Version 4.3

Post date: Jul 31, 2013 1:10:38 AM

Version 4.3.3, 17 Dec 2013. 

• • Bug fixed: In the Data Trace, Heat Map, and Raster Properties editors, the "load data from file" button was always disabled, even though it raised the appropriate dialog if clicked.

  • Bug fixed: The Edit|Undo menu item (Ctrl-Z or Command-Z) and corresponding toolbar button were unnecessarily disabled if the keyboard focus was on a text field. Note that the Edit|Cut, Copy, and Paste menu items and tool buttons are still disabled when a text field has the focus. These operations in FigureComposer are intended to apply to graphic nodes, not text. The corresponding keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl-X, -C, -V) are intercepted by the text field widget, so you can still use those shortcuts to cut, copy and paste text.

  • The FIG-to-FypML import engine was revised to handle FIG files generated by Matlab R2013b. At least under Windows 8, the R2013b FIG file includes some undocumented content changes that had to be accounted for.

Version 4.3.2, 25 Nov 2013. 

• • Improved character input handling of the "numeric text field" used throughout FigureComposer, Builder, and other Java apps like JMWork.

  • Specifying axis label offset in matfig2fyp(). Added a fourth, optional argument specifying the preferred axis label offset to be applied to all graph axes in the converted FypML figure. Matlab uses a different approach to positioning axis labels, so matfig2fyp() uses a default label offset of 0.5-in. This is often too large, which can result in labels being cut off at the figure's edges, or overlapping with another graph in the figure. Now you can specify the axis label offset to use. [NOTE: When you import a .FIG file directly into FigureComposer, the default axis label offset is taken from your workspace settings; these settings aren't available when calling matfig2fyp() in Matlab.]

  • Small change to the drawing order for children of a graph node: The automated legend is now always drawn last, ensuring that it will always appear on top of any other content added to the graph.

Version 4.3.1, 30 August 2013. This release includes some tweaks to Figure Composer's user interface, as well as some additional changes in the FIG-to-FypML import engine:

• • When inserting a graphic node via Edit|Insert, the new node may be inserted either as the child or as the sibling of the current focus node. When this is the case, older versions of FC would raise a dialog to prompt the user, but the dialog was missing in FC 4.3.0. It has been restored in this release.

  • The appearance and layout of toolbar buttons was reworked. The buttons are smaller but (hopefully) easier to understand. Some buttons corresponding to rarely used actions were removed. All remaining buttons have been consolidated on a single toolbar along the top of the application window. Most importantly, users can select one of three toolbar states from the View|Toolbar menu: Hidden, Compact (icons only), or Full (labelled icons). Similar changes were made to toolbar buttons specific to the DataNav Builder app.

  • Changes/additions to matfig2fyp() and the FIG-to-FypML import engine in FC: (1) Supports converting basic polar coordinate plots generated by the Matlab functions polar(), rose(), and compass(). (2) Converts Matlab image plots to FypML heatmap nodes (in the same manner as a surface plot) so long as the image is rendered using the figure's color map. (3) A Matlab patch plot configured to render an "error band" is now detected and translated as a FypML trace node (n.b. - the patch consists of a single face, and its vertices trace the boundary of the error band in a very particular way). (4) Several bug fixes, including improved handling of aspect ratio for an 'axes' object.

Version 4.3.0, 02 August 2013. At the request of several users, we have decided to continue development and maintenance of Figure Composer as a standalone application dedicated to scientific figure composition. This release brings FC up-to-date accordingly, fixes some recently noted bugs, and updates matfig2fyp() and the FIG file conversion code to handle a few more use cases.

• • Re-branded Portal Builder as DataNav Builder. Updated Figure Composer's GUI to match that in Builder's figure composition perspective. Now both apps use the same code base for figure composition.

  • Bugs fixed: (1) (A bad one!) After using File|Save as... to save a figure to "FigA.fyp", then switching to another figure "FigB.fyp" and saving it with File|Save, the second figure is saved correctly, but then its path on the figure tab is changed to that of the first figure: "FigA.fyp". If you then made additional changes to "FigB" and saved them without noticing the name change, you would end up overwriting the original "FigA.fyp"! (2) Edits were applied to the wrong axis if you switched display focus directly from an axis in one graph to the axis in another graph before making the changes. (3) Matlab FIG-to-FypML conversion code incorrectly categorized a data set as a series when all the X-coordinates were the same value (dx = 0 is not allowed for a series set). (4) Property Editor's title would read "Axis Properties" or "Legend Properties" when you clicked on a graph axis or legend (it should read "Graph Properties").

  • Changes to matfig2fyp() and FIG-to-FypML import engine. (1) Now recognizes which data traces in an axes object should be turned on in the associated scribe.legend. (2) Respects the 'PlotBoxAspectRatio' property of an axes when calculating the size of the graph node to which it is converted. (3) Now correctly handles graph2d.lineseries objects consisting of a single data point. (4) New use case handled: A collection of single-point graph2d.lineseries objects with the same appearance are coalesced into a single FypML trace node that is rendered like a scatter plot (data points not connected by a polyline). (5) New use case handled: Matlab line objects in an axes. If a line object lacks marker symbols and contains only two points, it is translated into a FypML line segment node; else it is converted to a trace node. A collection of line objects in the same axes that all have the same appearance and contain 3 or more points will be coalesced into a single FypML trace node that will render the disjoint polylines efficiently (a single polyline with undefined points to separate the unconnected pieces).

  • Modified savefigasis() utility to use the '-v7' feature of Matlab's hgsave() to save the FIG file in MAT-file Level 5 format; DataNav apps cannot read the latest '-v7.3' MAT-file format (HDF).

  • Revised online guide extensively to reflect the new GUI for Figure Composer, re-branding of Portal Builder as DataNav Builder, separate download distributions for Figure Composer and DataNav Builder, etcetera.