Predictive Analytics

Stay Informed

3.5 Tools Menu

Figure 3.14:

This menu lets you customize aspects of Optimus RP, view log information, run scripts, and update the software.

3.5.1 Options for Updates and New Projects

The Tools->Options for Updates and New Projects menu selection in Optimus RP is only available from the opening screen prior to opening a project or starting a new project. The script server settings are only available under this menu selection. All the other option settings are the same as those available under the Current Project’s Options, but while options selected under Current Project’s Options are applied only to the currently-open project, the Options for Updates and New Projects allow you to set up default parameters for Optimus RP that persist from one invocation of the program to another. New projects will inherit these options.

Figure 3.15:

The opening screen showing the menu choices available prior to opening a project.

Selecting Tools->Options for Updates and New Projects brings up a dialog with four tabs. The ﬁrst two control the Tree and Node View parameters. The last two tabs control Optimus RP’s Appearance and script server settings.

3.5.2 Current Project’s Options

Figure 3.16:

The Project Navigator View window showing the ﬁve Options available after opening a project.

When a project is open and you select Tools->Current Project’s Options (Fig. 3.16), your settings only affect the open project.

Selecting Tools->Current Project’s Options in a project brings up a dialog with three tabs. The ﬁrst two control the Tree and Node View parameters. The last tab controls Optimus RP’s Appearance settings.

NOTE: To change the script server settings, please exit the current project and use Tools->Options for Updates and New Projects to access the script server setting tab.

3.5.3 Project Option Settings Available

3.5.3.1 Tree Options

Figure 3.17:

The Options->Tree tab options.

The Tools->Options for Updates and New Projects->Tree tab (Fig. 3.17) and the Tools->Current Project’s Options->Tree tab can also be accessed from within the tree settings window. Note that modifying options under Current Project’s Options sets a default for all trees in the current project, whereas modifying options from the tree settings modiﬁes the options for that particular tree. (Modifying tree options under Options for Updates and New Projects sets defaults for project-wide tree option defaults.)

The Section (7.2) Setting Options for Tree Analysis discusses the various tree option settings in detail.

3.5.3.2 Node View Options

Figure 3.18:

The Options->Node View tab options.

This tab on the dialog allows you to control what calculated values will appear in the tree nodes. To add one of these values to the node display, click the associated check box. You can use this to avoid clutter and see just the values you wish. Again the project-wide option set from the main window can be overridden within any speciﬁc tree.

NOTE: The last check box, which only appears when setting either Options for Updates and New Projects or Current Project’s Options, determines whether you want to allow yourself to delete (not tree nodes, but) navigator nodes within new projects or within the current project.

3.5.3.3 Appearance

Figure 3.19:

The Options window->Appearance tab options for Windows or OS X.

Depending on your license, there may be features in Optimus RP you are not authorized to use. You can choose how these features are displayed in menus using the Hide disabled menu options check box. If this box is checked, menu items representing unlicensed features are not displayed. If this box is unchecked, unlicensed features will be shown, but they will be disabled.

If you are running Optimus RP under Linux, you will also be able to specify your preferred browser for displaying Optimus RP help (accessed by pressing F1). Multiple browsers may be speciﬁed, and will be tried in order until a working location is found, or the list of browsers is exhausted. To add a browser to the list, ﬁrst enter the path to the browser you would like to add, or select Browse to browse for it. Then click Add to add that location to the list of browser locations. The order in which the browsers are tried can be changed by using the Up and Down buttons to move browsers up and down in the list.

Figure 3.20:

The Options->Appearance tab options for Linux.

3.5.3.4 Other

Figure 3.21:

The Other options tab.

This tab is used to set up communications with a script server. A script server is a feature of Optimus RP that provides a central location for publishing scripts that all users can access. The ﬁrst two parameters will probably be supplied by your system administrator and will depend on where the server has been installed. The Timeout for Connection to Server speciﬁes how long Optimus RP will continue to attempt making a connection before reporting an error. The Frequency to Update Menu Listings determines the time interval for synchronizing with the script server. This means that when new scripts are published to the server they will not appear in you local menu system until the next time you synchronize. The Test Server Connection button is a quick way to verify that your settings are correct and the server is running. A message will be displayed indicating whether the server is running or not.

The ﬁnal button Install Python in Windows Registry applies only to Windows users. This button will make changes to your registry so that any additional Python packages you install will be available from the Python that is distributed with Optimus RP.

3.5.4 View Project Log - Sorted by Node

Figure 3.22:

The Tools->View Project Log - Sorted by node option displays the logs of all Navigator Nodes in the current project sorted by node ID.

3.5.5 View Project Log - Chronological

Figure 3.23:

The Tools->View Project Log - Chronological option displays the logs of all Navigator Nodes in the current project sorted in chronological order.

3.5.6 Run Script

Figure 3.24:

The opening window with Tools->Run Script selected.

You may chose this option at any time to invoke python scripts. With this method, you can run scripts that can be run from the Optimus RP menus, or scripts that could be run from the command line. More information on scripting can be found in chapters 2.5 and 5.3.

Activating the Tools->Run Script menu option will display a dialog prompting for the location of the script that you would like to run. You can then enter the path to the desired script manually, or use the browse button to browse to it. Once the location of the script is ﬁlled in, click Run Script to start the script.

Figure 3.25:

The Run Python Script Dialog

3.5.7 Run Python Shell

Figure 3.26:

The Python shell menu option

To access the interactive scripting feature of Optimus RP open the shell window from the Tools menu. The full functionality of Optimus RP is accessible through the ghi object that will already be available to you. See 5 for a complete list of script objects and methods. If you are unfamiliar with Python, a good starting place is . The Python Quick Reference web site and the Dive Into Python online book are other noteworthy resources you may ﬁnd on the web. From the shell you can also type help() to use the built-in documentation and help(ghi) to list the documentaton for the ghi module.

The Python Shell Window has a tool bar with a couple useful buttons listed below from left to right:
∙ Clear Shell - Erase the command history and clear the text on the shell.
∙ Open a Script - Run a script from which each line will be executed in the shell.
∙ Save as Script - Save the command history (not the output of the commands) as a script.

It may be useful when developing a script to experiment interactively in the Optimus RP shell. Once a solution has been reached, the Save as Script button can be used to save the current history into a text ﬁle which can later be edited to make ﬁnishing touches.

3.5.8 Update Optimus RP

Figure 3.27:

The main screen showing the Update Optimus RP

You can program Optimus RP to automatically check for updates. The default is once every two weeks.

Clicking the menus selections Tools->Update Optimus RP or pressing keys Alt+T and then U will launch a manual check for a Optimus RP update. The updating process uses the Internet to access the Golden Helix web site and check for an update.

Figure 3.28:

Optimus RP Updater launch notice window

Figure 3.29:

The Golden Update welcome window

Similar to when you ﬁrst installed Optimus RP, you can optionally adjust settings by clicking the Proxy Settings button. The settings that you successfully used to install the software the ﬁrst time are retrieved and used when checking for updates. If these have changed, for example because your proxy server has changed, you may need to adjust these settings.

If a Optimus RP update is found, it is downloaded to a temporary folder, and then you are prompted to proceed with installation. If you have the most recent version, the following dialog appears.

Figure 3.30:

A welcome sight for the most avant garde Optimus RP users

[next] [prev] [prev-tail] [front] [up]