Recording and Playing Macros

You can record macros in the Macro Player dialog to automate frequently used commands or processes. You should note that while it is possible to record a macro for almost any action that applies to Dragonfly, some features may be disabled when you are recording. This is because some actions require considerable user input and are too difficult to automate.

1. Make sure that all the objects — image data, regions of interest, and so on — that you plan to include in your macro are readily accessible in the workspace.
2. Choose Utilities > Macro Player on the menu bar.

   The Macro Player dialog opens.

3. Click the New button.

   The Create Macro File dialog appears.

4. Enter a name for your new macro in the Create Macro File dialog.

   Note When naming or renaming a macro, you should use a unique name whenever possible. However, you should note that each macro is assigned a unique identifier (UID) and unique names are not required.

5. Choose an accessibility option for your macro — Current user or All users.
   • Macros for the current user are saved to the folder: %localappdata%\ORS\Dragonflyxxxx.x\pythonUserExtensions\Macros.
   • Macros for all users are saved to the folder: %programdata%\ORS\Dragonflyxxxx.x\pythonAllUsersExtensions\Macros.
6. Do one of the following:
   • Click the Create file button. In this case you will then need to click the Record button to begin recording.
   • Click the Create file and start recording button. If you select this option recording will be begin immediately.
7. Perform the steps you want to record for the macro. Dragonfly will automatically capture each of the steps.
8. Click the Stop button when you have completed all the steps that you want to record.

   This stops recording and saves all of the completed steps.

   You can edit specific steps (see Editing Macros) or play back the macro (see Playing Macros).

9. Expand the About macro box and then enter additional information about your macro in the Current tab, optional.

   

   • You can add information about the macro, such as an explanation of the input steps and guidelines for selecting required parameters, in the General documentation field.
   • You can update the author and contact information, as well as the copyright and date of creation.
   • You can modify the version number in the Version text box.
10. Click the Save button if you made any changes to your macro after you stopped recording.

Each step in a recorded macro includes its name or title and a brief description of the action to be executed. You can set steps to be executed automatically, to wait for user input, or to be skipped. You can also edit the parameters of each step in the Parameter editor.

You should that the Macro Player features an expandable tree view that lets you dive-into macro blocks extracted from object histories (see Extracting Object Histories) and for macros that call other macros. As shown below, you can expand a block to view each individual step within it.

Macro Player dialog

The following controls are available for editing the steps in a recorded macro.

Macro Player step controls

Control	Icon	Description
Execute		When a macro step is set to Execute, the step will be executed automatically.
Pause		When a macro step is set to Pause, the macro will stop at the paused step and wait for a user input.
Skip		When a macro step is set to Skip, the macro will skip the step and continue playback.
Delete		Deletes the selected macro step.

You can use the controls in the Parameter editor, shown below, to edit any step in a logged operation.

Parameter editor

1. Choose Utilities > Macro Player on the menu bar.

   The Macro Player dialog opens.

2. Select the macro that you want to edit from the drop-down menu.
3. Select the step that you want to edit.
4. Do the following, as required:
   • Change the execution of the step with the step controls.
   • Edit the description of the step.
   • Edit the parameters of the selected step in the Parameter editor.
5. Click the Save button.

   You can save your changes to the current macro file or create a new file.

After you record a macro, you can play it back. Playing back a macro automatically runs all of the interface actions you recorded using a single action, unless a user input is required.

1. Choose Utilities > Macro Player on the menu bar.

   The Macro Player dialog opens.

2. Select the macro that you want to run from the drop-down menu.
3. Do one of the following:
   • Click the Play Single Step button to play the macro step-by-step.
   • Click the Play All button to play all the steps in the macro or until a user input is required.

     In this case, the Stop macro execution dialog will appear onscreen while the macro plays. You can choose to pause or stop the macro in the dialog.

     

     Note If an input is required, it will appear at the bottom of the Macro Player, as shown below.

     

4. Click the Stop button when the macro is finished playing.

A number of configured actions and keyboard shortcuts are available for the Macro Player and Macro Builder. The default settings for these actions are listed in the following table.

Default configured actions for macros

Action	Key	Mouse
Open the Macro Builder	-	-
Open the Macro Player	-	-