Creating a model

As explained in the Overview/Implementation section, a set of models is defined as a piece of text that follows the MADS grammar syntax. The grammar is described in detail in the corresponding MADS Grammar section.

Creating a model thus involves only creating an appropriate file, within a “project” folder, and using the MADS editor to enter an appropriate piece of text.

A new project can be created using the File/New/General/ New Mads Project command. A file with the same name as the project will get automatically created within the project, with the “.mads” extension to its name. The proper (XText) nature of the project will be set. The file will include an initial empty data set and be opened in the Mads Editor.

Alternatively, this can be done manually in three steps:

• Creating a project, using the File/New/Project or File/New/General/Project command
• Creating a file within the project, with the “.mads” extension to its name; answer “yes” to the pop-up question to add XText nature to the project, or if you miss it use the right-click / configure menu.
• Using the editor to enter the data for the various sections specified by the grammar

The Content assist feature of the editor is triggered by the ctrl-space key combination. It will provide valid content proposals as well as templates for data entry, starting with an initial empty data set including the Headers section.

An other way to get started is to experiment with the examples described in the help system. They can be installed using the " MADS/Install Examples" command of the MADS menu.