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Basic usage

The interactive operation of ECGSIM is almost entirely mouse controlled. The main mouse operations are : dragging (moving the mouse while holding the mouse button down) and clicking of either the left- or the right mouse button. (Mac users with a single-button mouse: please look at the Mac users help page for the equivalent of left, right and middle mouse button clicks.)

The ECGSIM main window consists of four panes: the heart pane, the thorax pane, the membrane pane and the ECGs pane. The boundaries between the panes may be shifted by using the left mouse button (drag). For each pane there is a menu item on the menu bar. The options in each menu control what is displayed in the corresponding pane.

The most frequently used functions are also available from the tool buttons at the top of each pane. To view the function of each button, rest the mouse cursor on the button without pressing any of the mouse buttons. A short text explaining the function of the button will appear.

The heart and the thorax can be rotated by left mouse button dragging or by rotating the mouse wheel. The default, frontal, view is restored by clicking on the reset orientation button on the tool bar.

By clicking with the right mouse button on the heart surface in the heart pane the nearest of the N nodes will be selected. The membrane pane shows the transmembrane potential at this node. By means of the sliders (left mouse button drag) in this pane, the parameters: onset (dep), duration (dur) and source magnitude (str) at that node and a region around it can be changed. The resulting changes are visible in the heart pane if the corresponding surface function has been selected.

The effect of these changes on the body surface potentials may be viewed in the ECGs pane and the thorax pane.

The status bar at the bottom of each pane shows properties of what is being displayed in that pane.