Introduction
Pages are at the heart of any HMI design application. Learning how to use the page editor well will enable great looking HMI’s to be created.
The NA Series HMI uses vector based graphics. Images (bitmaps etc) can be used within the HMI, but all the default objects and graphics are vector based which gives them high quality regardless of the size they are used. That said, Sysmac Studio is not a graphic design package, and should not be compared with Adobe Illustrator, or SolidWorks etc.
Sysmac Studio provides the basics to use high quality vector graphics, bring them to life with animations, and link to machine data to control. It is however possible to draw complex graphics in Sysmac Studio using lines, arcs, polygons etc.
Objects can be placed on the page simply by drag & drop from the toolbox. Once these basic objects are placed on the page we need to change their appearance, their behaviour and add any actions.
• Properties control the appearance of objects on the page; changing properties will change the look of the object from the default.
• Behaviour is controlled either by ‘Variable/Expression’ properties which link specific behaviour of an object to a variable or mathematical expression, or by adding animations to an object.
• Actions are defined to make an object do something when an event occurs such as a button being pressed.
Each of these areas will be considered in detail later on.
Page Settings
A grid is displayed in the background of the page to help users align objects. Optionally the user can choose to ‘snap to grid’ so that each time an object is placed or moved it will snap to the nearest grid.By default the grid is enabled with ‘snap to grid’. The size of the grid and colour of display can easily be changed in ‘Tools | Options’:
Another important setting is the ‘Startup Page’. This is where the user configures which is the first page they want to load when the application starts up.
Creating And Grouping Pages
Pages can be inserted in the ‘Multiview Explorer’ (Usually on the left of the screen), simply right click and select Add Page. Pages can also be grouped to give a hierarchy and structure to the project. By default all pages are full screen. Optionally pages can be configured as popups that have a custom size and are displayed in the centre of the screen.
Viewing And Editing A Page
Once a page is loaded, in the top right hand corner there are some zoom controls to make it easier to visualise the final HMI, or make precise adjustments the graphics.
Objects can be dragged onto the page from the toolbox. Once on the page objects can be dragged around, resized and rotated in the same way as many graphics packages.
Page Properties
As with objects and other page items, the page also has properties which you can view. Right click and choose properties if the pane is not already on your Sysmac Studio window.
The page properties allow you do the following things:
- - Set the page name
- - Set the background colour
- - Choose if this is a popup page and then set its size. Pop-up pages display in front of the current page and are great for warning messages or 'dialogs' where you always return to the previous page.
- - Choose a background page, if you have a page set up as a menu system you can use this on other pages to avoid re-creating the menu system repeatedly. Each page can have one background page and each background page could also have a background page. A background page is just like any other pages, doesn't need any special configuration and can also be used in its own right if needed. When entering a background page in properties, Sysmac Studio will attempt to auto complete with the name of a page in your project.
