Re: [femm] New beta version

[Dave Squires <djsquires@xxxxxxxx>]

dcm3c@xxxxxxx wrote:

In a message dated 3/8/01 6:53:57 PM Eastern Standard Time,
djsquires@xxxxxxxx writes:

> I would like to recommend a few minor changes to FEMM
> that will help speed up simulation setup, and analysis.
> These are simple changes that can have a big impact.

Thanks for these suggestions; you've picked up some cases where I wasn't
seeing the forest for the trees....

> 1. Do not reset the grid size when reloading or opening new
>     files. I would like to set it and have it remain at what I set
>     it to from then on.
> 2. Set the default to "snap grid" when first starting up the
>     simulator or femmview. I have no occasion to NOT use
>     snap-to-grid when I am drawing shapes or drawing line
>     integral contours.

I really need to make some sort of "Preferences" menu that makes these
behaviors user-specified.  This is pretty straightforward.

There you go. That works too.

 

> 3. Do not reset the window size when reloading or opening
>     new files.  If I have set it to full screen I want it to stay
>     that way.

This one is sort of annoying, and I don't exactly know why it does this
sometimes--I think it's part of the standard CView implemenation.  Anyhow,
I'll try to sort this out.

Yeah, could be built in and tough to get around.
FEMMVIEW stays put after the first load and window maximize.
FEMM does not do the same thing. Maybe there is a clue there.

 

> 4. Couple the + and - zoom screen buttons to the numeric
>     keypad + and - as hot keys and also the arrow keys to
>     the on screen arrows for hot key panning.

I should have done this a long time ago--thanks for pointing it out.  I put
it in this morning, and it took exactly one line of code to add in the
functionality for each key.  I've also mapped page up and page down to zoom
in and zoom out, as well as the 'home' key to 'zoom natural.'

Good idea for the home key.  I use turbocad and the plus and minus
keys
work great for zoom in and zoom out instead of page up and down.
They don't use page up and down for zooming.

> 5. In FEMM view allow interrupt of panning or zooming so we
>     can zoom in quickly to set up line integral contours fast
>     without having to wait for the screen redraw to finish. This
>     would be very helpful for larger simulations. Interrupt can
>     be esc or just click the arrow button or press the arrow
>     key to stop redraw and increment to the new position.

This one could be a bit more subtle.  I'll have to think about how or if I
want do to this.  A better solution might be just to rethink the way that I
draw the screen to try to speed up the algorithm to the point where the
rendering of flux lines and density plots it isn't irritating for large
models.

I know it is a bit different in that you need a line or two of code in
the loop to
check for multiple button clicks or key presses while drawing and then
reset and start over. If you can make the algorithm faster by limiting
the drawing area database you use for panning, etc that might help.
Seems now that you draw the whole thing and most of it is invisible
or
"off screen".  I think it is the drawing time that takes the longest.
Perhaps
search the memory for the data in the area you need and copy to a local
array
and then do the graphics drawing of only the area needed. I am thinking
that pure memory moves and searching is much faster than piping it
back and forth to the graphics routines.
Just a thought. It might not be workable with the resources you have.

Regards,
Dave Squires

 
Anyhow, thanks again.

Dave Meeker
--
http://members.aol.com/dcm3c

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