Dr. Frame Environment

The main components of the Dr.Frame2D environment in Windows/XP are shown in the screen shot below (note the Mac OSX environment differs slightly in appearance but is functionally the same):

• tool & control button palettes - to access Dr.Frame tools and controls
• a menu bar - to access command functions and dialog boxes
• a main viewing window - the main area for displaying models
• a status/feedback pane - for showing important data
• a load combination bar - for quick management of load sets.

The Dr.Frame Tools

The Dr.Frame tools allow users to create, manipulate, delete, and visualize modeling objects:

The Dr.Frame Control Button Palette

The Control Button Palette provides quick access to methods of modifying visualization parameters.

The Dr.Frame Load Set/Combination Bar

The Dr.Frame Load Set/Combination Bar provides quick access to load sets and combinations.

• A 'Load Set' is a collection of loads that act on a structure at the same time.
• A 'Load Set Combination' is a collection of Load Sets that act at the same time.
• 'Load Factors' can be defined via the 'Load Combination Manager Dialog Box' and are individually applied to Load Sets.
• Load Sets can be added/removed from Combinations using the check boxes in the 'Load Combination Manager Dialog Box'. Note that in the current version of Dr.Frame the hard-wired Load Set Combination names are somewhat arbitrary.

The Dr.Frame Feedback Pane

The Dr.Frame Feedback Pane allows the environment to provide useful information to the user. The main use is to provide data related to the cursor position:

• when the cursor is over a Tool or Control Button the Feedback Pane describes the button.
• when the cursor is in the Main Viewing Pane, the position of the cursor in global x-y space is shown
• when the cursor is over a modeling object the state of the modeling object is shown.

Basic Modeling Components

A wide variety of traditional modeling components are easily manipulated and their representations clearly represent their functionality.