggered until the mouse button is released.  Under Linux and Mac OS X, a pop-up menu is typically triggered as soon as the mouse button is pressed.  The ECMLink application makes every effort to preserve those native behaviors, but this makes doing things like panning and zooming on mouse drag more complicated.  To work around these differences, we introduce Ctrl-Left-click and Shift-Left-click modifiers.  If you hold the Ctrl or Shift key down while you click the left mouse button, the application will respond as though you pressed the right mouse button for drag operations.

Mouse gesture Action
Left-click + drag left/right Create a selection area
Right-click + drag left/right Pan the view left/right
Right-click + drag up/down Zoom the view in/out to get more/less detail
Ctrl-Left-click Simulates a Right-click for drag operations
Shift-Left-click Simulates a Right-click for drag operations
Mouse wheel Pan the view left/right
Ctrl + Mouse wheel Zoom the view in/out
Keyboard summary
Keystroke combo Action
Left/Right Single sample select - walks through the graph one sample at a time
Shift+Left/Right Same as previous but extends the selection interval rather than replacing it
Ctrl+Left/Right Jump  - jumps forward/back, allowing quicker navigation
Shift+Ctrl+Left/Right Same as previous but extends the selection interval rather than replacing it
Page Up/Down Page selection - jumps forward/back by nearly a whole screen width at a time
Shift+Page Up/Down Same as previous but adds to the selection interval rather than replacing it
Home/End Move to the beginning/end of the currently displayed section
Shift+Home/End Same as previous but adds to the selection interval rather than replacing it
Ctrl+Home/End Moves to the beginnging or end of the datalog
Shift+Ctrl+Home/End Same as previous but adds to the selection interval rather than replacing it
Ctrl+0 (zero)
Ctrl+A
Ctrl+- (minus)
Zoom all - zooms the display to show all available data
Up/Down arrow Zoom in/out
Ctrl+Page Up/Down Zoom in/out by a larger amount
Escape Clears selection
Space Zoom to selection (and center on screen)
Ctrl+Space Center selection on the screen (without changing zoom level)
Ctrl-Q Toggle hide all - toggles between hiding and showing all items in the graph
F9 Bring up the Display Values dialog
F10 Bring up the Captured Values dialog
F11 Start a stream of data to the screen only (not to disk)
F12 Start a new datalog to disk