Dips > General Features

# Sidebar

The Sidebar in Dips is the vertical control panel at the left (or right) of the application window. The Sidebar displays context sensitive controls which may vary according to the plot type, view type or current action being performed. The majority of the viewing and display options in Dips are found in the Sidebar, as summarized below.

Stereonet Plots

For stereonet plots, all major plotting options are available in the Sidebar (e.g. vector plot, contour plot, intersections, etc). Using the checkboxes and radio buttons you can quickly and easily customize a stereonet view to display any combination of data presentations. In addition, stereonet display options (e.g. equal angle / equal area, upper / lower hemisphere) and colours can be customized in the Sidebar.

Rosette Plots

For rosette plots, all plotting and display options applicable to the rosette plot can be customized in the Sidebar.

Info Viewer

When the Info Viewer is the active view, the Sidebar allows you to customize the display and presentation of information in the Info Viewer.

Chart Views

For Chart Views, the Sidebar allows you to customize the display options for the chart.

Kinematic Analysis

While in Kinematic Analysis mode, the Sidebar will display shortcuts to the Kinematic Analysis options. Additional options (e.g. visibility and colour settings) are found in the Kinematic Analysis dialog which can be accessed by selecting the kinematic analysis icon (button) in the sidebar.

Edit Object Properties

The Sidebar also allows you to interactively edit the properties of stereonet objects and drawing tools (e.g. user planes, cones, text etc). For example, when you click on an object in the stereonet view, the object will become selected (highlighted) and the object properties will appear in the Sidebar. You can then edit the object properties in the Sidebar (e.g. colour, orientation etc) as required. When finished press Enter or click the mouse anywhere in the view and the new object properties will be saved.

Display Sidebar on Left or Right

By default the Sidebar appears at the left side of the Dips application window. The Sidebar can be displayed either on the left or right side by choosing the desired option in the Preferences dialog. When you change the Preferences this will take effect the next time you start the program.