Factory Talk View Visibility and Parameter File

DJ DiP · Aug 29, 2016

Okay so I am using Factory Talk Studio 8.1 and am having a hard time figuring out how to use a parameter file to control the visibility of a button. I have 4 different parameter files and tried having the place holders control the visibility of each of the buttons so that when they are clicked they cannot be clicked until another parameter file is loaded. Example visibility: #1=1 visible. This comes up with an error "expression contains a tag that has an error value: #1=1". I am trying to do this so that the popup does not come up saying "GoToDisplayButton's requested display is already open". I know there is a parameter file tag in the global connections that could be of use but I'm not sure if the HMI writes to the PLC or my guess is that it only reads from the PLC. Any ideas?

jkerekes · Aug 29, 2016

It thinks the number "1" is a tag. Easiest way around this is to make an HMI tag with the value of 1, and make it retentive.

DJ DiP · Aug 29, 2016

I would normally make a tag but the go to display buttons do not write to tags so there is no way of knowing which parameter file is selected.

nhatsen · Aug 29, 2016

DJ DiP said:
I would normally make a tag but the go to display buttons do not write to tags so there is no way of knowing which parameter file is selected.

You're missing the hint given by @jkerekes. Create an HMI tag, something like visibility_control and rewrite the parameter file:

Code:

#1 = visibility_control

DJ DiP · Aug 29, 2016

That worked thank you! I originally ignored that because I didn't actually use #1=1 I just posted that as an example. What I didn't do was create a tag in the HMI I was just setting #3=cp1000.

McCabe_92 · Mar 20, 2018

Distributed Station HMI tag issue

Good Morning/ Afternoon all.
Stumbled across this thread looking for help on a similar issue.
Inherited an application with the HMI Tag solution implemented.
The Issue I have now is that if 2 people are viewing an application at the same time,(network distributed) the HMI tag will get overwritten with a new value by the most recent push button, and can cause the HMI tag to change value.

Is there any other solution to this?
I am passing in a value #5 = 0 OR 1and up until now I am Setting (Pump_visibility)=#105 from the parameter file of the button.
#5 is also equal to #105.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

arlenjacobs · Mar 21, 2018

McCabe_92 said:
The Issue I have now is that if 2 people are viewing an application at the same time,(network distributed) the HMI tag will get overwritten with a new value by the most recent push button, and can cause the HMI tag to change value.

The OP was for FTView Machine Edition, so it worked well because only 1 HMI is using the tag database; like FTView SE Station

If you have only a few clients, you could try to use multiple HMI tag folders. One folder for each client.
But then the HMI would need to know which client it was running on, and only use that HMI tag folder.
It's not a great solution, and it really doesn't work with many clients.

After that, you will need to use VBA.
Setting visibility of an object with VBA is not too hard. You can also add a VBA click action to a button which makes other objects/groups visible or not.
The good thing about VBA (in this case) is that it is client-side; it only runs on the local client. So that will only affect the one client, and is not shared to the others.

McCabe_92 · Mar 27, 2018

arlenjacobs said:
The OP was for FTView Machine Edition, so it worked well because only 1 HMI is using the tag database; like FTView SE Station

If you have only a few clients, you could try to use multiple HMI tag folders. One folder for each client.
But then the HMI would need to know which client it was running on, and only use that HMI tag folder.
It's not a great solution, and it really doesn't work with many clients.

After that, you will need to use VBA.
Setting visibility of an object with VBA is not too hard. You can also add a VBA click action to a button which makes other objects/groups visible or not.
The good thing about VBA (in this case) is that it is client-side; it only runs on the local client. So that will only affect the one client, and is not shared to the others.

Thanks for the feedback.
I understand what your saying.
I have developed a solution using a PLC tag and passing in a placeholder and driving a visibility clause of the placeholder passed in.
It's strange what I am actually trying to do but have a working solution.

Lesson learned for the future, HMI tag's that can be written to from the front end are better for single clients.

Again, thanks for your help.

Factory Talk View Visibility and Parameter File

DJ DiP

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jkerekes

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DJ DiP

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nhatsen

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DJ DiP

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McCabe_92

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arlenjacobs

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McCabe_92

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