HOWTO -
Establishing the Data Flow Relationship among Blocks
(Refresh this page to see the above demonstration again.)
The process of establishing the Data Flow Relationship
among blocks is typically referred to as “connecting”
blocks. The user should enter the CONNECT mode when attempting
to connect blocks together. After selecting the CONNECT mode,
the cursor changes to a target cursor, with the word
“Source” under the target. As the name implies, the user
should connect, by clicking once, on the source channel of the
particular source block. After the source channel is selected,
the cursor immediately changes to a target with the word
“Dest” under the target. Now the user should connect, by
clicking once, to the destination channel of the particular
destination block. A line will be drawn immediately to
indicate the data flow relationship that has just been
established. This process should be repeated until all
channels are connected.
Connect(Alt+Shift+C, Toolbar
button): The Connect command places the environment in Connect
mode. This will allow for the connection of individual block
functions within the worksheet. The mouse cursor will be shown
as a cross-hair cursor.
As the following figure shows, each block icon, or bitmap,
is split into the source side (left half) and the destination
side (right half). The user may connect from source to
destination or from destination to source and is dependent
upon which half of the block is first clicked. The cursor will
change and be labeled either ‘SOURCE’ or ‘DEST’
depending on whether the next connection is for a source block
or a destination block. It is possible to connect to multiple
destinations by first left-clicking on the source block and
then use the right-mouse button to click on the destination
side of each block intended to be a destination. It is
important to follow the correct connection scheme. For
example, an input signal generator block connected to an
output single-channel display block would use the ‘SOURCE’
cursor to select the signal generator block, and the
‘DEST’ cursor to select the single-channel display block.
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When connecting from a source or to a
destination block with more than one channel, the distinction
among channels is accomplished by proximity (vertically
oriented) to the desired channel. For example (see above
diagram), if there are two channels to select between, the
cursor should be located within the block icon boundaries,
vertically closest to the desired channel arrow. For block
functions with multiple connections, you may wish to resize
the block icon such that connections can easier be made. |