Building Script Forms using the Tool Palette Panel in Altium Designer

Parent page: Working with Panels

Summary

The Tool Palette panel provides a range of visual and non-visual components with which to build script Forms when writing scripts using DelphiScript (*.pas) and if enabled, VBScript (*.vbs).

Panel Access

The Tool Palette  panel can be accessed from the Scripting Editor in the following ways:

• Click the Panels button at the bottom-right of the workspace and select Tool Palette.
• Choose View »  Panels » Tool Palette from the main menus.

Content and Use

The script form components are divided over seven distinct component categories (links provide more information):

• Standard

• Additional

• Win32

• System

• Dialogs

• Altium Standard

• Instrument Controls

Each category can be individually expanded or collapsed using the ► control associated with its name. Alternatively, double-click on the category name to expand/collapse as required. Collapsed categories may also be expanded on an individual basis from the drop-down menu. Use the button to deselect a palette item or control.

All categories may be expanded or collapsed simultaneously using the commands available from the panel's right-click menu.

Placing Components on a Script Form

Components can be placed from the panel onto the active script form in one of two ways:

• Default Placement – double-click on the entry in the panel for the component you wish to place. An instance of the component will be placed, by default, at the center of the form, from where you can subsequently drag it to the required position
• Controlled Placement – click once on the entry in the panel for the component you wish to place and then click within the script form at the position you want the component instance to appear. The component will be placed with its top-left corner at the point you define. Using this method you can resize components upon placement (where applicable) by clicking and dragging within the script form.

Use the  button to deselect the currently selected component in the panel, or alternatively, click on another component.

Right-click Menu

The right-click pop-up menu for the panel provides the following commands and options:

• Button Size sub-menu – provides the following options:
  • Include Captions – toggles the display of component captions (names) in the panel. With this option disabled, the captions become available as tool-tips when the cursor is hovered over a component entry, resulting in a more compact layout.
  • Small – display small-sized component button entries.
  • Medium – display medium-sized component button entries.
  • Large – display large-sized component button entries.
• Options sub-menu – provides the following commands:
  • Auto Collapse Categories – when this option is enabled, only one component category can be expanded at any given time. Expanding another category will cause the existing (already expanded) category to automatically collapse.
• Collapse All – collapse all categories in the panel.
• Expand All – expand all categories in the pane.

Notes

All components used in the panel descend from TComponent in the Borland Delphi Visual Component Library.

All components in the panel have associated Properties, Methods, and Events, where:

• A Property is a characteristic of an object that influences either its visible behavior or its operations. For example, the Visible property determines whether an object can be seen on a script form.
• A Method is a procedure that is always associated with an object and defines the behavior of that object.
• An Event is an action or occurrence detected by the script. In a script the programmer writes code for each Event Handler which is designed to capture a specific event such as a mouse click.

The properties and events of a component can be interrogated and modified after placement using the Object Inspector panel.

► Refer to Scripting Graphical Components for more information with respect to components and their properties, methods, and events.