Introduction
During your work with Aximmetry, you may have several reasons to set notes in your compound.
For example, you may leave notes so that you and others can easily pick up the work where you left it.
On this page, you will learn how to leave notes and use the Info Panel in Aximmetry.
Info Panel
The Info panel is part of the Aximmetry Composer UI.
If you can't find the Info panel when opening Aximmetry Composer, you can always open it from the View menu.
Note: Or simply press Ctrl + I.
The Info panel will display the notes bound to different objects when you hover over them with the mouse cursor.
More on Binding notes later.
Create a Note
In the Flow Editor, right-click on an empty surface. In the menu select: Insert Note...
Note Options
The Note options window will pop up.
Title
The title of the Note.
The title will appear in the upper left corner of the note box. The title should be short and descriptive.
Can be left empty, if the body is not empty.
The title text properties can be set in the lower part of the dialogue box, in the row starting with Title.
Body
The body text of the Note.
It will appear below the title (if there is one).
Can be left empty, if the title is not empty.
The body text properties can be set in the lower part of the dialogue box, in the row starting with Body.
Colors
By default, the note is in Auto colors mode.
This means that when you bind the note to a compound, it will match its color.
If it is not bound to anything, it will be displayed with a stone gray color.
In order to add custom colors to your Note, first turn off the Auto colors mode.
You can then select custom colors for the parts of the Note by clicking on the colored rectangle next to them.
Back is the background color of the Note.
Title is the color of the title text.
Body is the color of the body text.
Transparency
To make the Note transparent, turn on the Transparent setting.
The Note will be transparent and only the text will be visible until you connect it to something. Only the title and the body will be visible.
Of course, you can still change the colors of the text.
Size
By default, the Auto size feature is turned on. This means that Aximmetry will automatically set the height and width of the Note box around the content.
Next to the Auto Size option, there is a field where you can set the maximum width of the Note box. When Auto Size is enabled and the text's length reaches this specified maximum width, the Note box's height will automatically adjust to accommodate the content as it breaks into multiple lines.
To set a custom size for the Note box, turn off the Auto Size setting.
You can then manually adjust the size by dragging the lower-right corner of the box with your mouse cursor.
While the Auto Size setting is turned off and the Note box is resized to encompass other modules fully, those modules will move along with the note. For more detailed information, refer to the section on Moving Modules and Notes Together.
Binding Notes
You can bind Notes to:
- Pins
- Nodes
- Compounds
- Control Boards
- Other Notes
A Note can be bound to more than one object at the same time.
Also, an object can have more than one Note bound to it.
How to Bind Notes to Objects
To bind a note to an object, hover over the left or right side of the note with the mouse cursor.
You will see that the area got a little darker.
Click and hold down the left mouse button on this area to drag a wire out from the Note.
Pull this wire onto the object you want to bind the Note to.
to Nodes
Drag the wire and drop it onto an empty area inside a Node.
When you hover over the Video Player module, the Note's text will be displayed in the Info panel.
to Pins
Drag the wire and drop it directly on the Pin.
When you hover over the Cursor pin of the Video Player module, the Note's text will be displayed in the Info panel.
to Other Notes
Drag the wire and drop it onto another Note.
This can be useful for creating a workflow chart in your project.
to Compounds
To add a note for the whole compound, connect the note to the left or right side.
Then it will point to the top.
The Info panel will display the Note's text either if you select the Compound in the Flow Editor, or if you are inside the Compound, but nothing is selected.
You can also add Notes to the in-, and output pins of Compounds.
The Info panel will display the Note's text if you hover over the Pins on the dashboard while you are inside the compound or if you are not inside the compound and hover over the Pins on the compound.
Example of the latter:
to Control Boards
Since Control Boards hold Pin Collectors, Notes should be connected to these.
Connect Notes to the Input pins of the Pin Collectors to name buttons and values of a Control Board,
And connect Notes to the Pin Collector itself to comment on the Control Board.
Here are examples of the 3 ways of connecting the notes.
This is how our example setup looks like in the Flow Editor.
Changing to the Control Board...
The info panel will show the Note for the whole Pin Collector if you hover over it.
Hover over the Pin name in the Pin Values window to show the Note for the Pin.
To comment on buttons on the same Pin, you must start the Note's title with "#" and the number of the button you want to add a Note to.
How the comment looks like for a special button with an Icon Keyword:
How the comment looks like for a normal button:
Special Characters
Linked
The special character combination $linked$ will show up as the connected nodes' names.
Moving Modules and Notes Together
Nodes and modules within a note will move along with the note when Auto Size is turned off:
NOTE: When Auto Size is off, you can resize the note as described here.
To move everything contained in the note, you simply need to move the note itself:
Select All Inside
To select everything within the note, use the Select All Inside option.:
This action will also select the note itself. However, if you do not want the note to be selected—perhaps because you want to move everything out of it—you can deselect the note by pressing CTRL and clicking on the note.
Layering Notes
When working with multiple notes and Auto Size is turned off, you can change the stacking order of the notes. This is done using the Bring To Front and Send To Back options.
For example, choosing Send To Back:
Hide and Show Notes
Hide Notes
Notes don't have to be visible all the time in the Aximmetry Flow Editor. To hide them, right-click on an empty area in the Flow Editor and select Hide Notes.
After doing this, notes will only be visible in the Info panel and when you hover over objects that have notes connected to them.
Hide or show notes can be toggled individually within each Compound in your project compound.
If a compound contains a hidden note, the Flow Editor will display a note icon at the bottom right corner to indicate its presence.
Show Notes
To make the notes visible again, follow the same steps. Right-click on an empty area in the Flow Editor and choose Show Notes.
