Default Style for Process Elements

Almost every visual element presented by the application (procedure icons, streams, text, labels, charts, etc.) has an appearance that can be customized to a great extend to match each user’s preference. Each element is characterized by its own visual attributes. For example, icons may be described by their color, appearance of name labels (tags); streams may be characterized by the color and thickness of their line, the appearance and contents of their information tags, etc.; text shown on the flowsheet may be characterized by its color, font choice, frame and/or fill-in pattern, etc. On the other hand, interface elements like time charts may be described by an altogether different set of choices: units for the time axis and the dependent variable displayed (power, material amount or rate, etc.), color of the chart lines, etc. The collection of all such visual attributes defines what we call the visual style (or style for short) for that type of element. Each process file maintains a long list of default styles for many of the elements presented at various interfaces. For example, there’s a default visual style for drawing bulk streams, and every stream you draw (even though you don’t explicitly request it at the time) utilizes that style to present itself on the workspace. The interface for accessing a specific element’s style may be slightly different, but as a general guideline, look for an entry named Edit Style in their context menu. For example, if your bring up the context menu for a procedure icon (right-click over the icon) and select Style } Edit. its visual style dialog will appear. The default styles can be edited by selecting an entry in the Default Preferences menu (part of the flowsheet’s context menu) shown in The ‘Preferences’ Menu Option for a Process.. All such defaults are kept as part of the specific process and will not apply to the next process file that may be started later:

The ‘Preferences’ Menu Option for a Process.

Currently, a process file maintains default styles for the following item types: