HMI Aspect Ratio Rant..

Well, i seem to run into this every few years when I have to update the software on older HMI. Otherwise I barely notice the topic. I wonder how the rest of you handle this.

It appears about 10 years back the "standard" PC monitor aspect ratio was 16:10 or 1280x800 1920x1200. Even older monitor was 4:3.

Now the "standard" monitor size match the HD TV aspect ratio of 16:9 or 1920x1080.

It drives me crazy when I try to work on graphic that's on the 16:10 ratio on my laptop. Depending the HMI, the scroll bar would suddenly appear and take out 1/4 of the screen and there's no way to properly fit multiple screen unless one actually have the right monitor on hand.

What's the strategy for you folks? I see 16:9 staying for the long (?) term so would it be more beneficial to bite the bullet and convert all the 16:10 system I have to 16:9. Beside, it's getting more difficult to get teh 16:10 screen now but not impossible.

16:10 died out quickly, which was really disappointing. 16:9 is for TV, from a manufacturing process of the glass I don't see this changing. Your next hurdle is 4K and dealing with high DPI. Although you are starting to see some odd ratios on computers, MS Surface and of course Apple Macbooks. I have a customer using ultra-wide's (3440 x 1440) on their desks now which will probably be a trend, I have a 34" ultra-wide myself.

All dependent on the HMI software really. I don't see this getting too much easier, especially if you are trying to maintain traditional P&ID screens.

harryting said:

Beside, it's getting more difficult to get teh 16:10 screen now but not impossible.

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Oddly enough I was looking at this today as the operators are moaning about 19" screens and Dell has the P2421 screen that has 16:10 (just as I needed). I doubt it's going to stay for long though.

I replaced within the last month two laptop resolution screens in the field to match what is on my design station. Design station couldn't replicate the laptop res. WW is a little stupid in how it handles things. It cues its design res of the stations active res.. I can't SET a resolution for design as I can in others. So to have things as smooth and legible as possible.. I replaced the 1366x768 screens with 1920x1080s. Now Full res native panel HMI designs.. much better.

Originally posted by Nova5:

I replaced within the last month two laptop resolution screens ...

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If that's not the tail wagging the dog I don't know what is. But it is probably the best solution, both in terms of design effort now and moving to the future. I just love the pace of technology.

Keith

Nova5 said:

I replaced within the last month two laptop resolution screens in the field to match what is on my design station. Design station couldn't replicate the laptop res. WW is a little stupid in how it handles things. It cues its design res of the stations active res.. I can't SET a resolution for design as I can in others. So to have things as smooth and legible as possible.. I replaced the 1366x768 screens with 1920x1080s. Now Full res native panel HMI designs.. much better.

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We had a customer running Intouch on Windows 7 and he "accidentally" upgraded the PC to Windows 10. The new OS couldn't find the right driver for his obscure monitor and it took me several hours to figure out how to get the right 20% of his HMI graphics to be visible (by drilling into the hardware manager and lying to the squirrels under the hood of windoze).

Then the graphics were narrower than the only screen resolution I could get to work, but at least he could see his tank levels. Later system expansion allowed us to upgrade to Ignition which gives us all the imaginable ways to make the graphics scaleable.

When I have to work on WunderWear, I say to myself "Welcome back to 1990."

Switch to Ignition and scaling is almost a non issue. There are still some hurdles and gotchas, but very few.

Nova5 said:

I replaced within the last month two laptop resolution screens in the field to match what is on my design station. Design station couldn't replicate the laptop res. WW is a little stupid in how it handles things. It cues its design res of the stations active res.. I can't SET a resolution for design as I can in others. So to have things as smooth and legible as possible.. I replaced the 1366x768 screens with 1920x1080s. Now Full res native panel HMI designs.. much better.

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That's just like iFix... I inherited a plant where all the screens had been slightly modified on a laptop and as such they all displayed scroll bars (despite the scroll was only to compensate the existence of the scroll bars).

The image sizes were all correct, but I had to drill to that property, delete one figure, input it back as before and press enter for the windows to resize to the screen they were on.

Phrog30 said:

Switch to Ignition and scaling is almost a non issue. There are still some hurdles and gotchas, but very few.

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Aye, but the screens people seem to be using as 'standard'.. Hrm... My 'Standard' Plant floor screens are 17", 1280x1024 for the main HMI's, and all of the smaller, local ones are either 1024x768 or 800x600, and have been for more than a decade.


Ignition handles scaling fine though, if needed, and I like that I can actually lock maximum and minimum sizes, so I don't have to do any work to make things look normal on some of the new Office person 45" curved screens we are getting here.

kamenges said:

If that's not the tail wagging the dog I don't know what is. But it is probably the best solution, both in terms of design effort now and moving to the future. I just love the pace of technology.

Keith

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I was stuck with two options.. set both to non-native res and hope it looks good between the two screens with two different native resolutions. Or replace the field terminal screens with ones that matched the native res of the design station. 80 bucks each, cheap replacement. They are closed inside a wall mounted box with a clear face so no heavy duty tough screen required.