Create a Plot Frame

Introduction

Most companies report their data in a specified frame, see an example of the Deltares frame below.

A frame consists out of an outer frame box and a table of frame texts at the bottom.

Steps

Startup/Open

To edit an existing frame, start streamFrameSetup and choose the frame file concerned.

To create a new frame, press Cancel when being asked to open a Frame File. A dialog is shown to define the initial layout of the frame.

Explanation of the fields:

• Number of rows: (maximum) number of horizontal sections in the frame texts table; this can be reset later on.
• Number of columns: (maximum) number of vertical sections in the frame texts table; this can be reset later on.
• Height of frame (cm): initial height of the frame texts table in centimeters; this can be adjusted later on.
• Left margin (cm): initial left margin of the outer frame box in centimeters; this can be adjusted later on.
• Right margin (cm): initial right margin of the outer frame box in centimeters; this can be adjusted later on.
• Bottom margin (cm): initial bottom margin of the outer frame box in centimeters; this can be adjusted later on.
• Top margin (cm): initial top margin of the outer frame box in centimeters; this can be adjusted later on.

Then an existing frame or an initial frame is being shown.

A section is being given an number and a line is labeled by a letter.
For each section and each line the positions are shown and can be edited. Positions are given in centimeters from the bottom left point.

A section or line can be selected by selecting it by a mouse click or choosing the section or line in the dropdown boxes. Selected sections and lines are being highlighted.

Define Sections

Section areas can be edited by merging adjacent sections or by changing the position of the lines.

Merging Sections

Merging sections can be done by selecting the sections holding the Shift-key pressed down. Also the Merge-button can be chosen after selecting a section. In this case candidate sections for merging are shown.

For the Deltares frame, merging the sections leads to this result:

Resizing Sections

Changing the position of a line can be done by selecting the line and change the horizontal (X-pos) or vertical (Y-pos) position.
Restrictions:

• When moving a line it may not pass another line.
• Moving lines should always result in rectangular sections.

Lines can be split on intersections with other line. This can be done by double clicking a line. Intersecting lines are shown.

Restrictions:

• Lines of the outer frame box and the top line of the frame texts table cannot be split.

Splitting a line can be undone by selecting the different parts holding the Shift-key pressed down.

Lines can be made invisible by unselecting the checkbox labelled 'Visible'.

Splitting and moving lines and making lines invisible leads to this result:

Define Content

The content of each section can be defined by selecting a section an pressing the 'Edit' button, or by double clicking the section. Next screen appears.

The content of a section can be:

• Fixed: a fixed text.
• Shortname: a variable text from a shortname of a Testdefinition.
• Expression: a variable text from an expression.
• Image: an image from a file.

Preview

The user can view a preview with the 'Preview' button.

Close/Save

If the screen is closed, the user is being asked where to save the frame. This is optional.

Formats

A frame is developed in A4 portrait, but can be applied for plots in A4 and A3 formats, portrait and landscape both. When applying in A3 landscape format, size of the frame texts remains unchanged, but the outer frame is extended.
When switching to another orientation, the whole frame is rotated 90 degrees clockwise, see examples below.