New Annotation Features of Version 14.5

Note:

This topic is for Document/Medical only.

With this release of LEADTOOLS version 14.5, many new features are being introduced to the annotations. Some of these features alter the way annotations are displayed. Other features change or enhance the user interface. To maintain backward compatibility within version 14, most of these features must be enabled by calling the AnnOptions property. In LEADTOOLS version 15, these options will be enabled by default.

The following features are being introduced:

image\sqrblit.gif New Rubber Stamp Display Style

image\sqrblit.gif New XP Style Annotation Toolbar

image\sqrblit.gif New Alpha Background Fill Option

image\sqrblit.gif New Annotation Rotate Option

image\sqrblit.gif New Annotation Side Handles

image\sqrblit.gif New Annotation Multi-select

image\sqrblit.gif New Annotation Cursors

image\sqrblit.gif New ESC to Cancel

image\sqrblit.gif New Calibrate Ruler Feature

image\sqrblit.gif New Dot Dash Lines

image\sqrblit.gif New XML Format

image\sqrblit.gif New Text Annotation Options

The following paragraphs describe each feature in more detail.

New Rubber Stamp Display Style

In previous versions of LEADTOOLS, you could draw any of 26 predefined rubber stamp annotations. While any of these metafiles can be changed, users have asked for more contemporary-looking defaults. LEADTOOLS has responded and developed new default images. The following figure displays a sample of the original style and the new style:

image\draft.gif

The new rubber stamp style can be enabled using the following code snippet:

Procedure TForm1.ExampleEnableOption();

begin

   LEADAnn1.AnnOptions:= LEADAnn1.AnnOptions + OPTIONS_NEW_STAMP_METAFILES;

end;

New XP Style Annotation Toolbar

The annotation toolbar has been updated to have a Windows-XP look and feel. As with previous versions of LEADTOOLS, the annotation toolbar can be customized with your own images.

The following figure displays a sample of the original style and the new style:

{bmc XPtoolbar.bmp]

For more information on toolbars, see the documentation for CreateTB method.

The new XP-style annotation toolbar can be enabled using the following code snippet:

Procedure TForm1.ExampleEnableOption();

begin

   LEADAnn1.AnnOptions:= LEADAnn1.AnnOptions + OPTIONS_NEW_TOOLBAR;

end;

New Alpha Background Fill Option:

Previous versions of LEADTOOLS supported annotations with translucent backgrounds. With version 14.5, there is an alpha option that allows you to specify an alpha value from 0 (completely transparent background) to 255 (completely opaque background) inclusive.

The new alpha background fill option can be enabled using the following code snippet:

Procedure TForm1.ExampleEnableOption();

begin

   LEADAnn1.AnnOptions:= LEADAnn1.AnnOptions + OPTIONS_NEW_ALPHA;

end;

When enabled, you can right-click an annotation object to display the Fill dialog with the new alpha option. Here you can enter an alpha value from 0 – 255 inclusive. The following figure displays the Fill dialog for the Stamp object:

image\StampFillDialog.gif

The following figure displays rectangle annotation objects using different alpha values:

image\alpha.gif

 

New Annotation Rotate Option

In previous versions of LEADTOOLS, annotation objects could be rotated by holding the <SHIFT> key while dragging a handle. With the new rotate options, two rotate handles are displayed on a selected object. One of the handles is the "gripper" handle, which rotates the object when dragged. The other handle is the "center" handle, which determines the center of rotation. The center of rotation can be moved by dragging. The gripper handle can be moved anywhere by dragging.

The following figure illustrates a rotate by dragging the "gripper" handle:

image\gripper.gif

The following figure illustrates moving the "center" handle:

image\centerhandle.gif

The rotate handles can be reset to a default location by right-clicking the annotation object, and selecting the Reset Rotate Handles option, as shown in the following figure:

image\resetrotatehandles.gif

The rotate handles can be globally hidden or displayed by right-clicking on the image (not an annotation object), and selecting the Hide Rotate Handles For All Objects option, as shown in the following figure:

image\hiderotatehandles.gif

The new annotation rotate object can be enabled using the following code snippet:

Procedure TForm1.ExampleEnableOption();

begin

   LEADAnn1.AnnOptions:= LEADAnn1.AnnOptions + OPTIONS_NEW_ROTATE;

end;

New Annotation Side Handles

In previous versions of LEADTOOLS, rectangular annotation objects were displayed with four handles to manipulate the object. With this new feature, rectangular objects are displayed with four additional side handles. Dragging the side handles resizes the annotation object only in one dimension. Dragging the corner handles resizes the object in two dimensions, preserving the aspect ratio.

The new annotation side handles can be enabled using the following code snippet:

Procedure TForm1.ExampleEnableOption();

begin

   LEADAnn1.AnnOptions:= LEADAnn1.AnnOptions + OPTIONS_NEW_ SIDE_HANDLES;

end;

The following figure displays a sample of the original style and the new style:

image\sidehandles.gif

New Annotation Multi-select

In previous versions of LEADTOOLS, you could select multiple objects and manipulate the objects by dragging any handle of any object. When moving a handle, the results were often not intuitive. With the new multi-select option, all selected objects are outlined with a multi-select border. The multi-select border has eight resize handles, and two rotate handles. Now, moving, resizing, and rotating multiply select objects is clear and easy to do.

The new annotation multi-select feature can be enabled using the following code snippet:

Procedure TForm1.ExampleEnableOption();

begin

   LEADAnn1.AnnOptions:= LEADAnn1.AnnOptions + OPTIONS_NEW_ MULTI_SELECT;

end;

The following figure displays a sample of the original style and the new style:

image\multiselect.gif

New Annotation Cursors

This new feature displays different cursors for many tasks in automated annotation mode. This feature displays unique annotation cursors in the following situations:

image\sqrblit.gif When hovering over a rotation gripper handle

image\sqrblit.gif When hovering over a rotation center handle

image\sqrblit.gif When hovering over any of the eight size handles—an appropriate arrow cursor is displayed depending on the handle and the rotation of the annotation object.

image\sqrblit.gif When dragging a selection

image\sqrblit.gif When using any of the 30 annotation tools.

All annotation cursors can be changed to your own custom cursors by using the AnnAutoCursor property.

The new annotation cursors can be enabled using the following code snippet:

Procedure TForm1.ExampleEnableOption();

begin

   LEADAnn1.AnnOptions:= LEADAnn1.AnnOptions + OPTIONS_NEW_ CURSORS;

end;

The following figure displays some of the new cursors:

image\cursors.gif

New ESC to Cancel

In previous versions of LEADTOOLS, the ESC key was not set to cancel actions in annotation automation mode. With this new feature, a user can press the ESC key to cancel many actions in annotation automation mode. For example, when drawing an annotation, pressing ESC will cancel the annotation completely. When rotating, resizing, or moving an annotation, pressing ESC will cancel the action leaving the annotation unchanged.

The new ESC to Cancel feature can be enabled using the following code snippet:

Procedure TForm1.ExampleEnableOption();

begin

   LEADAnn1.AnnOptions:= LEADAnn1.AnnOptions + OPTIONS_NEW_ ESC_CANCEL;

end;

New Calibrate Ruler Feature

With this feature, a user can automatically calibrate a ruler to the desired size. This is useful when a user wants to interactively measure something in an image. Note that there are four annotations objects used for measuring:

image\sqrblit.gif ANNOBJECT_RULER

image\sqrblit.gif ANNOBJECT_POLYRULER

image\sqrblit.gif ANNOBJECT_CROSSPRODUCT

image\sqrblit.gif ANNOBJECT_PROTRACTOR

Any of these objects can be calibrated. To calibrate a ruler:

1.

Load desired image

2.

Draw an ANNOBJECT_RULER object and size to desired size. In this example, we will calibrate the diagonal to be 2 feet. The following figure displays an uncalibrated ruler:

image\uncalibrated.gif

3.

Right-click the ANNOBJECT_RULER object and select Ruler Properties, and then Ruler, as shown in the following figure:

image\rulerpropertiesruler.gif

 

The following figure appears:

image\RulerDialog.gif

4.

Click the Calibrate button to open the Calibrate Ruler dialog. The following figure displays:

image\calibraterulerdialog.gif

 

In the Calibrate dialog, set the Ruler Length to 2 and the Ruler Measurement to feet. Select the Apply to Newly Created Rulers check box. Click the OK button to close the Calibrate dialog. Click the OK button to save your selections and close the Ruler Properties dialog.

5.

Draw a new ruler to measure any part of the image, as shown in the following figure:

image\calibratedruler.gif

The new calibrate ruler feature can be enabled using the following code snippet:

Procedure TForm1.ExampleEnableOption();

begin

   LEADAnn1.AnnOptions:= LEADAnn1.AnnOptions + OPTIONS_NEW_CALIBRATE_RULER;

end;

New Dot Dash Lines

Most of the LEAD annotation objects have a Line Width and Line Style option. This can be used to draw the annotations with thick lines, and change the line style from solid to dashed or dotted. In previous versions of LEADTOOLS, drawing annotations with thick lines (line width more than 1 pixel) required that the line style be Solid. This is due to a limitation of Windows GDI. In version 14.5, this limitation has been removed. Now annotation objects can be drawn with thick lines of any style. The following example illustrates this:

image\dotdash.gif

This feature can be enabled using the following code snippet.

Procedure TForm1.ExampleEnableOption();

begin

   LEADAnn1.AnnOptions:= LEADAnn1.AnnOptions + OPTIONS_NEW_DOT_DASH_LINES;

end;

New XML Format

Prior to version 14.5, annotations could be saved in one of two formats:

image\sqrblit.gif ANNFMT_NATIVE – a text based file format for storing annotations

image\sqrblit.gif ANNFMT_ENCODED – a binary file format for storing annotations

In version 14.5, there is a new text-based format for annotations – ANNFMT_XML. This is a new text based format for storing LEAD annotations that follows the XML (Extensible Markup Language) format.

There are many advantages of using the ANNFMT_XML format:

image\sqrblit.gif Unlike the ANNFMT_NATIVE, ANNFMT_XML is both forward and backward compatible.

image\sqrblit.gif It is human readable

image\sqrblit.gif Files using the ANNFMT_XML format can be easily modified using a standard text editor (i.e. notepad.exe)

image\sqrblit.gif It can be easily parsed using any standard XML parser

image\sqrblit.gif It can be used with any of the growing number of utilities that work with XML

This option does not need to be enabled using AnnOptions property. To use this feature, simply pass the flag ANNFMT_XML to the annotation save functions. For more information, see the documentation for AnnSave method, AnnSaveMemory method, AnnLoad method, AnnLoadMemory method.

The following method lets you save annotations in a Wang compatible TIFF tag:

New Text Annotation Options

For the following text based annotations, you can now change the text color so that it is different from the border color. Also, you can optionally show or hide the text.

image\sqrblit.gif ANNOBJECT_TEXT

image\sqrblit.gif ANNOBJECT_TEXTPOINTER

image\sqrblit.gif ANNOBJECT_STAMP

image\sqrblit.gif ANNOBJECT_NOTE

image\sqrblit.gif ANNOBJECT_PUSHPIN

For the following text based annotations, you can now optionally show or hide the border.

image\sqrblit.gif ANNOBJECT_TEXT

image\sqrblit.gif ANNOBJECT_STAMP

To see these new features:

1.

Draw an ANNOBJECT_TEXT object

2.

Right-click the object

3.

Select Text Properties and then Text

4.

In the Text dialog, select the Show Border check box

5.

Click the Text Color button to change the color to blue. The following figure displays the Text dialog:

image\textdialog.gif

6.

The following figure displays the original text object before and after changing the text color to blue:

image\textcolor.gif

This feature can be enabled using the following code snippet.

Procedure TForm1.ExampleEnableOption();

begin

   LEADAnn1.AnnOptions:= LEADAnn1.AnnOptions + OPTIONS_NEW_TEXT_OPTIONS;

end;