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The Property Editor is a generic, streamlined editor for the objects that make up an OpenSim model (bodies, joints, muscles, etc.).  As of version 4.0, this window contains more information than the "Properties", for example the names and types of the "Outputs" computed by the selected object are displayed on the same window under a different tab. This page describes:

What is a model property?

OpenSim models and objects are defined by a set of Properties. For example, a Marker is a simple OpenSim object, with properties including its "name", whether or not it is "fixed" during Scaling, the "Frame" it is attached to and its "location" relative to this Frame. These properties completely define a marker, so that when you load a file with a given marker into OpenSim, the visualizer knows how to display it and the Scale tool knows to use it during Scaling.

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• Simple properties (name, value pairs), like "mass" = 100.0, "mass_center = "(0.0 0.1 0.2)"
• Objects composed of a set of simple properties or simpler objects (e.g. Muscle's geometrypath is a complex property that requires special editor).

Opening the Property Editor

The Property Editor appears in the bottom left corner of the OpenSim GUI by default. If it's not visible, you can open the Property Editor by selecting Window -> Properties. The window has two tabs, one one the left showing Properties, the second (obtained by clicking the Outputs label) contains built-in Outputs

Selecting an Object to Edit

There are three methods to select an object to edit.

Using the Navigator Window

1. If the Property Editor is not open, open it by selecting Window -> Properties.
2. Next, in the Navigator Window, expand the model tree to find the object of interest. You can do this by clicking on the plus   (arrow on Mac) sign next to the name of the model to display the model components, and then clicking on the plus  sign to expand the branch further, as needed. In some models, muscles are organized into groups, in which case you will also have to click on the plus  sign next to the group containing the muscle.
3. Left or Right Click on the name of the object in the Navigator window.
4. The Property Editor will now show the properties of that selected object.

Using the Visualizer Window

The second method operates in the Visualizer window, and applies only for objects that have a visual representation in the Visualizer window.

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When an object is selected using the visualizer window, its name is also shown in the text bar at the bottom of the OpenSim window.

Using the Property Editor

Once the property editor is open and an object is selected, the object's properties are displayed in table format in the Property Editor. You can change the values of these properties by changing values in the Property Editor window. These changes take effect immediately. 

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For properties that are objects composed of other properties (e.g. "SpatialTransform") a popup with a tree structure representation of the object is available by Selecting the ... Button next to "SpatialTransform". In addition to the properties of the object, the editor shows two more (usually uneditable) entries in the table of properties: name: This is the name of the object being edited. In most cases the name is not editable, since other objects or tools often refer to the object by its name. type: This is an uneditable string with the name of the API class of the current object. The Sockets group of properties show how the two "connections" needed to make the joint are satisfied: PhysicalFrame: child_frame is satsfied by the "pelvis" Body PhysicalFrame: parent_frame is satsfied by the "ground" frame. The values shown for these Sockets are usually PathNames describing the location of the objects in the model's component-tree.

The output tab for a Body is shown on the left, it lists the built in quantities that are automatically computed for a "Body" along with the names and types. Names can be used to report the corresponding quantities either instantaneously or during Simulation or post-hoc using the OutputReporter. Every row has a corresponding data type to help explain the quantity it outputs and also because OutputReporter groups Outputs of the same datatype into one file/table.

Selecting and Editing Multiple Objects

You can select and edit multiple objects of the same type in the Property Editor

To select multiple objects, in the 3D View or in the Navigator Window, hold down the shift key and select each object of interest. You must select objects that are of the same type (e.g. all markers or all muscles). Once multiple objects are selected, their common properties are shown in the Property Editor. Property values that are the same for all selected objects will be displayed. If property values are different between the multiple objects then the values are displayed as <Different Values>.  You can edit the properties listed and the change will be applied to all objects.

Undo/Redo Support

One of the key advantages of the new property editing mechanism, is that it support undoing and redoing changes.

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