Getting Started

Imagix 4D helps you analyze, document and improve complex, third party or legacy C, C++ and Java software. A source code analysis tool, it speeds your comprehension of programs that are large or unfamiliar by automating the browsing and analysis of your code. You can use the tool to reverse engineer and study your software on any level -- from its high level architecture to the detailed program logic of individual functions. You can visually explore a wide range of aspects about your software - including control structures, data usage, and class inheritance. Through this process, you can achieve faster, more accurate program understanding, resulting in higher productivity and fewer software defects.

The quality analysis features of Imagix 4D help you to identify potential problems in the development and maintenance of your software. A series of analytical verifications of variable usage, task interaction and interrupt protection enable you to spot potential conflicts in real-time embedded and multi-tasking, multi-threaded systems. You can use source checks to find exceptions to generally agreed upon design and coding standards for clarity and portability. And software metrics help you manage your development process and spot areas of your software that don't meet your organizational criteria for testability and maintainability.

Imagix 4D also eliminates much of the drudgery involved with creating documents for structure analysis, code reviews and system design documentation. You're assured of comprehensive, accurate, up-to-date information through automatically generated documents, available in a number of formats, including RTF and HTML.

Becoming Familiar with Imagix 4D

Imagix 4D contains many unique and powerful features. The best way introduction to them and their use is through the tool's built-in tour (Help > Tour). The tour is interactive and adjusts to whatever software project you have loaded. Initially, you can view the sample C/C++ and Java projects that come with the tool. Later, once you've loaded in your own code, you may want to run this again, to refresh your memory and see how the functionality of Imagix 4D can be applied to software that is more meaningful to you.

Learning Unfamiliar Code

As you begin to use Imagix 4D, you'll discover that the tool offers an extremely wide range of graphical views of your software. As you'll learn, each is optimized for a different purpose. For achieving an understanding of the essential design of the system, the best starting point is the Subsystem Architecture Diagram view.

Loading in Your Code

To create a project other than the two demo samples that ship with the tool, you'll need to have an appropriate license installed. If you don't already have a product license, please contact Imagix or our distributors for a temporary evaluation license key. Use Help > License > Install... to install the license key you receive, typically as a node-locked license under Windows or a file-based floating license under Linux / Unix.

Once the license is installed, you'll be able to create a new project and load in your own code. The remainder of this Getting Started section of the User Guide describes the process for importing your source code into the tool, starting with creating a new project.