Windows

There are three kinds of windows:

Configuration window

This is what the configuration window looks like in Mac OS X version of BiotSavart:

image

There is one configuration window, which displays a picture of the conductor configuration you are working on. At the top is a control to set the cursor mode:

Select
Sets the configuration window to select mode. When in the select mode objects are selected by clicking on them. When a single object is selected, its name appears at the top right of the configuration window. Clicking on objects with the shift key depressed adds it to the selection list, permitting selection of more than one object. The name of the selected object will appear at the top right of the window. Double-click an object to edit it.
Zoom
Sets the configuration window to zoom mode. The cursor will be a cross-hair when over the configuration. To zoom in on a rectangle on the picture, move to the upper left hand corner, depress the mouse button, drag to the lower right corner, and then release the button. The picture will zoom in on the rectangle. Clicking without dragging will zoom in on the point specified. Zooming with the shift key depressed zooms out instead of in.
Rotate
Sets the configuration window to rotate mode. Click on the window and drag to change the viewing direction.
Pan
Sets the configuration window to pan mode. Click on the window and drag to move the view center.
Light
Sets the configuration window to rotate mode. Click on the window and drag to change the viewing direction.

The names of all conductors and probes are listed in the Modify menu, with selected objects ticked. With the configuration window active, selected objects can be cut, pasted to and copied from the Clipboard, deleted or duplicated, using the Edit menu. Selecting Modify (cmd-I) from the Edit menu creates edit windows for the selected object(s). To edit a single object, one can just double-click on it. If an object is not visible, the Modify menu can be used to bring up an edit window. This also selects the object.

Using the Print... command on the File menu, the picture may be printed. It is recommended, however, that you copy the picture to a word processor document and then print it.

The Copy command, with no objects selected, copies the picture to the clipboard. You can then Paste it into a word processor when preparing documentation of the configuration.

Edit windows

Modification of a particular conductor or probe is done through its Edit window, which is summoned by double-clicking the object on the configuration window or by using the Modify menu. The details of the Edit window are described in the section "Edit Dialogs".

After modifying the information in the dialog boxes, use the Set or Done button to implement the changes. The magnetic field will update automatically if AutoRecompute (on the Field menu) is enabled. The Edit menu may also be used to change the name of the conductor. The Edit menu can be used for cutting and pasting text, between objects for example.

Probe windows

The results of magnetic field probes are plotted in probe windows. The name of the probe window is the name of the probe object enclosed in square brackets.
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When a probe window is the active one, the Copy command copies the plot to the clipboard. To print the plot, paste it into a word processor document. Printing the plot directly, using the Print Graph... command, is possible, but is not a supported feature.

The mouse can be used to select specific calculated points, and to zoom the graph. On a linear probe plot, the cursor keys will move the selected point. On a contour plot, clicking the mouse will give the (bilinearly interpolated) field value. Clicking with the shift key depressed gives the value of the nearest contour.

The field profile may be exported (written to a file) using the Export TEXT command on the File menu.