Panelview Plus 1500 Graphics Issue

I'm programming a PV+ 1500 application using Factory Talk View Studio v.5.00 (CPR9).

I'm really not impressed at all with the graphics that I am able to generate for the PV+ with this software. They are very DOS like and the text I enter on the screens is jagged and doesn't look good at all when it is displayed on the PV+. I do have the correct screen resolution selected for the terminal per the help file. I've tried playing around with fonts and such but that didn't help.

Does anyone have any suggestions to make the graphics look better? This is my first PV+ project and I expected the graphics to look better than the stuff I am replacing (FIX32). FT Studio doesn't look much better than the software we had to program with 10 years ago. Pretty disappointing when you add up the cost of the software and the cost of the terminal.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Hopefully, there is something I am missing here.

Jeff

Can you post a screen shot of what you are talking about?

It is certainly an issue on your end, not with the software. My displays look fine.

Are you putting text on the screen and stretching it to the size you want? If you place a text panel (for lack of a better term) and the stretch it, it will look funny.

You didn't happen to create the application in one resolution, then change it later did you? This sometimes distorts text.

No, I haven't changed resolution or anything like that. They looked like this from the get go.

I can't do a screen shot of the PV+. The screens look OK on my PC, but not so good when displayed on the PV+. From a usability standpoint, they are fine, but I expected more as far as grapics resolution and clarity.

My first experiment with this PV+ was to display a .jpg file as the background on the main screen. It looked great, and I was hoping the rest of the graphics would look good as well. This stuff doesn't look much better than the Controlview software we used back in the early 90's. Boxes and stick figures.

Should have stuck with iFix, I guess...

Jeff

Maybe someone has some bright ideas, but the text on my PV's look no different between the view on the PC and in the terminal.

If you run the actual test from your machine, does it look any different? You can do this by going to the "Application" drop down menu and then selecting "test application". Or by pressing the button with the picture of the guy running.

It might be a font issue.

Use the PV+ control panel to determine which font files are loaded. In my experience the terminals only come with the "System" font and you have to load Arial or Times New Roman or whatever you used during development in order to have them display correctly.

FTView ME is not the sexiest graphics engine around, but I have seen some extremely nice work done by guys who judiciously use bitmaps for button backgrounds and wallpaper.

But you definitely should not see "blocky" text. With the right font files and barring aftereffects from stretching or scaling, the PV+ is WYSIWYG with respect to RSView Studio.

dmroeder said:

Maybe someone has some bright ideas, but the text on my PV's look no different between the view on the PC and in the terminal.

If you run the actual test from your machine, does it look any different? You can do this by going to the "Application" drop down menu and then selecting "test application". Or by pressing the button with the picture of the guy running.

Click to expand...

Text on the screen has a tendency to look different.
I always drop the app on the terminal look at it and re-arrange accordingly.
Big issue if the font size is around 7 or so and especially with smaller screens like the 600's.
Looks good on the PC (simulation) but it is off when on the actual terminal screen.

Ken Roach said:

It might be a font issue.

Use the PV+ control panel to determine which font files are loaded. In my experience the terminals only come with the "System" font and you have to load Arial or Times New Roman or whatever you used during development in order to have them display correctly.

FTView ME is not the sexiest graphics engine ahmmmmm...Ken, I wouldn't go there!! around, but I have seen some extremely nice work done by guys who judiciously use bitmaps for button backgrounds and wallpaper.

But you definitely should not see "blocky" text. With the right font files and barring aftereffects from stretching or scaling, the PV+ is WYSIWYG with respect to RSView Studio.

Click to expand...

You are right though.
I've used the new CTC Xpress terminals and the graphics are far superior to the View stuff. (Scales and such, bezels, etc)

I guess I'll have to try bitmaps and such if I want to make it pretty. It's rather disappointing to spend this kind of coin to have graphics that look similar to the Controlview software AB had back in the 90s. I had hoped for better. I doesn't seem to me like this is a problem with the terminal, it's problem with the FT View ME software. I checked the fonts on the terminal, and Arial is loaded, which is what I am using on my screens.

At least once I get this up and running I can do away with rebuilding a PC every 3 years due to lease returns. That's the main reason I went away from iFix on this application.

Can you point me to any examples of applications that have been developed for this? I'd like to see what others have done.

Thanks!

Ken Roach said:

I have seen some extremely nice work done by guys who judiciously use bitmaps for button backgrounds and wallpaper.

Click to expand...

What are you guys using to edit Bitmaps? at the moment i just use Microsoft Paint.

thanks

myles

Have a look at Paint.net. it is sort of a cross between PhotoShop and MSPaint, but it's free!

OkiePC said:

Have a look at Paint.net. it is sort of a cross between PhotoShop and MSPaint, but it's free!

Click to expand...

nice one paul i am downloading it now!

cheers

myles

Paint.net was a great idea! Now we're getting somewhere!