User Guide

First Look at RISA-3D
Version 5.0 13
The middle message box is used to report the units of the current spreadsheet cell.
As you move from cell to cell look to the middle status box for the appropriate
units. Currently the box is empty because we are not working in a spreadsheet.
The status box on the right is used to pass the mouse coordinates to you as you
work in the model view. We will point this out again and use it to help us
throughout the tutorial.
Getting Help
RISA-3D offers a variety of ways to find help with the program in general or with
a specific feature. There are three types of help available within RISA-3D:
General Help, Window Help and “What’s This?”.
Help Topics
Use the toolbar button to open the three-tabbed help window below and
search on your own. The first tab, Contents, displays the list of major content
areas that you may choose from by double clicking on them. The Index tab
allows you to search for help topics based on keywords. The third tab, Find, is a
more detailed search that allows you to search the actual text of the topics to
locate the keywords that you enter.
Once you have a topic open there are a number of options available to you that
make Help even more useful. Click the menu options to do such things as
annotate the file with your own notes or place a bookmark.
Window Specific Help
Window help accesses the above help topics for you. Use the toolbar button or
the
button in dialog boxes to open the appropriate help file topic that is
relevant to what you are currently working on. This is very useful!