Types of Windows
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SHAPE uses three types of windows besides dialogs and alerts: the Startup window; the main Graphics window; and . Each type of window has its own menu bar (in the window itself in Windows, and at the top of the screen in the Macintosh). The Help system also has its own windows and menus.

Note that under the Windows operating system the SHAPE windows are not confined to reside within a framework window, as in pre-V6.0 SHAPE.

All the current windows are listed in the Windows menu, and this menu can be used to switch between windows if some are not visible. When starting up SHAPE, the menus displayed in the Startup window include only a File menu, a Settings menu and a Help menu. Use the commands in the File menu to start a new SHAPE data set, read an old one from a file, or import data from a file with an external format.

After you have entered or read in the data for a SHAPE file, the main Graphics window opens and the Startup window disappears; if you have elected not to Calculate, the Graphics window may be blank, otherwise it will show the current SHAPE drawing. Only one data set at a time is allowed in SHAPE, and there is only one main Graphics window. When this window is active, there is a File menu and various other specialized menus such as Input1for data input and modification and graphics output.

The List Results command in the File menu lists the relevant data to a Text window, as does the Section Data command (see the Sections or Growth Zones dialog (Input1 menu). Each window actually displays the contents of a file, called respectively RESULTS.SHD, and SECTOUT.SHD. These files are written over again for each new SHAPE data set, so if they are to be preserved they should be saved with the Save As command in the File menu, using a different name.

Text windows are "children" of the main Graphics window, since their contents pertain only to the current structure, and they are destroyed if the Graphics window is closed.