KnotMaker 2.2 | Written by Derek Smith and Dave Root
Help |

The Basic Functions

> In the above picture:

> 1. Left-click an icon in the Toolbox to highlight it. The picture shows that the "RightAngle Curve" icon is highlighted in the Toolbox, so the RightAngle Curve tile is now the active tile.

> 2. Left-click the canvas to place the active tile into a grid cell. The grid cell becomes highlighted, and its location is displayed in the title bar ("Column: 3 Row: 8").

> 3. The asterisk in front of the word "KnotMaker" in the title bar indicates that the current drawing has been modified but not saved.
> In the above picture:

> 1. Left-click somewhere else on the canvas to place the active tile into another grid cell.
>    Right-click a grid cell to rotate the tile clockwise. The picture shows that the highlighted tile in column 4 and row 8 is the same tile as in column 3 and row 8, but the highlighted tile was rotated by right-clicking it.
>    Shift+right-click a grid cell to rotate the tile counter-clockwise.

> 2. You can also rotate a Toolbox icon by right-clicking or shift+right-clicking it before placing the tile onto the canvas.
> In the above picture:

> 1. Drag the mouse (using the left mouse button) to draw a red selection border around a group of tiles. You can also use shift+arrows to draw a red selection border around a group of tiles.
>    To move the selected tiles, drag them to a new location using the left mouse button.
>    To copy the selected tiles, drag them to a new location using the right mouse button.
>    While you're dragging the selected tiles, the grid cell that the mouse pointer is in will be displayed in the KnotMaker title bar.

> 2. Place a Tail End tile at the tail end (AKA the working end) of every rope. Each rope should have exactly one Tail End tile because some of the KnotMaker functions look for this tile.

> 3. The Standing Part tile shows the direction in which the "standing part" of the rope (i.e. the main part of the rope) is traveling into or out of the knot. All of the KnotMaker functions ignore this tile, so your drawing doesn't need to have any Standing Part tiles.

The Layers Window

> In the above picture:

> 1. To make one section of rope cross over another section of rope, simply place more than one tile into the same grid cell. Each tile will be in a separate layer of the grid cell, stacked on top of each other to create a rope crossing. By default, each grid cell has 10 available layers for placing tiles (this can be changed to a maximum of 15 layers in the "Tools/Options" window).
>    To change which section of rope crosses over the other section of rope, click one of the buttons described below.

> 2. The blue Layers window shows the contents of all of the layers in the highlighted grid cell. In the picture, the Layers window shows that there are four tiles stacked on top of each other in the highlighted grid cell at column 4 and row 6.
>    Layer 1 is the top layer in each grid cell, and layer 15 is the bottom layer. Tiles can be placed into any layer of a grid cell, one tile per layer. Empty layers are invisible, so layers 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 in the above picture have no effect on the drawing.
>    To move the Layers window, click and drag its title bar. To hide the Layers window, click the "X" icon in the window's title bar. Use the "View" menu to show the Layers window again.

> 3. In the Layers window, the active layer has a black border around it. When you place a tile into a grid cell, the tile will be placed into the active layer. If there's already a tile in the active layer then the existing tile will be pushed down to the next layer, as described under "Insert radio button" (below).
>    When you right-click in a grid cell to rotate a tile, this will only rotate the tile in the active layer. You can also rotate a tile by right-clicking the appropriate layer in the Layers window (if the "Draw By Selecting Endpoints" option is selected, as described below under "The Drawing Options Window").

> 4. When the Layer Inspector icon is highlighted in the Toolbox it will display a turquoise magnifying glass, and the cell border on the canvas will become turquoise (instead of black). These are visual clues to let you know that "inspect" mode is turned on.
>    In "inspect" mode, you can safely click anywhere on the canvas without placing a tile. This allows you to inspect the layers in any grid cell, leaving the drawing unchanged.
>    When you're in "inspect" mode, all of the Drawing Method radio buttons (see "The Drawing Options Window," below) will become unchecked. To turn off "inspect" mode, simply click one of the Drawing Methods. The magnifying glass will then disappear and the cell border will change to black.
>    Keyboard shortcut: Use Ctrl+I to turn on "inspect" mode.
> The Layers window contains the following controls:

> - Layer icons: By default there are 10 icons which display the layers for the currently-selected grid cell, and the active layer is highlighted with a black border (on smaller screens, a scrollbar will appear). The number of layers can be changed in the "Tools/Options" window, up to a maximum of 15 layers. On slower machines, the performance will be better with fewer layers.
>   To change the active layer, click the appropriate icon in the Layers window.
>   Keyboard shortcuts: Use the numbers 1 through 0 to select the layers from 1 to 10. Use Alt+1 through Alt+5 to select the layers from 11 to 15. You can also use Alt+Up-Arrow and Alt+Down-Arrow to cycle through the icons.

> - "Move Up" button: Moves the highlighted tile up one layer (e.g. from layer 2 to layer 1). If the highlighted tile is pinned (as described below) then all of the pinned tiles will move up a layer. Keyboard shortcut: U.

> - "Move Down" button: Moves the highlighted tile down one layer (e.g. from layer 1 to layer 2). If the highlighted tile is pinned then all of the pinned tiles will move down a layer. Keyboard shortcut: D.

> - "Delete" button: Deletes the highlighted tile. Keyboard shortcut: Delete.

> - "Use" button: Causes the highlighted tile in the Layers window to become the active tile in the Toolbox. This allows you to use an existing tile on the canvas for quickly changing the Toolbox icon to the desired tile and orientation and color. Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+U.

> - "Swap Layers" button: When you click the "Swap Layers" button, a message will pop up telling you to click a second icon in the Layers window to swap with. When you click the second icon, the contents of both layers (i.e. the tiles and their colors) will be swapped, making it easy to reverse a rope crossing. If the grid cell contains exactly two tiles then they will be swapped automatically without popping up any messages. Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+L.

> - "Swap Colors" button: When you click the "Swap Colors" button, a message will pop up telling you to click a second icon in the Layers window to swap with. When you click the second icon, the colors in both layers will be swapped. If the grid cell contains exactly two tiles then their colors will be swapped automatically without popping up any messages. Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+C.

> - "Insert" radio button: When you place a tile into a grid cell, the tile will be placed into the active layer in that grid cell. If the "Insert" radio button is checked then the tiles in the active layer and below will move down in order to make room for the new tile. If the active layer is empty before the new tile is added, then the new tile will be placed into the active layer and no other tiles will move to a different layer.
>   For example, imagine that a grid cell contains a tile in layer 14 and a tile in layer 15. If you place a new tile into layer 14 of that cell with the "Insert" radio button checked then the existing tile in layer 14 will move down to layer 15, and the tile in layer 15 will be deleted from the grid cell. The other layers will remain unchanged.
>   As described above, you can draw a red selection border around a group of cells and drag them to a new position. If the "Insert" radio button is checked in the Layers window then the moved or copied tiles will be inserted into the destination grid cells, so all of the existing tiles will be pushed down to make room for the new tiles. In order to preserve as many of the existing tiles as possible, all of the empty layers will first be removed in all of the destination grid cells.
>   If you insert a tile into a layer which has a pinned tile (see "Pin checkboxes" below), then the new tile will be inserted into the layer below the pinned tile. This is because pinned tiles are protected from being moved to a different layer.
>   Keyboard shortcuts: I or Insert (Insert will toggle between Insert mode and Overwrite mode).

> - "Overwrite" radio button: When you place a tile into a grid cell, the tile will be placed into the active layer in that grid cell. If the "Overwrite" radio button is checked then the tile in the active layer will be replaced (overwritten) with the new tile.
>   For example, imagine that a grid cell contains a tile in layer 14 and a tile in layer 15. If you place a new tile into layer 14 of that cell with the "Overwrite" radio button checked then the existing tile in layer 14 will be replaced with the new tile, and the other layers will remain unchanged.
>   As described above, you can draw a red selection border around a group of cells and drag them to a new position. If the "Overwrite" radio button is checked in the Layers window then the moved or copied tiles will overwrite the contents of the destination grid cells.
>   Pinned tiles (see "Pin checkboxes" below) are protected from being overwritten, so you won't be able to place a tile into a pinned layer.
>   Keyboard shortcuts: O or Insert (Insert will toggle between Insert mode and Overwrite mode).

> - "Pin" checkboxes: Each icon has a "Pin" checkbox, which allows you to pin a tile to a specific layer.
>   One purpose for pinning tiles is to prevent them from being pushed to a different layer when another tile is inserted into the same grid cell as the pinned tile.
>   Another purpose for pinning tiles is that if you move a pinned tile up a layer or down a layer then all of the pinned tiles will move up a layer or down a layer.
>   To pin (or unpin) a group of cells, drag a red selection border around the cells and then click the "Pin" checkbox in the appropriate layer. All of the selected tiles in that layer will be pinned (or unpinned).
>   The Individual Ropes window allows you to pin or unpin entire ropes or Poles. See Individual Ropes.
>   Even if the "Overwrite" option is selected in the Layers window, you won't be able to place a tile into a pinned layer. Pinned tiles are protected from being overwritten.
>   There are 3 ways that pinned tiles can be moved up or down in the Layers window:

>   1. Clicking the "Move Up" (or "Move Down") button in the Layers window with a pinned layer highlighted will move all of the pinned tiles up a layer (or down a layer). If they don't move, it means that at least one pinned tile is already at the top (or bottom) layer.

>   2. If you drag a red selection border around a group of cells and then move or copy the selected tiles on top of some existing tiles (with the "Insert" radio button checked), then the existing tiles will all be pushed down as many layers as necessary to make room for the tiles being moved or copied (even if the existing tiles are pinned). This is necessary in order to preserve the rope crossings in the drawing.

>   3. The "Reverse the Layers" option (under the "Edit/Tiles within the Selected Cells" menu) can cause pinned tiles in the selected area to move to a different layer. This is necessary in order to reverse the rope crossings.
>   When the pinned tiles are moved up or down in the Layers window, this can cause pinned tiles to cross over other tiles when previously the pinned tiles crossed under the other tiles (and vice versa). If you do any of the above 3 actions, KnotMaker will prompt you to check your drawing carefully.

The Drawing Options Window

> In the above picture:

> 1. To move the Drawing Options window, click and drag its title bar. To hide the Drawing Options window, click the "X" icon in the window's title bar. Use the "View" menu to show the Drawing Options window again.
> The Drawing Options window contains the following controls:

> - "Draw By Placing Tiles" radio button: This drawing method allows you to make a drawing by selecting a tile in the Toolbox and placing that tile onto the canvas by left-clicking a grid cell. Right-click a tile to rotate it clockwise, or shift+right-click a tile to rotate it counter-clockwise.
>   All of the tiles can be drawn using the "Draw By Placing Tiles" method.
>   Alt+M will toggle between the three drawing methods.

> - "Draw By Bending Ropes" radio button: With this drawing method, when you left-click a grid cell, a number of gray dots will be displayed to show where you can click in that cell. When you left-click a gray dot, the dot will turn black to show where you clicked. If there's no tile in the layer that you clicked then a Straight rope will be placed into that grid cell starting at the spot where you clicked. The black endpoint of the rope (i.e. the spot where you clicked) will be fixed and unmoving, and you can right-click the grid cell to bend the rope clockwise until the other endpoint of the rope leaves the grid cell at the desired place. Use shift+right-click to bend the rope counter-clockwise.
>   When the movable endpoint of the rope is pointing in the desired direction, press the spacebar to place a Straight rope in the next grid cell. The fixed and unmoving endpoint of the Straight rope is where it connects to the previous tile, and you can bend the new rope to move the other endpoint.
>   In the Drawing Options window, the "Draw By Bending Ropes" option has a "counter-clockwise" button and a "clockwise" button for bending the ropes, and a "Next" button for drawing the Straight rope in the next grid cell. Keyboard shortcuts: "<" (i.e. the comma) for counter-clockwise, ">" (i.e. the period) for clockwise, and the spacebar for "Next."
>   If the gray dots are too faint on your screen, you can make them darker in the "Tools/Options" window. Click the "Colors" tab, then select "Drawing Methods Zones Color" in the list, then change the Transparency value. The lower the Transparency value, the darker the gray dots will be.
>   All of the tiles can be drawn using the "Draw By Bending Ropes" method except the Tail End tiles, the Standing Part tiles, the Pole tiles, and any custom tiles.
>   When the "Draw By Bending Ropes" option is enabled, all of the Toolbox icons will disappear. Only the Layer Inspector icon will be visible.
>   Alt+M will toggle between the three drawing methods.

> - "Draw By Selecting Endpoints" radio button: When you select the "Draw By Selecting Endpoints" method, the mouse cursor will change to a pointing hand. When you left-click a grid cell, 9 gray dots will be displayed to show where you can click. Left-click the gray dot where you want the rope to enter this cell (the dot will turn black to show where you clicked), then left-click the gray dot where you want the rope to leave this grid cell. KnotMaker will draw the appropriate tile, then it will anticipate your next click and place the black dot into the appropriate place in the next grid cell.
>   In the Drawing Options window, the "Draw By Selecting Endpoints" option has 9 buttons which you can use instead of clicking the gray dots. You can also use the keyboard by pressing the keys which are shown on the 9 buttons (these keyboard mappings can be modified in the "Tools/Options" window). When a black dot is displayed in a grid cell (as described in the previous paragraph), the corresponding button will turn red. This is a visual reference so you know where the black dot is located in the grid cell while you're looking at the 9 buttons.
>   If the gray dots are too faint on your screen, you can make them darker in the "Tools/Options" window. Click the "Colors" tab, then select "Drawing Methods Zones Color" in the list, then change the Transparency value. The lower the Transparency value, the darker the gray dots will be.
>   All of the tiles can be drawn using the "Draw By Selecting Endpoints" method except the Standing Part tiles, the Pole tiles, and any custom tiles.
>   When the "Draw By Selecting Endpoints" option is enabled, all of the Toolbox icons will disappear. Only the Layer Inspector icon will be visible.
>   Alt+M will toggle between the three drawing methods.

> - "Colors" radio buttons: These allow you to change the rope color. When you place new tiles onto the canvas, they'll have the selected color.
>   If you drag a red selection border around a group of cells, the "Colors" radio buttons allow you to change the color of the selected tiles. Only the tiles in the active layer will be changed.

> - "Tuck a Corner Under" checkboxes: When diagonal tiles meet at the intersection of four grid cells, use the "Tuck a Corner Under" checkboxes to specify which corner needs to be tucked under so the ropes cross each other properly.
>   In the first picture below, both sets of rope show that the top right corner of the highlighted red tile goes under the blue rope (notice that the top right "Tuck a Corner Under" checkbox is selected). The bottom left corner of the other diagonal red tile automatically goes under the blue rope as well. This causes the red rope to cross under the blue rope. In the second picture, both sets of rope show that if the top right "Tuck a Corner Under" checkbox is not selected then the rope crossing doesn't look right because the program doesn't know which rope should go under the other rope:

The Animation Window

> You open the Animation window by clicking the "Animate the Drawing" button in the Toolbox. The Animation window contains the following controls:

> - "From the Beginning" checkbox: If this checkbox is selected, then clicking the "Play" button will start the animation over from the beginning. If this checkbox is not selected, then clicking the "Play" button will continue the animation from where it was paused.

> - "<" (Step Backward) button : Each time this button is clicked it will reverse the animation by one tile, allowing you to step backward through the animation.

> - "Play" button: Starts the animation. If the "From the Beginning" checkbox is selected then the animation will start from the beginning, else it will start from where the animation was paused.

> - "||" (Pause) button: Pauses the animation. Click the "Play" button to continue the animation from the beginning or from where it was paused, depending on the state of the "From the Beginning" checkbox.

> - ">" (Step Forward) button: Each time this button is clicked it will increment the animation by one tile, allowing you to step forward through the animation.

> - "Speed" scrollbar: Adjusts the speed of the animation.

> - "Animate This Color" combobox: Allows you to select a single color to be animated, so that only the ropes which have a Tail End tile of the selected color will be animated. All other ropes will remain fixed in place.

> - "Animated GIF" checkbox: Allows you to save a picture of each step in the animation so you can upload the pictures to any website which creates animated GIFs.

> - "Close" button: Stops the animation and restores the drawing and closes the Animation window.

Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts

> - See Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts.

The File Menu

> - New: Clears the canvas.

> - Open: Allows you to open a KnotMaker drawing (a .KM or .KMA file).

> - Insert: Allows you to open a KnotMaker drawing (a .KM or .KMA file) which will be inserted into the current drawing.
>   For example, imagine that there are two drawings showing the steps for tying an Alpine Butterfly Bend (AlpineBend1.km and AlpineBend2.km). If you want to have both drawings in the same .KM file, here's how to do it. Open AlpineBend2.km, then highlight and drag the tiles downwards (to get them out of the way), then click the "File/Insert" menu item. Select AlpineBend1.km, and now both drawings are displayed on the canvas.
>   Keep in mind that the inserted tiles will overwrite any existing tiles, and the Knot Names and Comments in the "Tools/Knot Attributes" window will be overwritten with the information from the inserted file.

> - Save: Saves the current drawing using the current filename which is displayed in the KnotMaker title bar.
>   When you save a drawing, the current colors and View menu options and tileset will be saved in the .KM or .KMA file. When you load a .KM or .KMA file, your colors and View menu options and tileset will be changed temporarily based on what was saved in the file. Your settings will be restored if you click "File/New" or close KnotMaker (except that your original tileset will not be restored since it can be time-consuming).

> - Save As: Allows you to choose a new filename for saving the current drawing. Drawings are saved with a .KM extension.
>   You can also save the current drawing as a .KMA (KnotMaker Animation) file, which is identical to a .KM file. When you load a .KMA file, the drawing will be loaded as usual and the animation will begin running automatically. After you click the "Close" button on the Animation window, you can then modify the drawing as usual. To convert a KnotMaker Animation file (.KMA) to a regular KnotMaker file (.KM), or vice versa, simply change the file extension.
>   When you save a drawing, the current colors and View menu options and tileset will be saved in the .KM or .KMA file. When you load a .KM or .KMA file, your colors and View menu options and tileset will be changed temporarily based on what was saved in the file. Your settings will be restored if you click "File/New" or close KnotMaker.

> - Save Picture As: Allows you to save the visible portion of the current drawing (or else the area within the red selection border) as a BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, or TIFF file.

> - Exit: Shuts down KnotMaker. If you haven't saved the current drawing then you'll be prompted to save it.

The Edit Menu

> - Undo: Reverses the most recent modification.

> - Redo: Reverses the effects of the Undo function.

> - Copy Image: Copies a picture of the visible portion of the current drawing (or else the area within the red selection border) to the Windows Clipboard.

> - Select All: Draws a red selection border around the visible portion of your drawing.

> - Tiles within the Selected Cells: When you drag a red selection border around some cells on the canvas, the following options become available:

>   - Delete: Deletes all of the tiles in all of the layers within the selection border.

>   - Flip Top and Bottom: Vertically flips the cells within the selection border. This is a "mirror-image" flip, just like in MS Paint and other drawing programs. To perform a "true" flip, like flipping over a knot which is tied in rope, first do a top and bottom flip and then use the "Reverse the Layers" feature (below).

>   - Flip Left and Right: Horizontally flips the cells within the selection border. This is a "mirror-image" flip, just like in MS Paint and other drawing programs. To perform a "true" flip, like flipping over a knot which is tied in rope, first do a left and right flip and then use the "Reverse the Layers" feature (below).

>   - Rotate 90 Degrees: Rotates the selected area 90 degrees clockwise. This option is only enabled if the selected area is a square.

>   - Fill the Current Layer with the Active Tile: Fills the selected area using the active tile in the Toolbox. Only the highlighted layer in the Layers window will be filled with the active tile.

>   - Reverse the Layers: Reverses the layers in each grid cell within the selected area. This reverses all of the rope crossings. Pinned tiles in the selected area might move to a different layer, which is necessary in order to reverse the rope crossings. KnotMaker will prompt you to check your drawing carefully when you use this option with pinned tiles.

>   - Remove Gaps in Layers: Removes all gaps in the layers in each grid cell within the selected area. Pinned tiles will not be moved.

>   - Remove Duplicate Tiles: Removes all duplicate tiles in the same grid cell (pinned tiles will not be removed). If a grid cell contains two tiles which are identical except for their color, then these are not considered to be duplicates of each other. This gives you control over which tiles are removed.

>   - Pin All Tiles: Pins all of the tiles in all of the layers within the selected area.

>   - Unpin All Tiles: Unpins all of the tiles in all of the layers within the selected area.

>   - Move/Copy/Delete All Tiles: If this option has a checkmark next to it then all of the tiles will be moved or copied or deleted when you drag the selected area or press the Delete key.

>   - Move/Copy/Delete Only Tiles of the Selected Color: If this option has a checkmark next to it then only the tiles which have the selected color will be moved or copied or deleted when you drag the selected area or press the Delete key. Keep in mind that you should select the desired color before you draw the red selection border. If you draw the red selection border first, and then you select a color, this will change the color of the tiles in the selected area.
>     When you drag the selected area to move or copy the tiles, you're dragging a picture of everything in the selected area, even if only a single color will be moved or copied.

The View Menu

> - Tilesets: Allows you to change the tileset.

> - Cell Size: Allows you to zoom in or out (i.e. make the grid cells larger or smaller on the canvas).

> - Canvas Size: Allows you to select the size of the canvas (from 25x25 up to 100x100). Using a smaller canvas size will improve the performance on slower machines.

> - Show the Layers Window: Allows you to show or hide the Layers window.

> - Show the Drawing Options Window: Allows you to show or hide the Drawing Options window.

> - Show the Cell Border: Allows you to show or hide the border around the selected grid cell on the canvas.

> - Show the Grid Lines: Allows you to show or hide the grid lines on the canvas.

> - Show the Shadowing: Allows you to show or hide the shadowing (if the current tileset contains shadowed tiles).

> - Show the Pinned Tiles: Allows you to show or hide all of the pinned tiles.

> - Show the Unpinned Tiles: Allows you to show or hide all of the unpinned tiles.

The Tools Menu

> - Individual Ropes: Pops up a window which allows you to work with individual ropes, such as deleting or changing the color of entire ropes. See Individual Ropes.

> - Knot Attributes: Pops up a window which allows you to specify the names of the knot which you've drawn, plus any comments about the drawing (such as the author's name, and the date when the drawing was made). See Knot Attributes.

> - Build a Tileset: Pops up a window which allows you to build your own custom tilesets. See Custom Tiles and Tilesets.

> - View in KnotTyer3D: Pops up a window which allows you to view your drawing in the free KnotTyer3D program. See View in KnotTyer3D.

> - Options: Pops up a window which allows you to configure the look and feel of KnotMaker. See Options.

The Help Menu

> - Help: Displays this Help file in your Web browser. An Internet connection is not needed for viewing the Help file, but some of the links in the Help file won't work if you don't have an Internet connection.

> - Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts: Displays the Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts Help file in your Web browser (an Internet connection is not needed).

> - About: Displays the About box.

Creating Custom Tiles and Tilesets

> - See Custom Tiles and Tilesets.

Modification History

> - December 13, 2014 - Updated for v2.2.

> - January 09, 2013 - Updated for v2.1.

> - May 19, 2012 - Updated for v2.0.