assign children to relationships or single parents<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n2.1. Adding people to the pedigree<\/h4>\n
To add a new person to the pedigree, drag one of the symbols from PCD\u2019s toolbar to the drawing canvas. While dragging, note that a green rectangle indicates where the person will end up when the mouse key is released, while a red rectangle indicates that the person cannot be placed at the current mouse location (e.g., because another person is already at that position). Once you place the person on the canvas, the personal details window appears (see 2.2.).<\/p>\n
Shortcut: Press CTRL-A to insert a new person at the current mouse position.<\/p>\n
2.2. Configuring a person\u2019s details<\/h4>\n
To configure a person, simply click on the person\u2019s symbol. The personal details window appears. You can edit the person\u2019s name, add a birth date, write one or more lines of comment, define the person\u2019s sex, health status, whether the person is unborn, living, or deceased, as well as indicate whether the person is the index patient.<\/p>\n
Shortcut: Place the mouse cursor over a person and press CTRL-G, to change the person\u2019s gender.<\/p>\n
Shortcut: Place the mouse cursor over a person and press CTRL-D, to change the person\u2019s status between living and deceased.<\/p>\n
Please note that persons are automatically assigned a pedigree identifier of the form X.Y where X is a roman numeral representing the person\u2019s generation and Y is an arabic numeral indicating the position within that generation.<\/p>\n
2.3. Defining relationships<\/h4>\n
To define a relationship between two people, click on one of them. The personal details window appears. Click on \u201eSelect partner\u201c, then click on the partner\u2019s name (or pedigree identifier). You can choose whether the two people are consanguine partners.<\/p>\n
Shortcut: Place the mouse cursor over a person and press CTRL-R, then click on another person to define a new relationship between the two. Press SHIFT-CTRL-R to define a new consanguinous relationship.<\/p>\n
If two people of the same sex are combined in a relationship, the connecting line is drawn in red.<\/p>\n
Note that one person can be involved in several relationships.<\/p>\n
To remove a relationship, click on one of the partners involved, click on \u201eRemove partner\u201c and select the relationship you want to remove. Note that this also removes the assignment of all children born from this relationship.<\/p>\n
2.4. Assigning children<\/h4>\n
To create a child-parent-relationship, children can be assigned in different ways, described below:<\/p>\n
2.4.1. Assigning a child to a parent relationship<\/h5>\n
Most commonly, you will want to assign a child to a parent relationship, i.e., identify the child as born from the relationship of a father and a mother. To do this, make sure that the parents\u2019 relationship is defined (see 2.3.). Then click on the child, select on \u201eMake child of\u201c, and select the parents\u2019 relationship from the menu.<\/p>\n
Shortcut: Place the mouse cursor over a person and press CTRL-P, then click on the first parent, then on the second parent.<\/p>\n
2.4.2. Assigning a child to a single parent<\/h5>\n
If no information is available on one of the child\u2019s parents, or if only one parent shall be included in the pedigree, a parent relationship may not be available. Instead, you will want to assign a child to a single parent (mother or father) directly. To do this, click on the child, select \u201eMake child of\u201c. Below the defined parent relationships, you will find one entry for each person in the pedigree labelled with that person\u2019s name and an \u201eunknown\u201c partner. Select one of these.<\/p>\n
Shortcut: Place the mouse cursor over a person and press CTRL-P, then click on the single parent, then click again on the single parent.<\/p>\n
2.4.3. Defining a child to be a twin of another person<\/h5>\n
Twins are a special case with specific importance for genetic studies. To define a pair of twins, start by assigning one of the two children to a parent relationship or a single parent as described in 2.4.1 and 2.4.2, respectively.<\/p>\n
Then click on the second child, and select \u201eMake twin of\u201c. A menu appears listing all other children in the pedigree. Select the twin and select the type of twin relationship. Twins can be dizygous (normal twins), monozygous (identical twins), or the genetic relationship between the twins may be unknown.<\/p>\n
Note that monozygous twins with different sex are connected by a red line.<\/p>\n
2.4.4. Removing a child assignment<\/h5>\n
To remove a child assignment, click on the child\u2019s symbol. Then either assign the child to another parent (see 2.4.1 to 2.4.3.), or click on \u201eMake child of\u201c and then select \u201enobody\u201c.<\/p>\n
2.4.5. Splitting a pair of twins<\/h5>\n
To split a pair of twins, you can either assign one of the twins to another parent (see 2.4.1-2.4.3), remove the assignment of one of the twins (see 2.4.4.), or click on the person\u2019s symbol and select \u201eMake twin of\u201c from the menu, followed by selecting \u201enobody\u201c.<\/p>\n
2.5. Removing a person<\/h4>\n
To remove a person from the pedigree, click on the person\u2019s symbol and select \u201eRemove this person\u201c from the menu. Note that this removes all relationships to partners of this person as well as all child assignments to these relationships as well as child assignments involving the removed person as a single parent.<\/p>\n
3. Loading, Saving, Printing<\/h3>\n3.1. Saving your pedigree to a file<\/h4>\n
You can save the pedigree by clicking on \u201ePedigree\u201c-\u201cSave\u201c or \u201eSave as\u201c.<\/p>\n
PCD stores your pedigree in PNG format. PNG graphics files can be imported in many applications (e.g., PowerPoint), edited in graphics applications (e.g., Photoshop), or included in web pages. This allows the pedigree to be viewed by users who are not using PCD.<\/p>\n
PCD also stores additional information in the graphics file which allows it to later re-create the contained pedigree chart for further editing (see Technical Details)<\/p>\n
3.2. Loading a pedigree from an existing file<\/h4>\n
You can load a pedigree by clicking on \u201ePedigree\u201c-\u201cLoad\u201c.<\/p>\n
Please note that only files created by PCD can be loaded, even though other PNG image files may be visible in the file selection dialog. Furthermore, PCD files that were altered with another application (e.g., Photoshop) will most likely not work since the other application will have removed PCDs additional data fields from the file.<\/p>\n
3.3. Printing the pedigree<\/h4>\n
You can print a pedigree by clicking on \u201ePedigree\u201c-\u201cPrint\u201c. The pedigree will automatically be scaled to fit to the currently selected paper size and orientation (portrait\/landscape).<\/p>\n
4. Undo\/Redo functionality<\/h3>\n
The \u201eEdit\u201c menu allows you to undo all changes made since the pedigree was loaded (or created from scratch). It also displays a description of the last modification.<\/p>\n
To undo the last modification, open the \u201eEdit\u201c menu and click on \u201cUndo\u201c.<\/p>\n
If you have undone too many modifications, you can redo them (effectively undoing the undo) by opening the \u201eEdit\u201c menu and clicking on \u201eRedo\u201c.<\/p>\n
Shortcut: Press CTRL-Z to undo the latest change.<\/p>\n
Shortcut: Press CTRL-Y to redo the undo operation.<\/p>\n
5. Biological inconsistensies<\/h3>\n
PCD draws your attention to biological inconsistensies by rendering parts of the pedigree in red color. These inconsistensies include:<\/p>\n
\n- two parents of the same sex<\/li>\n
- monozygous twins with different sex<\/li>\n
- children which are placed in the same generation as their parents, or a preceding generation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
6. Modifying the pedigree display<\/h3>\n6.1. Changing the rendering style<\/h4>\n
PCD has three different rendering styles. To have your pedigree drawn in a different style, select one of the alternatives from the \u201eView\u201c menu:<\/p>\n