T1: Introduction
to the MatCalc graphical user interface (GUI)
This tutorial was created on
MatCalc version 5.23 rel 1.025
license: free
database: none
This first tutorial provides a brief tour of MatCalc's user interface
and explains how to perform basic file operations.
Contents
- Appearance of the graphical user interface
- Menus and toolbar
- Console window
- Command history
- Configuring the layout of the GUI
- The 'File' menu
- Creating a new workspace file
- Modifying the working directory
- Adding workspace information
- Saving and closing files
- Getting help
1. The graphical user interface
Screen layout
When MatCalc is first opened, the screen appears as shown below (Windows version).

The table below gives brief descriptions of the different areas of
the screen.
Menu bar |
The main menu (see below). |
Toolbar |
Icons giving quick access to frequently used functions (see
below) |
Console |
Window for entering command-lines; more information is given
below and in Tutorial 12. |
Options window |
Context-sensitive options to change the way information is
displayed. Tutorial 2, Tutorial 4 and Tutorial 5 give more
information about the Options window. |
Variables window |
A list of MatCalc's built-in variables with their current
values. See Tutorial 4 and Tutorial 5 for more about variables. |
Information on variables |
Notes on the currently highlighted entry in the variables
window (meaning of variable, units, etc.). |
Status bar |
Gives information on the current state of the system (temperature,
time, etc.) and on the contents of graphical windows (see Tutorial 4). |
Menu bar
As with any typical GUI application, this gives access to a number
of sub-menus. The 'File' and 'Help' menus are documented in this
tutorial, and the contents of the other menus will be described
in more detail in subsequent tutorials.
'File': opening, saving and closing
files (see 'File operations' below)
'Edit': text-editing commands such
as undo, redo, cut, copy, paste
'Global': commands for setting up
the system
'Calc': commands for starting various
types of calculation
'Extra': to run scripts (more on this
in Tutorial 13)
'View': to configure the GUI and create
new windows for the display of results
'Help': see 'Getting
help' below
Toolbars
The toolbar area contains a number of icon groups:
'File etc'

L-R : New file, open, save, close, print, help
'Toolbar'

L-R: Choose working directory, launch script
'Edit'

L-R: Undo, redo, cut, copy, paste, search
'Calculation'

L-R: Stop, Single equilibrium, stepped equilibrium, search phase
boundary, precipitation calculation, choose calculation state,
load into calculation state, load into buffer, choose buffer.
'Manage windows'

L-R: Show console, create new window
Right-clicking
on the toolbar area gives a menu allowing the user to control which
windows and which icon groups are to be displayed on the screen:

Console
This window allows command-line input, as an alternative to using
the graphical controls. Commands can also be grouped into script
files, for easier and more rapid execution of repetitive or complex
tasks. More on the console, command-line syntax and scripts will
be found in Tutorial 12: Using the MatCalc console and Tutorial 13: Introduction to scripting. The console can be shown or hidden
using View > Show console, pressing F4 key or clicking on icon.
Command history
The command history window can be made to appear by selecting
its entry in the menu shown on the picture above. It gives a chronological list
of all the commands entered in the Console.

A command can be selected using the mouse pointer or arrow keys.
Right-clicking on the command displays the following menu. On the
right-hand side of the menus in MatCalc are keyboard shortcuts
for the more commonly used commands. It can be seen from the image
below that it is sufficient to press the 'Enter' key to execute
the selected command.

Previously used commands can also be accessed in the Console window
itself; pressing the up-arrow key displays the most recently entered
command, and pressing it repeatedly scrolls through recent commands
in reverse chronological order. The command displayed can be edited
then executed by pressing the 'Enter' key.
Configuring the layout
The icon groups in the toolbar can be rearranged by clicking on
the double vertical lines at the left-hand side of the group and
dragging to the chosen location. They can be detached from the
toolbar area and brought into the currently empty main window area
(coloured grey); in this case, they are given title bars similar
to that of the 'MatCalc console'.
The Console, Options, Variables and Command History windows can
also be attached to or detached from the left-hand column area
as required.
2. File operations
The 'File' menu
Clicking on 'File' in the menu bar opens the following menu:

Creating a new workspace file
The 'workspace' is the basic file type in MatCalc. It contains
all the necessary information on the calculation or series of calculations
under consideration, comprising inputs (elements, phases, compositions,
thermodynamic and mobility data) and outputs (results of calculations,
graphs, etc.). Saving the workspace preserves all this information
for future use.
Click on the icon or open 'New' from the 'File' menu. The
following dialogue box will appear:

Select 'MatCalc workspace' from the
drop-box. This runs a script
file called 'autonew.mcs', which makes
three additional windows appear:
'Output', 'Phase
details' and 'Phase summary'.
When the new workspace is first created, the 'Output' window
displays licence and version information and the 'Phase
summary' and 'Phase
details' windows show
messages indicating that no phases have yet been selected. The workspace
is now ready for thermodynamic or precipitation calculations to be
set up and performed.

Working directory
The 'working directory' is the directory opened by default when
saving new files or opening existing ones. Clicking on 'Working
directory...' allows the user to designate an existing directory
as the working directory or to create a new directory for this
purpose.

The paths of the current working directory and of recently used
working directories are listed to the right of 'Recent
working dirs...', allowing any of these directories to be
selected easily.

The same information is also available in a drop-box in the toolbar
area:

Adding workspace information
Clicking on 'Workspace info...' opens
a box in which information about the current workspace can be entered.
This is useful for details of the assumptions used in the calculation,
the sources of experimental data, etc.

Save, Save as, close
Workspaces can be saved using 'Save...' or 'Save
As...' in the
file menu, or the icon
on the toolbar. To close a file, choose
'Close Workspace' in the file menu or . Warning:
do not close the individual windows on the screen before saving,
or their contents will not be saved!
3. Getting help
Click on the icon on the toolbar or open the 'Help' menu to open the help browser. In the Console, typing a question-mark
will display a list of available commands. These will be discussed
more fully in Tutorial 12.
‹‹ to the
Top ›› ‹‹ to
the Tutorial files ›› |