Newbiw. Problems following getting started guide

[rcarlin]

I'm trying to follow the "Getting Started" guide using the notepad example, but I feel pretty stupid not being able to get through this piece...

I have two questions/problems

1. When I press the command to close notepad, all it does is clears the text that was there. If I now click on it, I can't type new text into notepad.

2. I have tried to set the states on a command. However, when I press Apply it always put the begin state back to 1.

[Mark F]

Have you downloaded the companion Getting Started (http://www.girder.nl/help/gettingstarted/Getting_started.zip) .zip file? It includes the samples in the getting started guide and might help to jump-start this for you.

[rcarlin]

Mark,
Thanks for that - it has helped somewhat.

I'm still sure I understand "states". I thought I did, but my experiments don't jive with my understanding.

Using the getting started example, I tried setting the State Count to 3 as in the following:

Command State Count Begin State
Open Notepad 3 1
Close Notepad 3 2

By repeatedly pressing the button, I would have thought I would get the following sequence of events:

Open Notepad
Close Notepad
Nothing
Open Notepad
Close Notepad
Nothing
...

However, what I get is

Open Notepad
Nothing
Close Notepad
Open Notepad
Nothing
Close Notepad
...

Can you help enlighten me?

Thanks.

[Mark F]

Your understanding (Open, Close, Nothing) is exactly what I get if I build a multigroup and set the states to get that ordering. Let's back up a bit.

Here are the assumptions which must be true:

The multigroup has no state settings of 1, 1.
Open is set to 3, 1.
Close is set to 3, 2.
The Current State value is the same for Open and Close.
The event string is associated with the multigroup, not either of the commands.

If any of the above are not true, the ordering will be messed up.

[rcarlin]

Mark,
I have everything set as you say, with the exception of the Current State. I did not realize this was settable? How do I set it for each command?

[Mark F]

I don't think you can set it for each command. I believe you can execute one of the commands (Open ot Close), individually, until you get the current command to match OR you can close and restart Girder.

[rcarlin]

Mark,
Ah! I've just figured out where I was mis-understanding the concept - think I have it now. I won't bore you with the details of how I thought it worked! I have it working now.

Thanks for your patient help.