1. Use the left mouse button to select a tile category on the "Tool Panel."
2. Use the left mouse button to place the selected tile onto the drawing grid.
3. Left-clicking in another grid cell will place the selected tile into that grid cell. Use the right mouse button to spin the tile to the desired orientation.
4. Place a Working End tile at the "working end" (the "tail end") of every rope, because some of the KnotMaker functions require each rope to have a Working End tile. Every rope should have exactly one Working End tile.
5. The Standing Part tile shows the direction in which the "standing part" of the rope (i.e. the main part of the rope) is traveling away from the knot. A rope can have any number of Standing Part tiles, because this tile is useful for showing the direction of travel within the rope. The program ignores this tile, so your rope doesn`t need to have a Standing Part tile.
6. Selecting the "Direct Draw" checkbox allows you to directly draw a knot in the drawing grid instead of placing tiles onto the drawing grid. In each grid cell, simply click the beginning point and the ending point to show where the rope enters and leaves that grid cell.
   
   For example, click the top-left corner of a grid cell, and a small black square will appear in that corner to show where you clicked. Now click the bottom-right corner of the same grid cell, and a diagonal section of rope will be drawn from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner of that grid cell. All of the tiles can be drawn using the "Direct Draw" method except for the Working End tiles, the Standing Part tiles, and the solid Spar/Pole tiles.
   
   If you use the Tab key to highlight the "Direct Draw" checkbox, you can then select and unselect the "Direct Draw" feature simply by pressing the space bar. There`s only one other control that you can access with the Tab key, can you find it?
7. The "Main" listbox allows you to change the color of the rope. For "crossing" tiles, the color is only changed for the section of rope which crosses "above" another section of rope. The "Behind" listbox allows you to change the color of the rope in "crossing" tiles, but the color is only changed for the section of rope which crosses "behind" another section of rope.
8. The "Quick Help (Main)" panel describes some useful mouse and keyboard functions:

   • Left mouse click: Left-click on a tile in the "Tool Panel" to select it, then left-click a cell in the drawing grid to place the selected tile into that cell.
   • Right mouse click: Right-click on a tile in the drawing grid to spin the tile to the desired orientation.
   • Ctrl+Left mouse click: When you hold down the Ctrl key and left-click a tile in the drawing grid, that tile will be selected on the "Tool Panel" so that it becomes the active drawing tool. That tile`s colors will be selected on the "Tool Panel" as well.
   • Ctrl+Right mouse click: When you hold down the Ctrl key and right-click a tile in the drawing grid, that tile`s colors will be selected on the "Tool Panel."
   • Alt+Left mouse click: When you hold down the Alt key and left-click a tile in the drawing grid, that tile will be deleted.
   • Shift+Left mouse click: When you hold down the Shift key and left-click a tile in the drawing grid, that tile`s color will be changed.
   • Shift+Right mouse click: When you hold down the Shift key and right-click a "crossing" tile in the drawing grid, that tile`s "behind" color will be changed. In other words, the color will be changed for the section of rope which is "behind" another section of rope in that cell.
   • Alt+Right mouse click: When you hold down the Alt key and right-click a "crossing" tile in the drawing grid, that tile`s "Main" and "Behind" colors will be swapped.
   • Left mouse click + Drag: When you hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse then a rectangular group of cells will be highlighted with a red border around them. The "Highlighting" Quick Help panel will appear, showing some useful functions which are active for highlighted cells (see the section called "Highlighting a Group of Cells" below).
   • ESC: If a window pops up in KnotMaker, the ESC key will cancel and close the window. If you`ve highlighted a group of cells with a red border around them, the ESC key will cancel the highlighting and remove the red border.
   • Page-Up: The Page-Up key will cycle upwards through all of the drawing tools on the "Tool Panel."
   • Page-Down: The Page-Down key will cycle downwards through all of the drawing tools on the "Tool Panel."
   • Ctrl+Page-Up: When you hold down the Ctrl key, the Page-Up key will cycle downwards through all of the "Main" colors on the "Tool Panel."
   • Ctrl+Page-Down: When you hold down the Ctrl key, the Page-Down key will cycle downwards through all of the "Behind" colors on the "Tool Panel."
   • Arrows: The up, down, left, and right arrow keys will scroll the drawing grid. There are 100 columns and 100 rows in the drawing grid.
   • Home: The Home key will scroll the drawing grid all the way to the top or all the way to the left, depending on which scrollbar was used most recently.
   • End: The End key will scroll the drawing grid all the way to the bottom or all the way to the right, depending on which scrollbar was used most recently.
   • Ctrl+Home: When you hold down the Ctrl key, the Home key will scroll all the way to the top-left section of the drawing grid.
   • Ctrl+End: When you hold down the Ctrl key, the End key will scroll all the way to the bottom-right section of the drawing grid.

1. Highlight a group of cells by left-clicking and dragging the mouse to draw a rectangular red border around the cells.
   
   Most of the menu items and mouse clicks will be disabled while the red rectangle is displayed.
   
   To remove the red rectangle, press ESC or left-click somewhere in the drawing grid outside of the red rectangle.
2. When the red rectangle is displayed, the "Quick Help (Highlighting)" panel describes some useful mouse and keyboard functions:

   • Left mouse click + Drag: If you use the left mouse button to drag the highlighted group of cells, this will move those cells to a new location.
   • Right mouse click + Drag: If you use the right mouse button to drag the highlighted group of cells, this will copy those cells to a new location.
   • Delete: Deletes the cells within the red rectangle.
   • Ctrl+T: Vertically flips the cells within the red rectangle. In other words, Ctrl+T performs a Top and bottom flip. This is a "mirror-image" flip, just like MS Paint (and other drawing programs) would do. To perform a "true" flip (like flipping over a knot which is tied in rope), first do a Top and bottom flip and then use the "Reverse All Rope Crossings" menu item (described below).
   • Ctrl+L: Horizontally flips the cells within the red rectangle. In other words, Ctrl+L performs a Left and right flip. This is a "mirror-image" flip, just like MS Paint (and other drawing programs) would do. To perform a "true" flip (like flipping over a knot which is tied in rope), first do a Left and right flip and then use the "Reverse All Rope Crossings" menu item (described below).
   • Ctrl+R: Rotates the cells 90 degrees clockwise within the red rectangle. This option is only enabled if the highlighted area is a square.
   • Ctrl+F: Fills the cells within the red rectangle using the selected drawing tool on the "Tool Panel."
   • Ctrl+Page-Up: When you hold down the Ctrl key, the Page-Up key will cycle downwards through all of the "Main" colors on the "Tool Panel," changing the colors of all tiles within the red rectangle.
   • Ctrl+Page-Down: When you hold down the Ctrl key, the Page-Down key will cycle downwards through all of the "Behind" colors on the "Tool Panel," changing the colors of all "crossing" tiles within the red rectangle.
   • ESC: If a window pops up in KnotMaker, the ESC key will cancel and close the window. If you`ve highlighted a group of cells with a red border around them, the ESC key will cancel the highlighting and remove the red border.

• New: Clears the drawing grid.
• Open: Allows you to open a KnotMaker drawing (a .KM file).
• Insert: Allows you to open a KnotMaker drawing (a .KM file) which will then be "inserted" into the current drawing. For example, imagine that you have two separate drawings showing the steps for tying an Alpine Butterfly Bend, and the drawings are saved in AlpineBend1.km and AlpineBend2.km. If you want to have both drawings in the same .KM file (see the picture of the Alpine Butterfly Bend on the home page), here`s how to do it. Open AlpineBend2.km, then highlight and drag the tiles downwards (to get them out of the way), then click File/Insert. Select AlpineBend1.km, and now both drawings are displayed in the drawing grid.
• Save: Allows you to save the current drawing as a .KM file.
• Save As: Allows you to choose a new .KM filename for saving the current drawing.
• Save As BMP: Allows you to save the current drawing as a .BMP picture file.

• Undo: Reverses the most recent modification(s).
• Redo: Reverses the effects of the Undo function.
• Copy to the Clipboard: Copies a picture of the current drawing to the Windows Clipboard.
• Reverse All Rope Crossings: Changes the "handedness" of the current drawing by reversing the sections of rope which cross "above" or "behind" other sections of rope.
• Highlighted Cells: Allows you to select one of the following options, which are described in the section called "Highlighting a Group of Cells" (above):

  • Delete
  • Flip Top and Bottom
  • Flip Left and Right
  • Rotate 90 Degrees
  • Fill with Selected Tile

• Zoom: Allows you to zoom in or out (i.e. make the grid cells larger or smaller).
• Shading: Allows you to show or hide the shading on "crossing" tiles. Currently there`s only one type of shading, but future versions of the program might include additional types of shading.
• Show Grid Lines: Allows you to show or hide the grid lines in the drawing area.

• Individual Ropes: Scans the drawing grid, creating a separate "rope object" for each rope (every rope needs to have one Working End tile). This allows for future enhancements which can treat each rope as a separate object, such as the ability to change an entire rope to a different color. This menu item will pop up a panel which contains the following fields:

  • Select All Ropes: Selects all of the checkboxes so that all of the ropes are displayed in the drawing grid.
  • Unselect All Ropes: Unselects all of the checkboxes so that no ropes are displayed in the drawing grid.
  • List of checkboxes, one for each rope: Allows you to show or remove individual ropes in the drawing grid (up to a maximum of 25). You can also press the numbers from 1 to 0 on your keyboard to select or unselect the first 10 ropes (press 0 for rope #10).
  • OK: Closes the "Individual Ropes" panel, keeping only the displayed ropes in the drawing grid (i.e. the ropes which are selected in the checkboxes).
  • Cancel: Cancels any changes that you`ve made and closes the "Individual Ropes" panel.
  • Show All Spars/Poles: Allows you to show or remove all of the spar/pole tiles in the drawing grid.
  • Colors: Allows you to change the color of the selected rope(s) in the drawing grid.

• View With KnotTyer3D: KnotTyer3D is a free program which animates the tying of a knot, and displays the knot in 3D. After the knot is displayed, you can rotate the knot to view it from any angle (see KnotTyer3D).
  
  In KnotMaker, the "View With KnotTyer3D" menu item will pop up a window which allows you to specify the location of KnotTyer3D.exe on your machine, and allows you to choose a filename (.KT3) for exporting your knot drawing to the KnotTyer3D format. Click the "Run KnotTyer3D" button, and your drawing will be exported to the .KT3 filename which you specified. Then KnotTyer3D will be executed to animate your knot. Keep in mind that KnotTyer3D can`t display more than three ropes, and it won`t recognize your spar/pole tiles, and it won`t recognize the colors in your drawing. To tie a knot around a pole in KnotTyer3D, simply draw the knot so that it`s tied around another rope (instead of using the KnotMaker spar/pole tiles).
• Knot Attributes: This menu item will pop up a window which contains the following fields:

  • Knot Name(s): Allows you to enter the name(s) of the knot which you`ve drawn. Just like in textboxes in other applications, press Ctrl+Enter to go to a new line. If you save the drawing, the knot name(s) will be saved in the .KM file.
  • Comments: Allows you to enter any comments about the current drawing. Just like in textboxes in other applications, press Ctrl+Enter to go to a new line. If you save the drawing, the comments will be saved in the .KM file.
  • Binary Signature: Binary Signatures provide a way to catalog knots by giving each knot a fairly unique signature based on the "crossings" within the knot. The signature might not be strictly unique for all knots, but it will narrow down the group to a very small number, making it possible to search a database for a knot based on the knot`s Binary Signature.
    
    
    
    For example, tie a simple Overhand Knot in a rope (as in the above picture). If you follow the rope as it enters the knot from one side, notice that it crosses over, then under, then over, then under, then over, then under. For every "over" crossing, write down a 1. For every "under" crossing, write down a 0. So the Overhand Knot has a Binary Signature of 101010. Notice that if you follow the rope as it enters the knot from the other side, it crosses under, then over, then under, then over, then under, then over, so the Binary Signature is 010101. In order to be certain that a knot always has the same Binary Signature no matter which way we follow the rope through the knot, we simply need to make every Binary Signature begin with a 1. If a Binary Signature begins with a 0 (e.g. 010101) then change every 0 to a 1 and change every 1 to a 0. This turns 010101 into 101010, and therefore the Binary Signature will be the same no matter which way we follow the rope through the knot.
    
    
    
    Now tie a Reef Knot in a rope. Follow the rope through the knot from one end, writing down the 1`s and 0`s, then follow the knot from the other end, writing down the 1`s and 0`s. You should get the following values:
    
    101101010010
    010010101101
    
    Therefore, the Binary Signature of a Reef Knot is 101101010010.
    
    If there are multiple ropes in a drawing (e.g. two ropes tied together in a bend), then first we calculate the Binary Signature for each individual rope. Second, we sort the Binary Signatures in order from largest to smallest. To make it easier to sort them by hand, we evaluate them character by character from left to right, which means that a Binary Signature of 11 is larger than a Binary Signature of 10001. Third, we append the signatures together from largest to smallest. So if we imagine a knot which is made from three ropes tied together, and one rope has a Binary Signature of 11, and another rope has a Binary Signature of 10010, and the third rope has a Binary Signature of 10011, then the Binary Signature of the knot is 111001110010.
    
    It`s not a perfect system, but it`s a step towards a method for creating a catalog of knots based on an objective "signature" for each knot.
    
    If you save the drawing, the Binary Signature will be saved in the .KM file.
  • Overs Index: The Overs Index is another way to calculate an objective "signature" for a knot, and it`s written as a ratio between the number of "over" crossings compared to the total number of crossings. For example, we saw that the Binary Signature of an Overhand Knot is 101010, where each 1 represents an "over" crossing and each 0 represents an "under" crossing. Therefore, the Overs Index (OI) of an Overhand Knot is 3:6. An Overhand Knot is said to be "fully saturated" because it exactly alternates between "over" crossings and "under" crossings, and this is clearly seen in the OI because the left side of the ratio is exactly half of the right side.
    
    Most knots are not "fully saturated" because most knots have two or more consecutive "over" crossings, or two or more consecutive "under" crossings. The general way to calculate the OI for a knot is to first calculate the Binary Signature and then add up the number of 1`s (i.e. the number of "over" crossings). At this point, we write down the ratio as if the knot is "fully saturated." For example, the Binary Signature of the Reef Knot is 101101010010, so it has 6 "over" crossings. We write down the ratio as if the Reef Knot is "fully saturated," which gives us an initial ratio of 6:12. Now we go through the Binary Signature of the Reef Knot again, counting how many repeated 1`s or 0`s there are. We see that there are two 1`s repeated back-to-back, and there are two 0`s repeated back-to-back. Since there are 2 occurrences of repeated numbers, we subtract 2 from the right-hand side of the ratio, which gives us an OI of 6:10 for the Reef Knot.
    
    The Binary Signature of the imaginary knot described above (made up of three ropes tied together) is 111001110010, so our initial ratio is 7:14. There are 6 occurrences of repeated numbers in that Binary Signature, so we subtract 6 from the right-hand side of the ratio, giving us an OI of 7:8 for this imaginary knot.
    
    Again, it`s not a perfect system, but it`s a step towards a method for creating a catalog of knots based on an objective "signature" for each knot.
    
    If you save the drawing, the Overs Index will be saved in the .KM file.
  • Find Knot Online: Opens the Knot Library at the Knot Cypher Wiki (requires an Internet connection) and attempts to find the knot that you`ve drawn based on its Binary Signature (see for example https://knotcyphers.pbwiki.com/10011001010100110101).
  • Help: Displays the Offline Help file in your Web browser. An Internet connection is not needed for viewing the Offline Help file, but the links won`t work if you don`t have an Internet connection.
  • OK: Saves the Knot Name(s) and the Comments, then closes the window. Press ESC if you want to cancel and close the window.

• Offline Help: Displays the Offline Help file in your Web browser. An Internet connection is not needed for viewing the Offline Help file, but the links won`t work if you don`t have an Internet connection.
• View Quick Help: Displays or hides a quick reference panel at the bottom of the KnotMaker window.
• Online Help: Displays the Online Help in your Web browser (requires an Internet connection). The only difference between the Online Help and the Offline Help is that the online version contains pictures.
• KnotMaker Website: Displays the KnotMaker website in your Web browser (requires an Internet connection).
• About: Displays the "About" box.

• July 23, 2010

  • Modified some of the wording.

• May 31, 2009

  • Added descriptions for the arrow keys and the Home, End, Ctrl+Home, and Ctrl+End keys in the "Basic Functions" section.
  • Added a description for the Direct Draw "single-click" feature in the "Basic Functions" section.

• April 26, 2009

  • Added a description for the Direct Draw checkbox in the "Basic Functions" section.
  • Added a description for the Colors lists in the "Basic Functions" section.
  • Added a description for Alt+Right mouse click in the "Basic Functions" section.
  • Added a description for the Show All Spars/Poles checkbox in the "Tools Menu" section.
  • Added a description for View With KnotTyer3D in the "Tools Menu" section.

• April 18, 2009

  • New website.