At the end of each set of elements in the component bar is an open orange box labelled xxxCaptureBox where "xxx" indicates the type of compound it will make. To use these boxes, simply drag one over the components to be captured and click capture on the right. The first time one is used, it will add a new button at the top leading to a new set of possible components. These are the captured compounds which can then be reused just like the basic components.
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Load capture1.ccm show display run the model |
This is a simple cell model as you might have constructed it on the workbench. The components of the cell are not differentiated from the spike generator or recorder as everything is at the same level. To capture it, open the cell component set and drag a cellCaptureBox around the cell components only. Be careful not to include the central control points of the connections from the spike generator or to the recorder - the capture box uses these points to decide what should be captured.
On capture, the new group of is assigned a color and a new menu appears at the top called NeuronSocket. IT contains one element - the group that has just been created. Reconnect the input and output of the cell model and it will run just as before, as shown in the following example.
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Load capture2.ccm show display run the model |
In the grouped model, notice that only certain of the ports on the internal components are exposed for making connections. Others, such as the reset port on the integrator compartment, can only be used within a compound. In general, the restricted ones are those that only make sense for connections within a single model.
When you click on the grouped model to display its properties on the right, there are two grayed out options named nrow and ncolumn and an active option singleElement. These are present because, optionally, and grouped item can be converted to a population simply by unselecting the singleElement option and then setting the size of the population as number of rows and/or the number of columns.
If you do this, take the default two rows and columns, switch the
recorder to a greyscale display, and rerun the model, you will see
that only the first cell receives any input. If you now change the
options on the spike generator to provide three channels, these will
be delivered independently to the first three cells. That is, the one
spike connection works whether the target is a single cell or a
population. The resulting model should look like Load capture3.ccm
.
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Load capture4.ccm show display run the model |
Almost anything can be grouped into a compound object. This example shows a compound signal generator made of two separate signal generators and a concatenator. One generator is making a sawtooth waveform, the other a sinusoid. The output is a two-element vector containing the two signals.
What should happen if you make a population of such a unit? It will produce multiple two element vectors. If you try it, however, it will... dec 01 - what should it do?.