ProtoPixel Mapping Tool interface

The ProtoPixel Mapping Tool user interface is composed by several panels, showing the important information about your project:

Toolbar

The toolbar has many tools for fast access, these are:

• Project operations: Open, Open Recent, New, Save
• Undo, Redo.
• Alignment Operations: Align Left, Horizontal Center, Right, Top, Vertical Center, Bottom, Spread Horizontally, Spread Vertically.
• New Fixture Menu.
• New Content Menu.
• Global Properties.

Scene Panel

The Scene Panel lists all Entities (Contents and Fixtures) in your Workspace.

With it you can:

• Select an Entity (Click).
• Reorder an Entity (Drag & Drop).
• Center your Workspace on an Entity (Double-Click).
• Select multiple Entities (⌘ + Click).
• Select a range of Entities (⇧ + Click).
• Make an Entity non-interactive (Click on the Entity’s Lock icon).
• Hide a Content from your Workspace (Click on the Content’s Eye icon).
• Filter Entities by Name (type on the top Search Box).

Controllers Panel

The Controllers Panel lists all Controllers and Outlets in your project.

A Controller is just a group of Outlets. You can later bind a Controller to a real Device  (see Creating and Configuring a Controller).

In the Controllers Panel, you can:

• Add a new empty Controller (Click the + on the Panel title).
• Select a Controller or Outlets (Click it).
• Hide the Outlets of a Controller (Click its v).
• Deactivate a Controller to stop it from sending data (Click its switch).
• Deactivate all Controllers (Click the switch on the Panel title).
• Hide the Controller Panel (Click the v on the Panel title).

 

Inspector Panel

This panel will show all the properties of the selected item. Some of those properties can be changed. The name of the selected item can also be changed just by editing it and pressing Enter. You can also cancel the edit by pressing Esc.

Workspace

In the Workspace, you can move and transform Fixtures and Contents by dragging them and using its handlers. Moving two fingers on your trackpad will move the workspace. You can zoom in or out of the Workspace with a pinch gesture or by pressing Cmd + scrolling up or down.

The slider on the top right lets you manually control the zoom level and the bulb icon activates and deactivates the Preview Mode. In Preview Mode all contents are hidden and the lights are rendered in a more realistic way.

You will find an FPS indicator in the bottom right corner of the Workspace.

Log Window

The Log Window shows messages from the ProtoPixel Mapping Tool Core. It is useful to debug scripting content. To show the log window go to Window ‣ Log Window or press Cmd+L. Also, you can access the menu bar by selecting Window -> Log Window

Recording Output

ProtoPixel Mapping Tool allows the recording of output for two different situations: For a single autonomous controller and for multiple standard ProtoPixel Controllers.

These recordings are only useful if you have a ProtoPixel autonomous Controller or a ProtoPixel Player.