Help for the Many Paths program

The program window

In ManyPaths, the screen is divided into two panels:

Left panel: the Scene, with Source, Detector and paths between them
Right panel: the Arrows, where arrows from all chosen paths are shown, and added tip to tail to get their resultant.

When the cursor hovers over one panel, that panel is activated, shown by a darker border round it. The mouse and keyboard interactions for the active panel are shown at the bottom of the screen.

Menu actions

Most menu actions have keyboard shortcuts, shown in brackets below.

File menu:

New starts a new empty scenario [CTRL N]
Open opens a saved .sce scenario file [CTRL O]
Save saves the current scenario to a .sce file [CTRL S]
Quit quits ManyPaths [CTRL Q]

Edit menu:

Undo undoes last action taken [CTRL Z]
Redo restores last action undone [CTRL Y]
Delete selected waypoints deletes all currently selected waypoints [also Backspace or Delete key, or CTRL D]
Delete all waypoints does just what it says

Options menu:

Source: select between red or blue photons, or low or higher energy electrons
Grid: toggles between active or inactive Snap to grid
Path arrows: toggles between active or inactive Magnitude of path arrow decreases with increasing path length

Help menu [CTRL H] provides a brief reminder of keyboard actions

Scene (left panel) actions

Action	Mouse or keyboard
Create a path:	Click at a point on the screen, creating a waypoint through which a path is drawn from Source to Detector.
Create a set of paths	Click at a point on the screen and then drag. A sequence of equally spaced waypoints is created.
Select a path	Click on the waypoint of the path. Its arrow is also selected.
Select a set of paths	Shift-click on waypoints of the paths. Shift-click on a pair of waypoints to select all waypoints between them. The arrows are also selected.
Deselect or reselect a path	Control-click on the waypoint to toggle selection on or off.
Delete a path or set of paths	Select the path or paths and press Backspace or Delete key or CTRL D.
Move a waypoint or set of waypoints	Select the waypoint or set of waypoints, and drag or use arrow keys.
Move Source or Detector	Select Source or Detector, and drag it or use arrow keys.
Move the viewing area of the screen	Shift-drag at an empty part of the screen.

Arrow (right panel) actions

Action	Mouse or keyboard
Select an arrow	Click on the middle of the arrow: its path is also selected.
Select a set of arrows	Shift-click on the arrows. Shift-click on a pair of arrows to select all arrows between them. The paths care also selected.
Deselect or reselect an arrow	Control-click on the arrow to toggle selection on or off.
Delete an arrow or set of arrows	Select the arrow or arrows and press Backspace or Delete key or CTRL D. The paths are also deleted.
Move the viewing area of the screen	Shift-drag at an empty part of the screen.
Zoom in or out	Turn mouse wheel up to zoom in and down to zoom out.