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*                            EnSight 6.1 Command Prompting
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EnSight 6.1.0 introduced the ability to set up most commands to prompt the user
for command values.  The prompting mechanism is very simple.  All you need to do
is change the command value to two question marks and then the question you wish
to ask the user.  An example of this is:

view: hidden_surface OFF

This command can be changed to:

view: hidden_surface ??Would you like the model shaded(ON/OFF)?

When this command is executed a prompt will be displayed showing the question
with an input box.  The user will type the value into the input box and
click Okay.  As you can see it is best to provide the user with a list of
possible values that they are allowed to type in.  Your prompt to the user must
all be on the same line.  We have not provided a line continuation character 
so you may find some of your prompt lines become long.  Your prompt can contain
a newline(\n) character, which will cause the prompt displayed to the user to
be a multiple line prompt.  An example using the newline character is shown
in 2) below.


The best way to create command files is to walk through the task using
the EnSight user interface first, then go back through the command file
and modify the commands slightly.  We have also added a few other command
language features to make the command files more flexible.
These are:


1) We have added two test commands to toggle how to record parts in the
   command language.  The commands are:

test: cmd_rec_partname

and

test: cmd_rec_partnumber

   The default is to record as part number.  These commands can be entered in
   the command dialog command entry field or placed in a command file and
   executed.

   There are a few areas where this has not been implemented though, such as:

variables: evaluate TPres = TPres(1,temperature,velocity,2)

In the above command the part number 1 has been entered by the user when setting
up the equation for the command.  This command can be set up to allow the user
to be prompted by changing it to

variables: evaluate TPres = TPres(plist,temperature,velocity,1)

The "plist" key word will use whatever is in the current command language
selection list.  To set the command language part selection list you must
use the method described in 2) below.



2) To prompt the user for a part or parts, to add to the command part selection
   list, do the following:

part: select_partname_begin
??Select the parts in the main part list that you wish\nto create a new variable on.  Then select Continue.
part: select_partname_end
part: get_mainpartlist_select

another example of this is:

part: select_partname_begin
??Select the parts in the main part list that you wish\nto create an Isosurface from.  Then select Continue.
part: select_partname_end
part: get_mainpartlist_select


The part selection prompt will cause the command language to be interrupted.
This will give the user a chance to select the parts they wish to use.  Since
the command language is interrupted the user will have to click the "Continue"
button in the command dialog that automatically pops up.



3) To prompt the user for a variable to add to the command variable selection
   list, do the following:

variable: select_varname_begin
??Select the variable(s) from the main variable list that you\nwish to create an Isosurface from and then select Continue.
variable: select_varname_end
variable: get_mainvarlist_select

The variable selection prompt will cause the command language to be interrupted.
This will give the user a chance to select the variable they wish to use.  Since
the command language is interrupted the user will have to click the "Continue"
button in the command dialog that automatically pops up.



4) To prompt the user for a legend to add to the command legend selection list,
   do the following:

legend: select_palette_begin
??Select the variable(s) from the main variable list that you\nwish to display legend(s) for and then select Continue.
legend: select_palette_end
legend: get_mainvarlist_select


Another new command that should be mentioned here is a command that
selects all the parts in the main part list.  This is useful when you
want to do an operation on all of the parts in the command language and
may not know how many parts are in the current model.  To use this you
would use the following set of commands:

part: select_mainpartlist_all
part: get_mainpartlist_select


As you will see, this is a first try at making the command language more useful
for creating general sequences of operations.  We felt that the current
capability is useful enough to provide it as a new feature in the 6.1.x release.
It can be very handy when used with Macros.  We understand that we could do much
more with it and that it has some current gotchas.  One of these "gotchas" is the
fact that text, line, and logo command language still uses numbering and therefore
those commands are dependent on the text, line, and logo annotation that currently
exist in the EnSight session.  We are sure there are others that we haven't
thought of yet, but we now have the basic prompting in place to build from.  We
will be looking into adding programming language constructs to continue to
enhance the EnSight command language.  We welcome any ideas that you feel are
necessary to make command language even more useful.  Please send your experiences
and requests to ensight_support@ceintl.com so that we can consider them when
enhancing the command language in the future.