Diagram Window Context Menus (or Right Click Menus)

MSBNX uses context menus extensively. A context menu is a specially tailored menu that appears under the mouse cursor when you click the right mouse button somewhere on a window. If no menu appears, no local or special options are available.

Most windows in MSBNX support context menus. The contents of each menu vary, depending on such things as:

The primary window in MSBNX is the model diagram window, where the complete model is represented as a set of nodes and connecting arrows. Depending on location, there are three different context menus available on a diagram window:

The Empty Canvas Menu

The following menu is accessed by right-clicking the mouse button on the blank area of the main window.

 

This menu item allows you to add a new, unnamed and unassessed variable into the model. An edit box will appear where you clicked, MSBNX will propose a name (such as "NewNode0") and allow you to edit it. After you press the escape key (ESC), the operation is cancelled. If you press the Enter key, the new node will appear.

This menu item invokes the Find Node dialog that allows you to locate a node in the diagram based upon its name or description.

This menu item invokes the Model Properties dialog that allows you to create and modify properties and property types for the model itself.

An "add in" is a separately compiled software component that adds features to MSBNX (see About Add-Ins for more information). This menu item allows you to apply or remove an add-in from among the registered add-ins or browse for a new add-in to be registered.

Normally, when a new node is created it has no associated distribution. Invoking this menu item will cause all nodes without distributions to be given new, empty distributions. Alternatively, you may use the Automatic Distribution Creation option to create new distributions automatically.

This menu item allows you to control the creation of distributions for newly created nodes. See the topics Assessment Overview and Causal Independence for more information on types of distributions.

This option suppresses the automatic creation of distributions.

This option causes a new discrete, sparse distribution to be created whenever a new node is created.

This option causes a new discrete, causally independent distribution to be created whenever a new node is created.

This menu item invokes the Diagram Properties dialog.

This menu item invokes the Diagram Zoom and Print Scaling dialog.

This menu item invokes the Color Model Variables dialog.

This menu item controls the presence or absence of the status bar at the bottom of the diagram window.

This menu item controls the presence or absence of the tool bar buttons on the right side of the diagram window.

This menu item is really a help item that explains how to add a notation to the diagram.

This item causes all textual notations to be removed from the diagram.

This item activates small bar charts near each node. See Bar Charts for more information.

The Node Menu

To access the following menu, right-click on one of the nodes.

This item will delete the currently selected node variable.

This item will add a node that has a similar name and the same properties as the selected node. A distribution will be created according to the current diagram options.

Submenu items for this item create or destroy a distribution for the given node.

This option suppresses automatic addition of distributions to newly created nodes.

This option causes newly created nodes to be given new discrete distributions automatically.

This option causes newly created nodes to be given new discrete causally distributions automatically.

This is a helper menu item that explains how to add a dependency arc to a diagram.

This item brings up the standard assessment dialog. See Standard Assessment for more information.

This item brings up the Model and Node Properties dialog, which allows editing both the properties of a node and its states.

This item brings up the asymmetric assessment dialog. See Asymmetric Assessment for more information.

This item activates a small bar chart near the selected node. See the topic on Bar Charts for more information.

This menu item contains one submenu item for each state of the selected node, along with an "Unobserved" state. The current state of the node is indicated by a check mark. Use these menu items to set evidence for inference.

The "Arc" or Arrow Menu

This context menu appears when you right-click on an arc or arrow.

This menu item causes the selected arc to be deleted and the distribution of the affected child node to be altered to reflect the new topology.