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Vensim Help

When you are using the Sketch Editor, the Status Bar at the bottom of the Workbench gives you information about current settings, and allows you to change a number of them.  Selecting one or more Words and Arrows with the pointing tool and clicking on the Status Bar is a fast way to make font and color changes to particular sketch objects.

moves you to the previous View in the sketch.  If you are on the first view this has no effect.

View 1 (the viewname) displays the name of the current view.  Clicking on this will display a list of all views.  Click on the one you want.  The last entry in this list is always *New* and can be used to create a new view.

moves you to the next view in the sketch.  If you are on the last view nothing happens.

Times New Roman (font name) shows you the current font.  If nothing is selected it is the default View font.  If you have selected one word it is the font for that word.  Clicking on this with one or more words selected allows you to set the font for those words.

14 (font size) shows you the size of the current font.  Clicking on this with one or more words selected allows you to change the size of the font for those words.

B,i,u,s show you the attributes of the current font - bold, italic, underline and strike-through.  If the attribute is on, the letter is upper case, otherwise the letter is lower case.  Clicking on these with one or more words selected allows you to change the attributes on those words.

Word Color shows the current word color.  Click on this to get a choice of colors to apply to selected words.

Shape Color shows the color of the current word shape.  Click on this to get a choice of colors to apply to the shapes of the selected words.

Word Shape lets you set the shape of the selected words.  Click on this for a list of choices.  The second entry from the top causes the selected variables to have shape set based upon the Type of variable they are.  This option allows you to impose the shape conventions set in the Sketch Defaults Dialog on all variables appearing in the view.

Word Position lets you set the position of words on selected words.  Click on this for a list of choices.

Arrow color lets you set the color on selected arrows.

Arrow width lets you set the width on selected arrows.

Arrow polarity lets you set the polarity on selected arrows.  Choose from the built in list of choices.

Add workbench variable adds the Workbench Variable to the current view.  After you click on this, clicking on the view will add the Workbench Variable.  You can use this to add a variable as a shadow variable or to add a variable and its causes.  Use the shift key to toggle causes on or off, the cursor will change shape to show you whether or not causes will be added.  When you are adding a Workbench Variable in this manner, the current Sketch Editor is temporarily suspended, and the Status Bar becomes a cancel button.

push to background pushes the currently selected words and arrows to the background of the sketch.  This is useful if you have words that overlap or if you are using large shapes to contain portions of a diagram.  The words and arrows pushed to the background will appear behind other words.  You can select the words in the foreground by clicking on them, even when they are in the same place as a background word.