Editing diagrams

GrafcetMaker is built so you rarely place anything by hand: select an element and use a key, and the new elements are numbered, linked and positioned for you. The hints under the toolbar at the top of the canvas lists the keys that apply to the current selection.

The essential keys

A transition turned right to left has a vertical bar: the link from the step before it enters on the right and the link to the next step leaves on the left, with arrows. Click a transition anywhere on its bar, number or receptivity to select it.

With nothing selected, Enter continues the sequence from its last step. Enter on a step that already continues inserts the new transition and step and moves everything below down.

While you edit a receptivity or an action, Shift+Enter applies it and opens the next one: the next receptivity down the sequence (a new transition and step at its end), or the next action of the step (a new one after the last). Type a whole sequence, or a row of actions, in one go.

Ghosts

A selected step shows dashed ghosts of what A and Enter would add: an action after its last action and, at the end of a sequence, a transition and a step with the number it will get. A transition that leads nowhere shows a ghost step. Click a ghost to add it. A new step added from its ghost is selected, as if you had clicked it, so its own ghost is one click away; type the receptivities later (F2 or double-click), or use Enter to type each one as you go. With a placing tool, a ghost under the pointer shows what a click will place.

Mouse

• Click selects; Shift+click or Ctrl+click adds to or removes from the selection; drag on empty canvas selects with a frame; Ctrl+A selects everything.
• Drag moves (it snaps to the grid), the arrow keys nudge (Shift for larger steps).
• Double-click an element to edit its text; double-click empty canvas to add a step there.
• Right-click an element for what you can do with it (add an action, branches, loop back, edit, make macro-step, cut, copy, delete…), the selection, or empty canvas (add a step there, paste, auto-layout, renumber, fit). The menu key opens it for the selection.
• A transition whose receptivity is not written yet shows a grey ? (double-click it or press F2); the Problems list still counts it until you type one.
• Link handles: a selected or hovered step or transition shows round handles. Drag one: only valid targets (a step to a transition, a transition to a step) are highlighted. Drop on empty canvas to create the missing element there.
• Click a link to select it; Del removes just that link. Drag an upward link (a loop) sideways to move its side line, or drag its bottom line up or down; double-click it to return to the automatic route. Automatically, a loop passes below the steps and wires of its own sequence rather than crossing them.

Touch: phones and tablets

• Tap selects. Drag an element to move it; drag the empty canvas to pan; pinch with two fingers to zoom.
• Double-tap an element to edit its text, or the empty canvas to add a step there.
• Hold, then drag on the empty canvas to select everything in a frame.
• With a selection, a toolbar at the bottom of the canvas does what the keys do on a computer: Step (a transition and a step below), Action, Parallel and Choice branches, Loop, Edit, Details (the properties) and Delete.
• A selected step or transition shows its link handles just above and below it: drag one to a highlighted target, or to empty canvas to create the missing element.
• With a tool chosen (step, transition, comment, action), tap where the element goes.

On a phone the screen is arranged for one hand: the tools, undo and redo are at the bottom, the menu (☰) holds File, Edit, View, Simulate and Help, and the panels (properties, variables, problems, simulation, chronogram, outline) open as a sheet over the diagram with the panels button at the bottom right. Drag the sheet's handle to make it taller or shorter.

Tools

The toolbar at the top of the window holds the tools (the letter in each button is its key): Select (V), Pan (H), Step (S), Transition (T), Comment (C) and Action (Shift+A). With a placing tool, click empty canvas to place an element; hold Shift to place several. Esc returns to Select. The Action tool also adds an action to a step when you click the step.

Branches and structures

Divergences and convergences are never drawn by hand; they follow from the links.

• O on a step adds another outgoing transition with its own step: an OR divergence.
• P on a step adds a step in parallel with it, started by the same transition and joined by the next one: an AND divergence and AND convergence.
• Linking a second step into a transition makes an AND convergence; linking a second transition into a step makes an OR convergence.
• Edit › Source transition above step / Sink transition below step adds a transition without a step above or below.

Tidy up

• Edit › Auto-layout grafcet places all steps in rows, centres branches under their divergence and routes loops at the side. Auto-layout selection does it for the selection only. Layout never happens on its own and can be undone.
• Edit › Renumber steps numbers the steps in order along the flow and updates every Xn reference and forcing order.

Undo, copy and paste

• Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y redoes. A whole drag is one undo step; the Edit menu names what will be undone.
• Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V work between grafcets, projects and browser tabs. Pasted steps are renumbered if their numbers are taken, and the variables they use come along.

Navigate

• Scroll to pan; Ctrl+scroll or pinch to zoom; Space+drag or the middle mouse button pans too.
• Shift+1 fits the whole grafcet, Shift+2 the selection, Shift+0 is 100 %.
• Ctrl+K opens the command palette: type any command or a grafcet name.

Comments and names

• Comments (C tool) are free notes on the diagram; they are ignored by the simulator.
• Step labels (Properties panel) are short descriptions shown left of the step.
• Double-click the project name at the top to rename the project, and a grafcet tab to rename the grafcet.

Two grafcets at once

Press Ctrl+\ (or View › Split view) to show a second grafcet next to the first, or right-click a tab and choose Open to the side or Open below. Each pane has its own grafcet picker at the top. Click in a pane to work in it: its header is highlighted, and the tabs, keyboard and Properties panel follow it. Drag the bar between the panes to resize them; × closes a pane.

Properties and panels

The diagram has the whole window; the rest floats over it and shows when needed. Select something and its properties appear in a card on the left: the kind of a step or action is chosen with picture buttons showing its symbol. The card's × hides it for this selection; with nothing selected, the properties button next to the project name shows the grafcet and the project. The Variables, Problems, Chronogram and Outline panels open from the buttons at the bottom right, in a card on the right you can widen by its left edge. While simulating, the simulation panel (inputs, values, log, scenarios) floats on the left.