Network view
From Emergent
This is a 3d graphical view of a Network, showing its Layers Units and Projections. It is controlled by a network view control panel.
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The Network View Control Panel
There is a middle panel tab associated with every 3d network view, which provides various parameters for controlling the network display. There are 3 main segments:
- Display parameters at the top (font sizes, display style etc) (mouse over to get more info, and explore!)
- Network variable selector -- what value to display in the units in the network view (activations vs. weights vs. netinputs etc). If you select one of the weight variables (e.g., r.wt for receiving weights into a selected unit; s.wt is for sending weights out), you then need to use the red arrow tool in the viewer to select a unit to view -- it will turn green, and you should be able to see its weights.
- Spec selector and viewer -- this is very handy for seeing where your specs are used in the network -- try clicking on the
HiddenLayerand thenInput_Output-- note that the green layer border changes color indicating which layers are using these layer specs. You can also use the context menu to edit the specs right there.
Changing the Network Configuration
You can configure the network layout interactively in the viewer, including repositioning the layers, and orienting the network display relative to other objects in the view (which we postpone for later, when this arises).
To do this, select the red arrow tool, and you'll see that transparent purple arrow objects now appear on the layers, and a fancy box thing appears on the network text box. These are the manipulation controls. Try clicking on one of the horizontal arrows for the Output layer, and moving it around. This moves within the "horizontal" plane (the X-Y plane for the network). The vertical arrows not surprisingly move in the vertical dimension (the Z axis for the network).
How to Select and Operate on View Elements
Layers are selected by clicking on their green border (clicking inside the layer where the units are does not work).
Projections are selected by clicking directly on the projection arrow. To make it easier to select and view, change the Prjn Width parameter at the top of the control panel from the default of .002 to .005 or .01 (or whatever you want!).
The Network is selected by clicking on the green border of the network text area at the very bottom of the network display.
Selecting updates the middle edit panel to show the selected item, which can then be edited.
You can also activate the context menu for that item once it is selected, by doing right mouse button or mac-command-mouse on the mac. This context menu has a few extra view-specific elements in it, such as controlling how layers display information.
Making Projections Between Selected Layers
You can select multiple layers by using shift while clicking. If you select two layers, you can make a projection between them by doing context menu/ConnectFrom or ConnectBidir:
- ConnectFrom -- the first layer selected is the receiver, and the second is the sender.
- ConnectBidir -- order doesn't matter because it is bidirectional.
Comparing Two Variable Values in the View
See Snapshot for how to simultaneously view two variables at once in the view.
Updating the Network View
In order to view the network settle, one must do more than set the step size to LeabraCycle. In the program code for LeabraCycle, there is a boolean variable update_net_view which defaults to false. This is passed to the NetUpdateView function. Change this variable to true, and the network view will update at the end of each cycle. If this is set to false, the network view will not automatically update, regardless of step size.
