News & Events - Institution of Engineers Singapore

Refreshing the GeoFEA’s User’s Interface
By S.H. Hong, GeoSoft Pte Ltd
In this article, we are offering a glimpse at the
user interface in the next version of GeoFEA. We
had consolidated some feedbacks from users and
prioritised the wish-list for our prototype.
Introduction
It had been two years since we started this column
in 2008. A sneak into our new graphical user’s
interface will conclude our series of articles in “The
Singapore Engineer”. Much effort was put in to
raise awareness of some key issues in geotechnical
finite element modelling. It is also time for us to
take a break and concentrate our effort on raising
the bar in terms of user’s experience. We had made
revamping the Graphical User Interface (GUI) our
priority.
Windows application that was written with
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Figure
1(a) instead of Windows Forms, Figure 1(b). WPF
is a graphical subsystem for rendering user
interfaces in Windows-based applications. The core
of pre- and post- processor will have to be build
from the ground up, allowing easier development.
GUI things that were previously not possible are
now a possibility.
Figure 2: Buttons for various stages of modelling.
The user will be guided by the visible buttons
(Figure 2) on what options are made available at
each stage of modelling.
(a)
Workspace and tool panels
Frequently used tool panels are opened by default.
The users will have the freedom to move these
panels from their default positions to a location that
the users are comfortable with (Figure 3).
Alternative placeholders are highlighted as shown
in Figure 3 as arrow in a box ( ).
(b)
Figure 1: GeoFEA’s user interface. (a) Prototype
new look. (b) Old look.
We're considering revamping the GUI to a
Figure 3: Placeholders for docking panels.