Android phone, iPhone & iPad
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Introduction
At a glance: This describes the use of the application on an Android phone, iPhone or iPad. See the General – Introduction for the meanings and definitions of the some of the words used here.
The expressions ‘phone’, ‘back button’ and ‘next button’
This volume of the xsec user guide covers the Android phone, the Apple iPhone and the Apple iPad. These devices have a range of display size; 4 inches up to 12.9 inches.
Herein the word ‘phone’ means either an Android phone or iPhone; the devices with the smaller display sizes.
The application on these smaller devices often has a left pointing arrow button in the top left corner of the display and a right pointing arrow button in the top right corner.
The application on the iPad does not have such buttons. However, it does have buttons with captions ‘Back’ and ‘Next’ that have a purpose similar to those buttons on the smaller devices.
Herein the expressions ‘back button’ and ‘next button’ mean those arrow buttons on the smaller devices and also mean those ‘Back’ and ‘Next’ buttons on an iPad
The display at startup
The display that appears at startup has a panel headed “Files” and in the body of that panel is a list of file names. On a phone this panel occupies the whole display. On an iPad the panel is top center; the remainder of the display being black.
The main tab buttons labeled F, M, C, L and T are at the top of this panel on an Android phone and at the bottom on an iPhone or iPad. Only the F button is enabled however.
For the iPhone and iPad the installation package contains a number of example files that appear in the list.
For the Android phone the installation package contains no example files. However, the application can automatically generate an example file for each of the measurement unit systems. (See Files – New file.)
A tap on a file name in the list will open that file. Alternatively a tap on the “+” button in the top right corner of the panel will invoke facilities that create a new opened file. With an opened file the main tab buttons are enabled allowing access to the content of the file.
Also on an iPad the display outside the panel becomes white with an image of the cross-section described in the file shown in black.
The main tab button labels; F, M, C, L and T stand for: Files, Materials, Components, Load cases and Time affect sets.
Lists of entities
The body of each tab contains a list of entity names.
Other than files there are four kinds of entity:
Material: A material entity describes a material such as concrete, or mild steel.
Component: A component entity describes a part of the cross-section. Each component is either a shape component or a point component. Typically concrete is a shape component and an arrangement of steel bars is a point component.
Load-case: A Load-case entity describes a state of the cross-section that is of interest. For example the ultimate strength or the first yield of a mild steel bar.
Time affect set: A Time affect set has provision for a shrinkage value and a creep coefficient for each component and the name of the load case that causes the creep.
Features common to all the entity lists are:
- A tap on an entity name will open that entity in the appropriate editor.
- A swipe either to the left or the right on an entity name will cause a red delete button to appear that will delete that entity if tapped.
- In the top right corner of the panel is a “+” button. A tap on this will invoke facilities for adding an entity to the list. These facilities vary dependent on the entity kind, but they all require a name. The name facility is described under Entity names.
- Below the list are various buttons. Generally these buttons have captions that indicate the purpose.
Entity names
In the top right corner of the entity list panel is a “+” button. When this is tapped facilities to add an entity are invoked that culminate in a prompt “Enter the name of ….” appearing at the top of the list in grey text on a white background. Also an “Ok” button will appear to the right of that prompt text. A tap on that prompt will cause a virtual keyboard to appear at the bottom of the display. Names can be up to twenty characters including spaces between words. (File names have different requirements.) Automatic facilities ensure each name is unique within each entity kind.
Not all the characters on the virtual key board are acceptable. A tap on an unacceptable keys is ignored by the application.
This keyboard, like most keyboards, has a particular key in the bottom right corner often called the “return key”. On some devices this key is not labelled “Return” being labelled “Done”, “Go”, “Next” or whatever. Nevertheless in this user guide it is referred to as the “return key”.
A tap on the return key will cause the virtual keyboard to disappear. A further tap on the prompt text or text that has replaced the prompt will cause the virtual keyboard to reappear.
However with some entity kinds, if the “+” button is tapped again the line for the new name will still contain that invalid name rather than the grey prompt text. A tap on that invalid name will cause the virtual keyboard to reappear so that the name can be corrected.
Entity edit facilities
Features common to all the various entity edit facilities are:
The editing facilities are presented on a sequence of panels.
On a phone each of these panels occupies the whole display. In the top right corner is a right pointing arrow button, and in the top left corner is left pointing button. These are next and back buttons. The idea is that the various panel contents are to be read like the pages of a book.
On an iPad the panels are shown one at a time and there are buttons with self explanatory captions in the panels that change the displayed panel.
In the top centre of each panel is the name of the entity in bold characters and under that in small characters is a label indicating the entity kind and the name of the file.
Generally information in a panel is black text on a light gray background.
Selection Boxes
There are selection boxes for names or short phrases that can be changed by selection from a list of alternatives. Generally these are preceded by a label ending “=”.
On an iPhone or iPad these have black text of slightly smaller font on a white background. A tap on such text will reveal a list of alternatives. Scroll the list up or down to highlight the desired selection then tap the associated “Done” button. On an iPhone these lists are near the bottom of the panel. On an iPad these lists are near the selection box, but not confined to inside the panel.
On an Android phone there is a shadow line at the bottom of the box and a down pointing triangle in the right hand end. A tap on the box will reveal a list of alternatives each item having a radio button to the left. The radio buttons indicate the previous selection. A tap on an item will select that item and the list will disappear.
Other controls
There are specific purpose buttons on various of the panels. These are generally near the bottom of the panel. A caption on the button indicates the purpose.
There are also switches and segmented controls; more-or-less Android phone, iPhone and iPad standard features. Generally there is captions and labels that indicate the purpose.
Number input facilities
Black text that has a blue glow indicates a number that can be edited. A tap on such a number will change the glow from blue to green and a virtual keyboard will appear in the lower part of the display. Generally the keys affect the right hand end of the number except the “+/-“ key which toggles a minus sign on and off at the left hand end. If a positive number is required the “+/-“ key is not visible. If the number contains a decimal point the decimal point key is not visible. This ensures that the number has only one decimal point.
A red glow indicates a number that is not valid. A tap on the return key will make an error message dialog appear. A tap on any other feature on the display will take focus away from that number and the number will return to a previous value; the editing being ignored.
Some numbers have an exponent part. Usually these are represented by simple characters. For example ‘x10-3’ is intended to mean x10-3 or ‘multiply by ten to the power of minus three’. Superscripts are not used.
Numbers where the exponent part is editable are represented in the E format. That is the exponent is represented by the character ‘E’ followed by an integer number being the power of ten. For example E-3 means x10-3 .
A tap on such an exponent part will cause a keyboard to appear that has keys representing alternative exponents. Note that only exponents that are a multiple of three are offered. An exponent of zero is also offered. This is represented by a blank space.
When the metric system is in use the standard metric prefixes to the measurement units are used. Note there is potential confusion from the used of both the lowercase and uppercase ‘M’: The lowercase ‘m’ stands for ‘milli’ and means x10-3 where as the uppercase ‘M’ stands for ‘mega’ and means x106 .
Graphical information
The cross-section, both shape components and point components as well as the stress/strain relationship of each material can be represented graphically.
On a phone these images is presented on one of the panels which occupy the whole display. On an iPad each image occupies the whole display but data panels overlay it.
During editing there is a little red circle that acts as a cursor indicating a particular object that is the subject. Also on a cross-section image a subject component is highlighted: the other components are dimmed.
Here the word ‘object’ means either a corner of a shape component, a point in a point component or a stress/strain in the description of a material. These objects are in a sequence and are numbered; 0, 1, 2, …. .
Also, in the case of a shape component or a stress/strain relationship the line between the subject object and the next object is red. This is intended to indicate where an added new object would appear.
Graphic edit panels
On a phone the graphic’s editable numbers are on the next panel and the back button on that panel allows a return to the graphic panel so that the affect of the editing can be seen. On an iPad the graphic’s editable numbers are on a similar panel but it overlays the graphic image and can be located so that the affect of the editing can immediately be seen.
These graphic edit panels have two ‘back – next’ tool bars. The top such tool bar serves the same purpose as the tool bar at the top in other panels. On an iPad it has only the “+” button.
The lower tool bar allows the user for move forward and backward through the sequence of objects.
Some graphic edit panels also have a selection box labeled “Component=” between the two toolbars; the alternatives offered being the names of the components that have been described.
In the centre of the lower tool bar is a label in bold characters indicating the kind of object; corner, point or stress/strain, followed by the number in the sequence.
The ‘+’ button in the top tool bar invokes facilities to add an object to the sequence. The added object appears in the sequence immediately after the object displayed at the time the ‘+’ button is tapped and the data displayed changes to the new object.
A tap on the label indicating the kind of object will cause a red delete button to appear and a tap on that will delete that particular object from the sequence.
With both the deletion and addition operations sequence numbers are reassigned to all the objects in the sequence after the deleted or added object.
It is not possible to delete the object with number zero, nor is it possible to add an object before that object.
On a phone a new object has 0.0, 0.0 as the co-ordinate parameters values. That is X, Y values or stress/strain values. These can then be changed to whatever is required.
On an iPad if the subject object is not the last the new object will have values that are half way between that subject object and the next object. Those new values can then be changed to whatever is required. If, on the other hand, that subject object was the last the new object values are copied from that subject object. Although those new values can still be changed to whatever is required the new object is not obvious on the graphic image. In a point component such lost objects make the computations erroneous. The automatic geometry check that happens when a load case is opened should pick up such lost points. The error message is ‘Point components clash at …’.
When the first component is added to a file or a material description is created from scratch the image will be blank white until there are objects with more than one value for both of the co-ordinate parameter. That is more than one value of both X and Y or more than one value of both stress and strain.
Moveable panels on an iPad
On an iPad information that pertains to a particular object is presented on a panel that can be moved so that always that object can be seen. ‘Drag and drop’ is not provided, rather near each corner of these panels is a small button labeled ‘TL’, ‘TR’ … etc. A tap on these buttons will move the panel.
- TL = Top left corner of the display
- TR = Top right corner of the display
- BR = Bottom right corner of the display
- BC = Bottom centre of the display
- BL = Bottom left corner of the display
- C = Centre of the display
The virtual alpha numeric keyboard for entity names occupies the bottom of the display. The place for the new entity name is always near the top.
The virtual numeric keyboard is always at the bottom of the display. When the number to be edited is on a moveable panel the keyboard has move buttons each side. It can be moved from side to side across the bottom so that always the object being edited can be seen.
Abbreviations
The various panels are formatted to fit on a four inch screen. To achieve this various headings and labels are abbreviated. The meaning of the abbreviations are:
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Ax. load error | Axial load error – The error in the result axial load value. |
| Bending mom | Bending moment. |
| Cur. Dev. | Curvature deviation. |
| Cur. Deviation | Curvature deviation. |
| Cur. other ax. | Curvature other axis– The component of the curvature about the other axis. |
| Cur. ref. ax. | Curvature reference axis– The component of the curvature about the reference axis. |
| Mom. error | Moment error – The error in the result bending moment value. |
| Mom. magnitude | Moment magnitude – The magnitude of the bending moment. |
| Mom. orientation | Moment orientation – The orientation of the axis of the bending moment. |
| Mom. other ax. | Moment other axis – The component of the bending moment about the other axis. |
| Mom. ref. ax | Moment reference axis – The component of the bending moment about the reference axis. |
| Other ax. cur. | Other axis curvature – The component of the curvature about the other axis. |
| Ref. angle | Reference axis angle |
| Ref. ax. cur. | Reference axis curvature – The component of the curvature about the reference axis. |
| Ref. X | Ref. X Reference axes origin X value |
The hardware “back key” (Android phone only)
Android phone devices have a key below the bottom right corner of the display outside of the display known as the “back key”. The function of this key varies from device to device. However with some devices such as the Samsung Galaxy it has a standard behavior with this application. That behavior is described as follows. It is referred to as the “hardware back key” to avoid confusion with the virtual keys and buttons on the display.
The affect of this key is:
- If the tab item buttons “F”, “M”, “C”, “L” and “T” are visible and no virtual keyboard is visible – a tap on the hardware back key will close the application. Note that the current job is not automatically saved. The user can use the “Save” or “Save as” buttons on the “F” tab before tapping the hardware back key.
- If the virtual keyboard for names is visible – a tap on the hardware back key has the same affect as the “Ok” button adjacent to the name input.
- If the tab item buttons “F”, “M”, “C”, “L” and “T” are not visible – A tap on the hardware back key will cause a change to a display where those tab item buttons are visible.
Tap and hold of the hardware back key has the same affect as a tap; the affect not happening until the key is released.