## Using the Status Window

Status Window

The View | Status Window menu option displays the Status window. This window lets you preview commands and features while creating them from the Quick Start toolbar, during feature execution, during dimension creation or editing, and also by simply clicking on the item in the Edit window with the Status window open. While similar in some ways to the Preview window, the Status window differs in these ways:

- You don't specify tolerances or nominal values in this window. The window is for display only.

- It provides a flexible way to display commands by tying into the new template-based Reporting functionality.

- It displays a dynamic preview for any command or dimension type, not just Location dimensions, as long as those commands are properly assigned inside your report and label templates.

This window functions the same as other dockable and scrollable windows. It will display scroll bars if the content within the window exceeds the window's size. Additionally, you can dock and undock this window at the bottom or top of the Graphics Display window by double-clicking on the window's title bar, or by dragging the window, and then releasing it at the desired location.

Hint: You can also hold down the CTRL key while dragging the window to prevent it from docking.

The Status Window with the Quick Start Toolbar

The Status window displays the current status of any Guess Mode measurements, feature selection, and dimension creation when using the Quick Start toolbar. In the case of the screen shot shown above, this dimension has not yet been created, yet PC-DMIS lets you preview the dimension in this window prior to clicking Finish from the Quick Start toolbar.

The Status Window during Feature Creation or Execution

The Status window displays preview information of features not yet displayed in the Report window. This window utilizes the new reporting templates functionality to generate dynamic previews of commands during execution and creation. During feature creation it only previews the feature if PC-DMIS is in Guess mode.

The Status Window during Dimensioning

When you have one of the dimension dialog boxes open (either for legacy dimensions or for Feature Control Frame dimensions), the Status window will provide you with a preview of what the dimension will look like based on the items currently selected in the dialog box. For example, if you are creating a Distance dimension and want to preview the distances as you select different items, that information will appear in the Status window as you click on the items in the dialog box. If a dialog box isn't active, it will revert to its default functionality of displaying information for the item most recently clicked on in the Edit window.

Changing the Status Window Template

Since the Status window uses reporting templates to display its information, you can change what template it uses if you would like it to display different information. Any command can be displayed in the Status window as long as a label template is assigned to that command in the report template (.rtp) file. You assign what report template this uses from the ReportTemplate registry entry under the StatusWindow section of the PC-DMIS Settings Editor. The default template it uses is TEXTONLY.RTP.

Using the Status Window in Accumulation Mode

During execution, the Status window usually only displays the most recently executed feature and dimension. However, you can have PC-DMIS show a list of accumulated executed items by setting AccumulateStatusWindowResults under the Reporting section to True using the PC-DMIS Settings Editor. With this mode turned on, the contents in the Status window don't get removed until execution finishes. This allows you to show a running list of information during part program execution. Also, while in this mode, PC-DMIS follows the TextReportObject's properties used in the Status window's template to determine what information gets sent to the Status window (features, dimensions, alignments, and so forth).