PSICAT User Manual

Welcome to the PSICAT User's Manual. This document is divided into two parts. The first part provides an overview of PSICAT. The second part provides step by step instructions on how to perform various tasks in PSICAT.

Part 1: Introduction

This section provides an overview of PSICAT, the terminology that will be used through out the rest of this document, and the layout of the PSICAT application. If you haven't already, you should check out the Overview page to familiarize yourself with the philosophy and goals of PSICAT. After reading this section, you should be familiar with the PSICAT concepts and the application layout.

Concepts

There are three main concepts that the user should be familiar with:

  • Models: Because PSICAT is focused on capturing data, it introduces the concept of a 'model'. Models define what data is captured for a particular object. Models can also define and enforce constraints, such as not allowing any child models or requiring that a specific property be a number. Almost everything the user interacts with in PSICAT is a model.
  • Diagrams: In PSICAT there is a distinct separation between the data and the visual representation of that data. As explained in the previous point, the data is managed via models. To manage the display the data, PSICAT introduces the concepts of 'diagrams' and 'columns'. Columns display the visual representation of the model and provide the drawing and editing tools used to interact with the models. Diagrams simply define a list of columns and the order they should be displayed in. If no column included in the diagram knows how to display a particular model, that model will not be displayed. This allows the user to define exactly what type of data gets displayed, and (to a lesser extent) how that data gets displayed. Users can define multiple diagrams that are suited for different tasks, e.g. one diagram that has a limited number of columns for entering a specific type of data and one diagram that includes all of the available columns so that all of the collected data can be displayed.
  • Plug-ins: PSICAT is built around the idea of plug-ins. Plug-ins are small, self-contained software modules that provide new functionality and features to a larger software system. All of the functionality in PSICAT, including every data type and column, is contributed via plug-ins.

Application Layout

Below is a screenshot of the PSICAT application. Various areas on the image are highlighted. Each of these areas has a specific name and function which will be detailed below.

  • Workspace: The workspace area contains the projects that you've been working on in PSICAT. Each project is a hierarchical tree of models. You can double-click on any model in the workspace to open it in an editor.
  • Properties: The properties area contains various property tabs for viewing and editing the properties of the currently selected model. When you select models in either the workspace or in the editor, the properties area will update to show you the properties of the selected model.
  • Viewer/Editor: The viewer/editor area displays any diagrams you are currently viewing or editing. When you double click on a model in the workspace, it will open a new editor in the viewer/editor area. You may have multiple editors open at the same time. Each will show up as a separate tab and you may arrange them so you can view two editors side by side.
  • Palette: The palette is highlighted in yellow in the screenshot above. It is only available when an editor is open and is associated with a specific editor. The palette contains all of the tools that are available for working with the diagram open in the editor. The available tools will depend on whether the diagram is in view-only mode and on what columns are included in the diagram.

Customizing the Layout: The PSICAT application layout can easily be customized to suit the user's preference. In general, each of the areas above can be resized and moved to different places in the application. For example, the workspace area can be dragged to the bottom of the application next to the properties area, the palette can be moved to the left side of the application, etc. If you would like to restore the original layout, use the Tools->Reset View menu option.

Part 2: Tasks

This section provides step by step instructions for performing various tasks. The tasks are grouped into three groups:

  • General Tasks: These are basic tasks that deal with getting started using PSICAT.
  • Editing Tasks: These are editing-specific tasks. Most deal with using tools from the palette to draw specific models.
  • Advanced Tasks: These tasks deal with the more advanced features of PSICAT.

Conventions

Each task is broken into one or more steps that must be performed to complete the task. If a particular step is not required, then it will be marked with an Optional indicator. If a particular step may or may not be required, depending on your particular set up or previous tasks completed, it will be marked with a Conditional indicator. Steps that involve interacting with a button or menu option will include the name of the button or menu item in bold. The results of a step, such as a window opening or a folder being created, will be listed in italics.

General Tasks

This section provides instructions for performing basic tasks that deal with getting started using PSICAT. Below is an index of the tasks in this section:

Downloading and running PSICAT

Before you can begin using PSICAT, you must first download and install it. Below are the steps to accomplish this task:

Step 1: Visit the PSICAT downloads page.

Step 2: Select the appropriate download for your platform.

Step 3: Unzip the zip archive. PSICAT currently comes packaged as a zip file so you will need to extract the files from the zip archive. This should create a PSICAT folder.

Step 4: Launch the PSICAT executable in the PSICAT folder. On Windows, the executable will be named PSICAT.exe. You should see a small splash screen with a progress bar that indicates PSICAT is starting up. If you get an error message or the program won't open, see the next step. Otherwise, see the Creating a new project section to get started using PSICAT.

Troubleshooting: If you get errors or PSICAT doesn't launch, you likely need a more recent version of Java. PSICAT requires the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.5/5 or higher to run. This page provides instructions for downloading and installing the JRE.

Creating a new project

Once you have PSICAT installed, you will need at least one project to begin drawing. Below are the steps to creating a new project:

Step 1: Use the File -> New... menu option to open the New Wizards dialog.

Step 2: Select the Project option and click Finish to open the New Project wizard.

Step 3: Provide a name for the project and click Finish. This should create a new project with the name you specified in the Workspace.

>> >>

Once you have successfully created a project, the next step is to create a new diagram.

Creating a new diagram

Before you can begin drawing and editing a project in PSICAT, you must first define a diagram. The diagram tells PSICAT what columns of data you want included in your diagram and also determine what tools are available for you to use. You can have multiple diagrams and PSICAT will ask you which one you want to use when you open a project. Below are the steps to creating a new diagram:

Step 1: Use the File -> New... menu option to open the New Wizards dialog.

Step 2: Select the Diagram Template option and click Finish to open the New Diagram wizard.

Step 3: Give the diagram a name.

Step 4 (Optional): Select a template from the template drop down list. Be default, PSICAT only comes with a single template.

Step 5: Select the desired columns for the diagram. You can accomplish this by selecting a column from the All Columns list and pressing the Add button to place that column in the Selected Columns list. When you select a column in the All Columns list, a short description of the column will be provided. If you wish to remove a column from your Selected Columns list, select it and press the Remove button. The columns in the diagram will show up from left to right in the order they are listed in the Selected Columns list. If you wish to change the order of the columns, select a column and use the Up and Down buttons. When defining a diagram, you may use columns multiple times.

Step 6: Press the Finish button to complete the diagram creation process.

>> >>

Once you have created a project and a diagram, it's now time to open your project so you can beginning drawing.

Open a project

Step 1: Opening a project for viewing or editing is simply a matter of double clicking on it in the Workspace.

Step 2 (Conditional): If you haven't previously created a diagram, you will be prompted to create a new diagram.

Step 3 (Conditional): If you have created more than one diagram, PSICAT will prompt you to pick the one you want to use.

>>

Viewing and editing the properties of a model

Step 1: Select a model in the open diagram. The Properties section will update with the image and label of the selected model and the various property tabs that are applicable to the selected model.

Step 2: Select the desired property by selecting a property tab in the list.

Step 3 (Optional): Update the property. This step depends on the model selected and the type of property that is being updated. Some examples of property tabs are displayed below:

Undo/Redo

Step 1: If you make a mistake while drawing, PSICAT provides full Undo and Redo support. To access this functionality simply right click anywhere in the diagram. This will bring up a menu with Undo, Redo, and Delete options. If there are any operations that can be un-done, the Undo option will be enabled. Otherwise it will be disabled. If there are any operations that can be re-done, the Redo option will be enabled.

Note: Both changes made graphically, e.g. grabbing a model and resizing it with the mouse, and changes made directly to the Properties area, e.g. typing a value in for depth, can be un-done and re-done.

Deleting a model

Step 1: If you decide you want to delete a model while drawing, you can right-click on the model and use the Delete menu option. If the model cannot be deleted, the delete operation will be disabled. Deleting a model will also delete all of its children. Deletion can be un-done and re-done.

Editing Tasks

This section provides instructions for performing drawing-related tasks.

Advanced Tasks

This section provides instruction for performing advanced tasks.

Attachments