Factorytalk View ME - Timer for a multi-step animation

I am working on a new View ME project for a demonstration display using a PC Hosted version of ME Station.

I would like to show a cylinder extending as a multi-step process. The device we are showing only has two states extended or not extended.

I thought I would use a timer in the HMI to show more or less four stages of the stroke to be a little smoother to the eye. My thought was to have several graphics overlaid that appear and disappear in sequence,

It doesn't appear that the ME product has a timer I could reference internally. To start the sequence.

I know I could add a set of bits or timer to the PLC, but I was trying to find an internal solution that didn't require a custom version of our product.

Last time I used ME (5 years ago) there was a feature called animation. You can have it scale from 0-100% and have this fill an object respectively (shape such as rectangle for your application). Can't remember if there was an internal timer component, if not you can do this quickly and easily in the PLC.

I fired up my old project out of curiosity, I could not find a timer component. Maybe there is a way that I am not aware of. You can use a bar graph component. In general tab set min and max and fill direction. In connections tab link it to a timer.acc in the PLC. Set your timer to run when the cylinder is extending.

You could use the internal system/second tag for the animation...

You really need to do this in the PLC.
With FTView SE, you could achieve it in a cumbersome fashion with VBA.

Since you can't reset anything in-built, or stop it (system/second), your animation would just keep going, and pausing oddly.

Best to just do something like make a rectangle of the maximum size, set it to a PLC tag that ramps from 0 to 100 as the device opens, and then set the "Width" animation to the PLC tag.