Tool Palette

The following content has been imported from Legacy Help systems and is in the process of being checked for accuracy.

Function

The Tool Palette panel provides a range of visual and non-visual components with which to build script forms when writing scripts using DelphiScript (*.pas), VBScript (*.vbs) or JavaScript (*.js).

Content and Use

The script form components are divided over seven distinct categories:

Standard

For more information about each of the controls available in this category, either click on a component in the image above or refer to the Standard Tab section of the Component Palette Reference - located in the Inside the Altium Designer Environment\Scripting area of the Altium Designer Documentation Library.

Additional

For more information about each of the controls available in this category, either click on a component in the image above or refer to the Additional Tab section of the Component Palette Reference - located in the Inside the Altium Designer Environment\Scripting area of the Altium Designer Documentation Library.

Win32

For more information about each of the controls available in this category, either click on a component in the image above or refer to the Win32 Tab section of the Component Palette Reference - located in the Inside the Altium Designer Environment\Scripting area of the Altium Designer Documentation Library.

System

For more information about each of the controls available in this category, either click on a component in the image above or refer to the System Tab section of the Component Palette Reference - located in the Inside the Altium Designer Environment\Scripting area of the Altium Designer Documentation Library.

Dialogs

For more information about each of the controls available in this category, either click on a component in the image above or refer to the Dialogs Tab section of the Component Palette Reference - located in the Inside the Altium Designer Environment\Scripting area of the Altium Designer Documentation Library.

Win 3.1

For more information about each of the controls available in this category, either click on a component in the image above or refer to the Win3.1 Tab section of the Component Palette Reference - located in the Inside the Altium Designer Environment\Scripting area of the Altium Designer Documentation Library.

Altium XP Standard

For more information about each of the controls available in this category, either click on a component in the image above or refer to the Altium Standard Tab section of the Component Palette Reference - located in the Inside the Altium Designer Environment\Scripting area of the Altium Designer Documentation Library.
Each category can be individually expanded or collapsed using the expand/collapse control at its top-left corner. Alternatively, double-click on the category (away from component entries) to expand/collapse as required.
Collapsed categories may also be expanded, on an individual basis, using the pop-up menu associated with the Categories button.

All categories may be expanded or collapsed simultaneously using the commands available from the panel's right-click menu.

Placing Components on a Script Form

Components can be placed from the panel onto the active script form in one of two ways:

• Default Placement - double-click on the entry in the panel for the component you wish to place. An instance of the component will be placed, by default, at the center of the form, from where you can subsequently drag it to the required position
• Controlled Placement - click once on the entry in the panel for the component you wish to place and then click within the script form at the position you want the component instance to appear. The component will be placed with its top-left corner at the point you define. Using this method you can resize components upon placement (where applicable) by clicking and dragging within the script form.

Use the button to deselect the currently selected component in the panel or, alternatively, click on another component.

Right-click Menu

The right-click pop-up menu for the panel provides the following commands and options:
Button Size sub-menu - provides the following options:

• Include Captions - use this option to toggle the display of component captions in the panel.

With this option disabled, the captions become available as tool-tips, when the cursor is hovered over a component entry

• Small - use this option to display small-sized component button entries
• Medium - use this option to display medium-sized component button entries
• Large - use this option to display large-sized component button entries

Options sub-menu - provides the following commands:

• Auto Collapse Categories - with this option enabled, only one component category can be expanded at any given time. Expanding another category will cause the existing (already expanded) category to be automatically collapsed
• Monochrome - use this option to toggle the background color for each category between color (disabled) and monochrome (enabled)

• No Gradient - enable this option to disable the use of color gradient for category backgrounds, thereby keeping the same level of color for the entire background

• Horizontal Gradient - enable this option to provide a horizontal color gradient for category backgrounds, whereby the background color gradually gets lighter in shade from left to right

• Vertical Gradient - enable this option to provide a vertical color gradient for category backgrounds, whereby the background color gradually gets lighter in shade from top to bottom

• Vertical Flow Layout - disable this option to display the component categories in a horizontal fashion (instead of the default vertical layout), as shown below:

Collapse All - collapse all categories in the panel
Expand All - expand all categories in the panel.

Notes

• All components used in the panel descend from TComponent in the Borland Delphi Visual Component Library
• All components in the panel have associated Properties, Methods and Events, where:
  1. A property is a characteristic of an object that influences either its visible behavior or its operations. For example, the Visible property determines whether an object can be seen or not on a script form
  2. A method is a procedure that is always associated with an object and defines the behavior of that object
  3. An event is an action or occurrence detected by the script. In a script the programmer writes code for each event handler which is designed to capture a specific event such as a mouse click
• The properties and events of a component can be interrogated and modified after placement using the Object Inspector panel
• For more detailed information with respect to components and their properties, methods and events, refer to the Component Palette Reference, located in the Inside the Altium Designer Environment\Scripting area of the Altium Designer Documentation Library.

See Also