Combo Box Control

The Combo Box control allows you to associate text strings with specified values for an input, and then allows the user to choose among the options in a Dashboard from a combo (drop list) box. An example of its use is shown below:

The Combo Box control looks like this when it is added to a Dashboard and selected:

The eight handles allow you to resize the control. For more precise changes, you can also change the width of the control using Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right, and change the height using Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Down. (The default change is 1 pixel at a time. If you press the Shft key, the change is 5 pixels).

Note, however, that resizing the control does not resize the text strings (choices) inside the control; it simply adds empty space around the control. The font size for the text strings is fixed (they use the default GUI font specified by the operating system).

Within the Value portion of the dialog, the Data element to which the control is to be linked is specified. You do this by pressing <Click to select>. This will display a browser which shows all of the scalar value Data elements in the model (condition Data elements are not listed).

Once you have linked the control to an element, the linked element will be listed:

You can remove the linkage (by pressing the red X button), or reassign the linkage (by pressing the name of the element itself).

In addition, once you have linked the control to an element, a single row is added to the grid of choices:

You add and remove new rows using the Add and Remove buttons. For each row, you specify a Label (a text string), and a Value. Note that you cannot specify a link or expression in Value field. In fact, this field only accepts numbers without units. If the Data element has dimensions, this field assumes that the value is being specified in the display units of the Data element (which are displayed in the header for the column).

The column labeled “*” is used to specify which of the choices is the default value. The default value can be used in conjunction with an optional Button control that the Author can provide in a Dashboard that allows the Player user to reset all input controls to default values.

Note: Within GoldSim, you can reset all of the input controls in a Dashboard to their default values by right-clicking anywhere in the Dashboard, and selecting Set to Default Values.

The Allow changes while paused check box determines whether Dashboard users will be able to edit the field in the middle of a simulation (i.e., after the model is paused). If this check box is cleared (the default) the user can only edit the field prior to the start of the simulation. If the model is paused, the field will not be editable. If the check box is checked, the user will be permitted to edit the field while the model is paused in the middle of a simulation.

Note: Even if this box is checked, if the model contains any scenarios, no changes can be made while the model is paused.

The Move Up and Move Down buttons allow you to change the order in which the choices will appear in the List Box. If Auto-sort in control is checked, GoldSim will automatically sort the choices in alphabetical order when they appear in the control (it will not change the order in the dialog).

The bottom section of the dialog allows you to enter a tool tip, which will be displayed whenever the Dashboard user holds the mouse cursor over the control.

The Attributes tab of the dialog provides tools that allow you to hide or disable the control dynamically based on the values of various model outputs. This allows you, for example, to hide the control if it was not applicable under certain situations.