New...
Selection of New reveals a submenu. There is a minimum of six choices, Design, Material, Optical Constant, Table, Stack, and Substrate. Depending on the Enhancements that are present there may also be vStack, Operation, Machine
Configuration, Run Sheet and Simulator. Each selection produces an appropriate dialog box or document window that refers to the choice made. The selection can be made with the Mouse in the usual way or by pressing any of the arrow keys.
Design brings up a design window with the default design contained in it in the form of a table of media and layers. This is considered further below in the Design Window chapter.
Material brings up a document window headed Material that contains a blank table for entry of new optical constants and wavelength data. More details are given in the
Material Window chapter.
Optical Constant brings up a new window for deriving optical constants from transmittance and reflectance data. See the section on Optical Constant Extraction for more information.
Table creates a new table after the user has indicated the number of columns required in an initial dialog box. The table is blank and the Read Only status is not set so that it can immediately be edited in the usual way. For more details, see the later section on Edit Menu (Table).
Stack brings up a new document window for the design and analysis of combinations of substrates and coatings. See the Multicoat section for more information.
vStack brings up a new document window for the design and analysis of
combinations of substrates and coatings that are not parallel. See the vStack chapter for more information.
Substrate brings up a document window headed Substrate that contains a blank table for entry of new internal transmittance and wavelength data. More details are given under the heading of Multicoat.
Operation creates a new Operation document. The Operation is the collection of instructions needed for a calculation by Function.
Machine Configuration creates a document where details of the machine to be used by Runsheet when generating deposition instructions.
Run Sheet creates a blank run sheet where design information and a designated machine configuration will be used to generate the monitoring signals for the manufacture of the coating specified by the design.
Simulator creates a blank document for entry of the parameters such as signal noise, monitoring type, specifications of errors required for the simulation of the production of a coating specified by a given run sheet.
Report Template creates a blank document where the instructions for a report can be entered. See the Report Generator chapter for more information on the contents of a Report Template.
Open...
Open brings up a dialog box that permits any of the files that have been created by the program to be reopened. File types include designs, performance plots, performance tables, and data for optical constant extraction. These types can be selected in the drop down list at the foot of the box.
Open a Copy of...
The Open a Copy of command is similar to the Open command except that the opened item does not retain the name of the file from which it was opened. This means that the first time the item is saved, it will need to be given a file name. It is as though a new design was created and the design was copied from the existing file.
For example, use the Open a Copy of command to open an existing design. Now change the design in some way and then select Save from the File menu. The Save As file dialog box will appear because the design does not know the filename from which it was loaded. If the Open command had been used to load the design, selecting Save from the File menu would have saved the design back to the filename from which it was opened.
Open Material...
Open Material brings up a dialog box containing a list of all available materials for selection.
When a material is selected, a material window with the optical constants and wavelength data appears ready for editing, plotting or printing.
Open Substrate...
OpenSubstrate... behaves in a similar way. In this case a list of substrate files is presented for selection and the resulting table displays either internal transmittance or density against wavelength. The display can be switched from one version to the other by a menu command under the Substrate Edit menu. The data can be edited or plotted in the usual way. More details are given in the section on Multicoat.
New Job...
New Job... creates a new Essential Macleod Job folder and populates it with a new empty materials folder, a new empty designs folder and a new references folder. Data from the standard references folder is copied to the new references folder. The first action upon selecting this command is to choose the new folder. The folder can be created anywhere in the computer, but it is recommended that the folder be created in the My Documents\Thin Film Center\Jobs folder. When the New Job command is selected, a folder chooser will appear. The folder containing the most recently created jobs folder will be selected.
To create a folder in the current selected folder, click on the Make New Folder button.
The selected folder will expand and show the newly created folder which will be named
“New Folder”. You can edit the name of the new folder either by selecting it and then pressing the F2 key, or you can right click on the folder name and click on the Rename command. After entering the name, click on the OK button. This will return you to the Create New Job window.
If you change your mind about the Job folder name or location, you can click on the Choose Job Folder button to go back to the folder chooser. When the new Job folder is created, the Materials folder will be empty. You can check the Show Materials Library box to cause the materials library to be displayed after the job has been created. This allows you to easily add materials from the materials library to the Job’s materials database. You can also do this at any other time when the Job is open as well as import materials from other materials databases. To create the new Job folder, click on the Create New Job button
When Create New Job has completed, the title bar of the Essential Macleod will be changed to show that a Job is open. For example, if the new Job was named “Thin Film Center”, the title bar would show “Essential Macleod: Thin Film Center” The default location for saving designs etc. will be the Designs folder inside the new Job folder. The materials database will be changed to the Materials folder inside the new Job folder and the references folder will be changed to the references folder inside the new Job folder.
Keeping everything in the Job folder tree makes it easy to create an archive copy of all information by making a copy of the Job folder.
Open Job...
OpenJob... is used to open an existing Job. When this command is selected, a folder chooser will appear with the folder containing the last created Job folder selected. Click on the “+” symbol to the left of the selected folder to expand the list of Job folders. To open the desired Job, select the folder name and then click on OK. The Essential Macleod will then be reset that it uses the materials database and references folder contained in the Job folder. The default location for saving designs etc. will be changed to the folder last used when the Job was previously open. The title bar of the Essential Macleod will be changed to show the name of the open Job.
Close Job
Close Job resets the Essential Macleod so that it uses the materials database and references folder that were last used when no Job was open. The default location for saving designs etc. is reset to the folder that was last used when no Job was open. The Title bar of the Essential Macleod is also changed so that it only reads “Essential Macleod” This serves as a reminder that a Job is not open.
Open Reference...
Open Reference activates a dialog box like the Open command but it is for reference files. Reference files contain data that is required by the program for certain calculations like the assessment of color. They are therefore treated differently from regular data files and are kept separately from them. Alteration or modification should be undertaken only with extreme caution. Data files can be converted into reference files and vice versa.
Page Setup...
Page Setup... allows the page margins to be set in a dialog box.
Printer Setup...
Printer Setup... opens a dialog box offering a choice of available printers and access to the printer options.
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These menu items correspond to the most recently opened files.
More…
Opens a window showing a longer list of recently used files.
Exit
Quits and unloads the Essential Macleod. If entered or generated data are unsaved the program will display an alert box asking for instructions.