The I/O Flag Options panel on the Topology Import Options dialog provides a series of fields that allow the Analyst to customize the way that I/O flags are imported by the eXpressSpreadsheet Topology Import. This panel can be accessed by clicking on one of the "Options..." buttons on the Main Topology Import Panel and then selecting the I/O Flag Options tab on the Topology Import Options dialog (the Analyst can go straight to this panel by clicking on the "Options..." button to the right of the I/O Flag Name Column dropbox). The I/O Flag Options panel appears as follows:
The first dropbox on this panel is used to select the spreadsheet column that contains the location coordinates for each I/O flag to be imported ("Translate spreadsheet location" indicates whether the Location Column contains exact or relative coordinates).
The next four dropboxes allow the Analyst to select the spreadsheet columns that contain the Size, Symbol, Color and Category for each imported I/O flag. The entries in these dropboxes are selected automatically when Automatically select columns is enabled on the Main Topology Import panel. These dropboxes can be de-selected to prevent data in the spreadsheet from being assigned to the imported I/O flags. The symbol and/or color will then be based on the Default category (or, when a Category Column is selected, from the settings for that I/O flag's category)
The Category Column, because it does not correspond to an eXpress I/O flag property, is not exported by the eXpress Model topology export. If categories are included in the spreadsheet, however, they can be used to define the appearance and/or placement of the imported I/O flags. When a category column is selected, the Categories list in the middle of the dialog is filled out with each unique category listed in the spreadsheet. For each category, the Analyst can specify the symbol and color to be assigned to I/O flags in that category.
The Symbol Prefixes checkboxes at the bottom of the panel are active when the Symbol Column is selected. Each checkbox specifies whether a given prefix should be taken into consideration. Three of these prefixes refer to the orientation of the symbol (flipped and/or rotated) in the design. The other two prefixes specify the hierarchical visibility and roll-up method associated with the I/O flag.
