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mapping:cawe:dialogs:entityinspector [2008-02-18 16:57] Joern created |
mapping:cawe:dialogs:entityinspector [2008-02-26 19:10] Carsten Revised the text |
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| ====== The Entity Inspector Dialog ====== | ====== The Entity Inspector Dialog ====== | ||
| - | This dialog is opened by selecting **Entity Inspector** from [[mapping:cawe:menureference:edit]]. | + | This dialog presents all kinds of detailed information about your map and its entities that is not found elsewhere and cannot be seen in the 2D or 3D views. |
| + | It allows you to see the hierarchically structured entity list that your map is composed of, to inspect the properties of each entity, and to edit the map script. | ||
| - | The dialog contains 3 tabs that are used to find/select entities in the map, to edit the entities properties and to create/edit map scripts. | + | The dialog is opened by selecting **Entity Inspector** from the [[mapping:cawe:menureference:edit|Edit]] menu. |
| + | The following text describes the three "tabs" that each implements one of the main features of the dialog. | ||
| - | ===== List ===== | + | |
| + | ===== Entity Report ===== | ||
| {{:mapping:cawe:dialogs:dialog_entity_inspector_page1.png }} | {{:mapping:cawe:dialogs:dialog_entity_inspector_page1.png }} | ||
| - | This tab contains a list of all entities in this map, that is filterable with different filter options. | + | The Entity Report contains a list of all entities that exist in the map. It can be used to find and select individual entities. |
| + | Filtering the list is possible by several options. | ||
| - | * **Entity list**: A list of all entities in this map, filtered by the given filter options below. Clicking on an entry marks this entity (by holding down the ''CTRL''-key you can mark more than one entity). | + | * **Entity list**: A list of all entities in this map consisting of the entities class and its name (if set). The list is filtered by the filter options described below. Clicking on a list entry selects the entity in the map. You can selected multiple entities here as well by holding down the ''CTRL'' or ''SHIFT'' key when clicking on a list entry: This works just like in the Windows Explorer. |
| - | * **Select**: Selects the entity/entities, that are currently marked in the list in the same way as if they were selected in a 2D or 3D view. | + | |
| - | * **Go to**: Centers the views onto the selected entity from the list. | + | * **Go to**: Centers the 2D views onto the selected entities from the list. |
| - | * **Delete**: Deletes the selected entity from the list and the map. | + | * **Delete**: Deletes the selected entities from the list and the map. |
| - | * **Properties**: Opens the [[mapping:cawe:dialogs:objectprops|Properties Dialog]] for this entity. | + | |
| * **Filter** | * **Filter** | ||
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| {{:mapping:cawe:dialogs:dialog_entity_inspector_page2.png }} | {{:mapping:cawe:dialogs:dialog_entity_inspector_page2.png }} | ||
| - | This tab show the properties of the currently selected entity/entities in a grid. | + | In the Properties tab, you can inspect all the properties of the currently selected entity. |
| - | The top-left button switches between a categoric and alphabetical view. There are 3 different categories: | + | |
| - | * **Class Keys** Keys that are defined by an entities class and therefore mandatory for this entity. | + | The tab starts with a text item containing information about the number and type of the currently selected entity. |
| - | * **Undefined Keys** Keys that are not defined by the entities class and added to the entity manually. | + | The top-left button is used to switch between a categorized and alphabetical view of all the properties. |
| - | * **Mixed Keys** Keys that are only used by a subset of the currently selected entities or have different types for different entity classes. Keys in this category can not be edited. | + | Below that you find the actual list of properties, followed by a help text for the currently selected property, containing its name, type and description. |
| + | |||
| + | There are 3 different categories for properties: | ||
| + | * **Properties**: These are the "usual" properties. They are defined by their entities class and therefore mandatory for the entity. | ||
| + | * **Undefined Keys**: Keys that are not defined by the entities class and added to the entity manually. | ||
| + | * **Mixed Keys**: Keys that are only used by a subset of the currently selected entities or have different types for different entity classes. Keys in this category can not be edited. | ||
| The background color of each property identifies the state of its value. There are 4 different states a value can have: | The background color of each property identifies the state of its value. There are 4 different states a value can have: | ||
| - | * The property's value matches the default value defined by the entities class and only used by one entity. | + | * The property's value matches the default value defined by the entities class and only used by one entity (light blue color). |
| - | * The property's value is a custom value defined by the user and only used by one entity. | + | * The property's value is a custom value defined by the user and only used by one entity (no color). |
| - | * The property's value matches the default value defined by the entities class and only used by more than one entity. | + | * The property's value matches the default value defined by the entities class and only used by more than one entity (darker blue color). |
| - | * The property's value is a custom value defined by the user and only used by more than one entity. | + | * The property's value is a custom value defined by the user and only used by more than one entity (light orange color). |
| + | |||
| + | Since Mixed Keys can't be edited, their background is always white and the property is disabled. | ||
| + | |||
| + | To edit a property you have to click in it's editor field (right column) and enter a value. Note that properties can have different types and their input fields may only accept specific values (integers for example). | ||
| + | Some input field have an additional editor button, that can be used to set the property's value. Examples are a file chooser for model files or a color picker for color properties. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== Working with multiple entities ==== | ||
| + | |||
| + | The Properties tab works also very well when //more// than a single entity is selected, or in fact, any number of them at the same time. | ||
| + | In order to present you the properties of multiple entities all at the same time, CaWE "overlays" them for you, | ||
| + | so that even great amounts of them remain easy to understand and manage. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In order to achieve this, CaWE makes sure that properties that are candidates for layering, but otherwise incompatible to each other for any reason (e.g. because the property is known only to some but not all of the entities, or defined multiply with different types), are treated specially as "mixed" properties. A property that is marked as "mixed" has attributes in one entity that are non-existent or different in another, which generally makes them incompatible to each other. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Such mixed properties are therefore listed in a separate category, but protected from editing ("read-only"). This makes sure that you can see such affected properties, but not inadvertently get nonsensical values written into lots of entities. Note that this is not a restriction, because it's another way of saying: //"Stop! If you assign a value to this property, there is at least one entity affected for which doing this makes no sense at all."// | ||
| + | |||
| + | If you still want to edit a property that is listed as "mixed", there is an easy way to overcome the problem: | ||
| + | Just select fewer entities until the entity that was the reason for the property being listed as "mixed" is gone. | ||
| + | When no conflicts remain, the property gets re-listed among the normal properties, and you can edit it freely. | ||
| - | The tab ends with a help text containing the currently selected property's name, description and property type. | ||
| ===== Map Script ===== | ===== Map Script ===== | ||
| - | FIXME This section will be created later. | + | In the Map Script tab, you can view and edit the maps current script. |
| + | |||
| + | FIXME This feature is not yet implemented -- I'm sorry for that. Both the functionality and the documentation will be provided later. | ||
| + | However, please note that the game code and the Ca3D-Engine already fully implement and support map scripting! | ||
| + | Use any text editor of your choice in order to program your map scripts independently and outside of CaWE -- all the example scripts that come with the Ca3DE releases have been written that way. ;-) | ||
mapping/cawe/dialogs/entityinspector.txt · Last modified: 2013-01-07 12:07 (external edit)