Main Menu
See also: View Bar, Status Bar, Main Toolbar, Full Screen View
The main menu in LEAP provides access to the most important functions of the program. There are various sub-menus (some of which are only visible in certain views):
Area Menu (Alt-A)
The area menu is provides option for creating (
) , opening (
), saving (
) and managing areas, as well giving access to Area-wide operations such as setting print options and exiting LEAP. It also contains the Language option (
), used to switch the language in which LEAP and data sets are displayed.
Edit Menu (Alt-E)
The edit menu gives access to standard Windows editing operations: Cut (
- Ctrl-X), copy (
- Ctrl-C), paste (
- Ctrl-V) , select all, and undo (
- Ctrl-Z). Note that the Undo feature is limited to a single undo operation and only within a given text editing box. LEAP does not currently support undoing of operations that affect data structures, nor does it support multi-level undo.
View Menu
The View menu allows you to switch between the different views in the LEAP system. It also lets you show or hide the View Bar, which by default is shown on the left of the screen. If the View Bar is hidden (to make more room on screen), use the View menu to switch views. See the View Bar help topic for a description of each view.
The view menu also let you control basic user interface preferences. For example, you can show or hide the main tool bar and show it with small, medium, large and extra large icons. You can also select different themes (
) for displaying LEAP's user Interface. A range of different themes are available inducing various light and dark mode themes. You can even have LEAP automatically switch between light and dark modes depending on what mode is being used for Windows as a whole (as chosen on the Windows Settings: Personalization: Colors: Mode screen in Windows 11 and higher). The View menu also lets you enter Full Screen View (
).
Tip: Unlike with an Apple Mac, currently Windows 11 will not automatically switch between light and dark modes based on the time of day, but a third party app called Auto Dark Mode can be used to add this functionality.
Analysis Menu (Alt-Y)
The Analysis menu gives access to the main tools used in editing your data in Analysis View including the Scenario Manager (
), the Time-Series Wizard (
), the Expression Builder (
), and the Import from Excel and Export to Excel options. It also gives access to the option to Print Expressions. To make data entry more responsive, it is now possible to switch-off the automatic updating of charts and tables in Analysis View. To do this, select menu option: Automatic Calculation. When automatic calculations are switched-off, you can press the F9 key to manually update charts and tables, or select menu option Analysis: Calculate Now.
General Menu (Alt-G)
The General menu gives access to various screens used to edit settings and supporting data that does not otherwise appear in the main Analysis View. These include:
Settings: used to edit the basic settings of your analysis such as the base and end year, the default energy and monetary units and the cost-benefit analysis methodology to be used in the analysis.
Scenarios: used to view or edit the list of scenarios in your area.
Fuels: used to view or edit the list of fuels used in your area.
Fuel Groups: used to view or edit the list of fuel groupings used in your area.
Regions: used to view and edit the list of regions in your area.
Region Groups: used to view and edit the list of region groupings
Effects: used to view or edit the list of effects (pollutants) for your area.
Units: used to view or edit the list of units used in your area.
References: used to view or edit the list of references for your area.
Lifecycle Profiles: used to edit technological profiles and age distributions for stocks of devices across different yearly vintages.
Yearly Shapes: used to view and edit a library of different load shapes that can be used to specify how annual electric and other demands vary by season and time of day for different demand devices. This option is only enabled if you specified endogenous loads on the General: Settings screen.
Time Slices: used to edit the seasonal and time-of-day divisions into which annual electric and other loads can be divided. This option is only enabled if you specified endogenous loads on the General: Settings screen.
Constants: used to edit the names and values of constants that can be used in LEAP's expressions.
Calculation Checksums: used to enter check sums for easier spotting and diagnosis of calculation errors.
Tags Menu
The Tags menu lets you access all the various options for managing tags including the Tag Manager (
) screen. The Tags menu is only available in the Analysis View. It includes a Tag Painting capability and settings that let you control the adding and replacing of tags. It also includes two options for exporting and importing all branch tags to and from Excel as well as an option for deleting all branch tags. The menu also lets you color the tree branches based on the colors assigned to different groups of tags.
Chart Menu (Alt-C)
The chart menu contains options for formatting charts in the Analysis and Results View. See also: Chart Toolbar.
Plugins Menu
The Plugins menu is the place from where you can insert LEAP Plugins into your model, create new plugins or remove plugins. Plugins allow LEAP models to be created by quickly plugging together "mini models" of particular sectors, subsectors and industries. Plugins can be developed and maintained by subject-matter experts and will be available via an online plugin repository on the LEAP web site (coming soon). Plugins can contain standardized methodologies including data structures, modeling relationships and default data. When used with the LEAP Cloud Data Server (LCDS), plugins can even include data that varies by country.
Tree Menu
The tree menu is used to edit and navigate through the Tree, which appears in the Analysis and Results views. Options on this menu allow you to add and delete branches, and to modify their properties. See "Editing the Tree" for more information. Many of these functions are also available by right-clicking on the Tree. Note: a simplified version of this menu is displayed when editing TED data.
Favorites Menu (Alt-F)
The Favorites menu, which is only displayed when in Results View, lets you save favorite charts including all settings for the axes, type of chart, and formatting. This feature is similar to the bookmark/favorites features found on popular Internet browsing software. Later, in the Overviews View, you can group together favorite charts to create overviews of different results. Use the "Save Chart as Favorite" option to bookmark the current highlighted chart. You will be asked to give the favorite a name. Use the "Delete Favorite" option to delete the saved favorite. To switch to a favorite chart, select its name from the favorites menu.
Advanced Menu
The advanced menu lets you edit or run scripts that can be used to automate LEAP and connect it with other Windows programs using standard "COM Automation Server" programming techniques. LEAP uses Microsoft's Windows Script technology, which directly supports scripts written in VBScript and JScript. The options on the menu are:
Run script: used to directly run a script. You can run scripts stored in the current area folder or in the common "_SCRIPTS" folder.
Edit Scripts: used to edit and interactively debug scripts.
Edit Functions
Events: used to associate scripts with various events that occur during a LEAP calculation.
Link to WEAP Model
Export Variables
Help Menu (Alt-H)
The Help menu gives access to the contents, index and search pages of LEAP's help system. You can also press the F1 key at any time to access context-sensitive help appropriate to the screen you are working in. You can also get quick usage tips by selecting Show Tip .
The Help menu also gives access to the LEAP web sites (this requires an Internet connection) and lets you send an email requesting technical assistance. An "About" screen gives you contact information should you wish to contact SEI by mail, phone or fax. This screen also gives you system information which can be useful in identifying problems you may encounter while running LEAP. An option labeled Check for Updates automatically checks for newer versions of LEAP over the Internet, and installs them onto your PC. Note that this is the preferred method of updating the software as it requires a much smaller download compared to a full download and installation of the system.
NB: the versions of LEAP available on the Internet work by default in "evaluation" mode (i.e., with the "Save" feature disabled). For those using this version, the "Register LEAP" option can be used to enter a user name and registration code to fully unlock the software. User names and registration codes are distributed by SEI to licensed users of the system. Visit the LEAP web site for more information on licensing LEAP.