TimothyMoulder
Member
Disclaimer - I don't work for Unitronics, although if you've been here for more than 6 hours, you probably know I'm a rabid fan of their products and software. So when a really kewl revision comes out in Visilogic, I like to make sure people know about it so they can see for themselves. After all, it's free...
Visilogic 4.5 came out a few months ago, but I held off on making the jump for a few months so the R&D guys could work out the kinks. I did alot of testing in VMware over that period, and have found no major issues as yet.
What's really great about this release is serious improvements to usability. There's a "disable net" feature that lets you turn off sections of logic for debugging, locking HMI screens to prevent accidental edits, and more.
My favorites so far are the "properties" window and the reverse-on-touch feature. The properties window works just like Autocad, you open it by double-clicking an HMI object and it stays open as you click others. It shows the location and size of the object and lets you set, edit or cancel it's touch property. This is a HUGE timesaver if you use alot of touchcells.
But my personal favorite of all is one I've been nagging them for for about 6 months, and now it's here. System Bit 38 is an option. If you set it, any touch cell, whether a bitmap, text or variable, reverses it's colors on touch.
Previous to this, if you used color change to tell the operator the touch has been registered, you had to set a bit in a system word, or use a Invert Variable function, which really just automated the first approach. Problem was, it ONLY worked on variables, and if you added a new variable to the screen, it hosed the order, so you had to go back and reassign them all.
No more! It's terrific. If you put a text label in a box on the screen, assign a touch property to the box, and touch anywhere in the box, the whole thing reverses, including the text. This makes for some extremely cool effects, and is just so much #$%^^ EASIER!!!
Okay, as I find other new features to trumpet, I'll add them below. If your curiosity is piqued, go to Unitronics.com and download the software - it's free. They also have a very nice OPC server now that covers serial and modbus IP connections - also free.
C-ya!
TM
Visilogic 4.5 came out a few months ago, but I held off on making the jump for a few months so the R&D guys could work out the kinks. I did alot of testing in VMware over that period, and have found no major issues as yet.
What's really great about this release is serious improvements to usability. There's a "disable net" feature that lets you turn off sections of logic for debugging, locking HMI screens to prevent accidental edits, and more.
My favorites so far are the "properties" window and the reverse-on-touch feature. The properties window works just like Autocad, you open it by double-clicking an HMI object and it stays open as you click others. It shows the location and size of the object and lets you set, edit or cancel it's touch property. This is a HUGE timesaver if you use alot of touchcells.
But my personal favorite of all is one I've been nagging them for for about 6 months, and now it's here. System Bit 38 is an option. If you set it, any touch cell, whether a bitmap, text or variable, reverses it's colors on touch.
Previous to this, if you used color change to tell the operator the touch has been registered, you had to set a bit in a system word, or use a Invert Variable function, which really just automated the first approach. Problem was, it ONLY worked on variables, and if you added a new variable to the screen, it hosed the order, so you had to go back and reassign them all.
No more! It's terrific. If you put a text label in a box on the screen, assign a touch property to the box, and touch anywhere in the box, the whole thing reverses, including the text. This makes for some extremely cool effects, and is just so much #$%^^ EASIER!!!
Okay, as I find other new features to trumpet, I'll add them below. If your curiosity is piqued, go to Unitronics.com and download the software - it's free. They also have a very nice OPC server now that covers serial and modbus IP connections - also free.
C-ya!
TM