Using bitmaps as a background

Any bitmap can be imported into MediaMatrix for use as a background in a view. This is very useful and allows you to include CAD drawings, photographs etc. as part of a system design. You can use a plan view of a facility as a background. By correctly locating and sizing transparent buttons you can click on a room or podium and load a preset as an example. By loading a photograph you can click on an element in the photograph such as a speaker cluster and open up a control panel which is associated with it. There are limitless ways to incorporate bitmaps as part of your design. This allows you to actually combine architectural designs, photographs, schematics, controls, and meters into one interactive system. Not to mention it looks a lot nicer than a plain grey screen.

It is possible to use a bitmap as a background on the main window (like using Windows NT wallpaper), or to selectively use different bitmaps in child windows such as blocks, that might contain control panels. An example of this might be a board room, where you click on a seat position to open the controls for that microphone and speaker.

The procedure to import a bitmap as a wallpaper background on the main window is as follows:

1. Be in Edit mode, and click on the main window

2. Now right click, and select "Window Properties". Click on the checkbox that says "Use Bitmap for Wallpaper". Now, click on browse to search the drives for the bitmap file you wish to use. Once selected, click on the "Open" button to select the file

3. Select how you want the bitmap to be displayed, using the radio buttons. It can be displayed as actual size, centered in the window with a border around it, automatically "stretched" to fill the window, or tiled in multiples. If stretched, some distortion of details and text may occur, but the window will resize itself automatically whenever the other windows are turned off or resized. When tiled, multiple copies will show

4. Now, left click on "OK". The bitmap will now be displayed as you specified

It is possible to import a bitmap wallpaper background, color the border (if "Centered" is selected) using paint mode, and then to import additional bitmaps to be placed elsewhere in the window, or in child windows.

The procedure to import a bitmap into a window, but NOT as Wallpaper is as follows:

1. To place a bitmap in your window, select "Device | New-Bitmap". The nutdriver icon will appear, and you click to place the new bit-map in the view file. Don't worry if the small grey bit map box is not big enough for the bitmap, we will take care of that later. This small grey box is a holder, to set the initial position. Now, lets select what it will hold.

2. If the bitmap holder is not outlined in red indicating it is selected, left click on it to select it now. Then, right click, and select "Properties". A Graphic Object Properties dialog box will appear. Click on the "graphic" tab. In the section Bitmap section of the dialog box, click on the check box that says "Object displays a bitmap file. Now, click on the "Browse" button to search the drives for the bitmap file you wish to use. Once selected, click on the "Open" button to select the file. The grey box will be replaced by the bitmap you chose, and it will automatically be resized. Drag the bitmap into position on the screen.

3. Select Layer #8.

4. If you wish the bitmap to be displayed with a border (such as an "Inset" dip panel, a raised "Bump" panel, with rounded corners, or any combination with transparency), then left click on the check box that says "Object displays a rectangular block" in the Block section of the dialog box. You can then left click on the down arrow, and select the type of border you wish the bitmap to have.

5. If you wish the bitmap to be displayed regular size, then DO NOT click on the check box that says "Fix Object Size" in the size area of the dialog box. If you wish to change the size of the bitmap, there are two ways of doing so, as explained below.

6. If you wish to resize the bitmap image, then click on the checkbox that says in the size area of the dialog box. You can now specify the width and height of the image. You can also change the size of the bitmap image by dragging, once the dialog box is closed, as explained in X below.

7. If you wish to display text in the bitmap, you can do so by clicking on the "Text" tab of the Graphic Object Properties box, clicking on the check box that says "Enable object to display text or label" in the text area of the dialog box. You can also select the font and size used, how it is justified, and the color of the text. We recommend that you use a contrasting color to the bitmap background. Now, enter the text you wish to display in the "Text or Label" area of the dialog box. The text you enter will be displayed in the top of the bitmap, as you specified.

8. Click on the "Graphic" tab again, and be sure that the check box that says "Object uses a pre-defined style" in the style section of the dialog box is NOT checked! If this is checked, the type of control style selected will be superimposed on the bit-map.

9. Gesture the O.K. button to close the dialog box. The bitmap is now displayed.

10. If the size is not right, you can change it by dragging IF the "Fix Object Size" checkbox was clicked in the dialog box. If it wasn't, and you want to resize the bitmap, repeat steps 2 through 9. Now, drag the bitmaps top left corner to the starting position you want it to have on the window. Now, move the cursor to the lower left, upper right, or lower right corner of the bitmap. You will see the cursor change from the Peavey architectural acoustic logo to a four pointed arrow. When the arrow is displayed, left click, and as you hold down the mouse button, drag the bitmap to the size you desire, then release the mouse button. The bitmap will be automatically re-sized as you drag.

11. The bitmap is now in your window as a background, sized correctly, and with text if you desire

Hotel Room Combining System using a bitmap background image

A stadium cluster graphic used as a background image, with invisible buttons placed on the speaker clusters.