Profiles

# Contents

- Overview
- Editing and Using Profiles
- Paths setup
- Plot setup
- User interface setup
- Miscellaneous setup
- Tips/FAQ
- Bugs

# Overview

QSAS allows to save user-specified parameters as a configuration file, possibly holding various profiles. Parameters include for example default behaviour on dragging and dropping multidimensional data on the plot list, default plot page parameters, and default sizes for the main window and the plot interface window. These profiles are stored on the system, in user-dependent places: /home/user/.qsasrc on Unix, and Documents and Settings/user/Application Data/qsas.ini on Windows.

The profiles are saved when QSAS is closed. Then QSAS opens with the configuration defined in the last-selected profile.

# Editing and Using Profiles

The Profiles drop-down menu on the main window allows to edit (Edit profiles... item) or to select a profile as the current one (all the other entries).

Clicking Edit profiles... opens a Profiles Editor window, showing the setup for the currently-selected profile. Selecting a profile in the Load preset combo box displays the settings of this profile, discarding the possible edits made in the interface. The edits are made through various tabs, and can either be saved as a preset (possibly updating an existing preset), applied directly by clicking on Use these settings (through a "fake" preset called "Custom"). The "Default" preset cannot be overwritten, and the "Custom" preset is updated every time Use these settings is clicked, and discarded every time it is saved as a real preset.

Clicking a profile in the profiles list in the Profiles drop-down menu selects it as the current one.

# Paths setup

These options are accessible in the "Paths setup" tab. The first 3 paths are only taken into account when QSAS is opened, so they must be set up in the profile QSAS opens (last profile when QSAS was closed).

- Save/Restore default path: the default path to save and restore sessions or the working list.
- User-defined libraries directory: path for the qtpl and so/dylib/dll files for user-defined plugins.
- Default directory for Database map files: for the Data Selector utility.
- Filter Bank for DWT plug-in: for the Wavelet Transform plugin.

# Plot setup

These options are in the "Plot" tabs.

- Default behaviour when dropping a 3-vector: defines what is created by default when dropping a 3-vector in the plot list. Various combinations of panels are proposed.
- Default behaviour when dropping a 3D array: either defines a summation on some components (iSS, SiS, iSS: the first, second and third components are untouched, respectively), or allows the user to explicitly define a summation/averaging rule. Presets are proposed.
- Default behaviour when dropping a 3D array on a trace: either defines the summation (SSS) or the average of the components or allows the user to explicitly define a summation/averaging rule, to make a scalar series out of a 3D array series.
- Default behaviour when dropping a 3D array as XY: defines over which components to sum or average, and the time element taken for a time series.
- Default behaviour when dropping a 3D array on an XT trace: defines over which components to sum or average, and the time element taken for a time series.
- Time label format: defines the default set of separators for time labels.
- Default page settings: defines the default parameters for the plot pages.
- Fonts in plots: specifies the system fonts associated to the plot gui selectors. Check boxes for defaults. These are local parameters, not saved in the session. You can choose to vectorise fonts in svg exports, meaning that the fonts are drawn as vector objects, ensuring they are displayed correctly (but not easily editable).
- Custom colour table: allow the users to specify their own colour tables, defined as interpolations of Hue/Saturation/Value (HSV) or Red/Green/Blue (RGB) values over a [0,1] range.
  The format for HSV interpolation is HSV(0, H0, S0, V0)...(n, Hn, Sn, Vn)...(1, H1, S1, V1),
  The format for RGB interpolation is RGB(0, R0, G0, B0)...(n, Rn, Gn, Bn)...(1, R1, G1, B1),
  where
  - the (n, X, Y, Z) 4-uplets associate the (X, Y, Z) colour to interpolation n (in [0,1]). Interpolation points must be in ascending order and defined at least for 0 and 1.
  - R, G, B, S, and V parameters are defined in [0,1]
  - H is defined in [0, 360] (red: 0, yellow: 60, green: 90, light blue: 180, purple: 270)
  These are local parameters, not saved in the session. An example is given below.
- Defaults for plot elements: Default values for some plot elements.

## Custom colour table example

Let's define a colour table to represent heat levels for example, ranging from black for cold (low values) to red, yellow and finally white for maximum temperatures. We choose to define our colours in RGB representation. Their values are:

- Black: all components at zero: (0, 0, 0)
- Red: the red component is at its maximum value, the others are zero: (1, 0, 0)
- Yellow: both red and green components are high, blue is zero: (0.8, 0.8, 0)
- White: all components are maximums: (1, 1, 1)

We now have to choose the positions of these values on the scale. Black is at the bottom of the scale, hence 0, White is at the top of the scale, hence 1. We choose to put red in the middle of the scale, and yellow at 3/4. We finally obtain the following colour table description:
RGB(0,0,0,0)(0.5,1,0,0)(0.75,0.8,0.8,0)(1,1,1,1)

A similar colour table can be achieved in HSL mode, allowing more controls on the hues, and thus avoiding muddy colours that can appear interpolating over R, G and B components:

- Black: (0, 0, 0) (red hue, no saturation, null intensity)
- Red: (0, 1, 0.5) (red hue, full saturation, medium intensity)
- Yellow: (60, 1, 0.5) (yellow hue, full saturation, medium intensity)
- White: (60, 1, 1) (yellow hue, full saturation, full intensity)

The resulting syntax is: HSV(0,0,0,0)(.25,0,1,.5)(.75,60,1,.5)(1,60,1,1)

# User interface setup

These options are in the "User interface" tab.

- Default main window height: defines the main window height as a number of characters.
- Default size for the plot interface: the plot interface window is too large for low-resolution screens, so it can be customised with this option. Resizing the plot interface and clicking "Get current size" gets the window size, which can be stored as a new default.
- Font size in pixels: GUI font size, useful for smaller screens.
- Compact GUI: attempts to reduce the GUI size. For the moment, only reduces some margins.
- Interactive interval editor button: button clicked to call the interval editor on a plot window.

# Miscellaneous setup

These options are in the "Misc." tab. They are debug options.

# Tips/FAQ

- Profiles make it quick to switch between two different behaviours, for example when dropping 3-vectors in the plot list interface. Create presets with the different behaviours you wish to apply. By clicking the dotted lines on top of the Profiles drop-down menu, you can tear off the menu as a small independent window. Keeping the torn-off menu on a part of your desktop allows you to switch between behaviours in one click.
- The profiles files are ASCII and can be easily edited with any text editor. Syntax errors and unknown parameters are silently ignored. The profile files can be backed up and copied from any system to another (but the stored paths may not be meaningless on some systems).

# Bugs

None known

Last up-dated: October 2008 A Rochel