Beveled Pushbutton formatting FTV 12 SE

[MGICQUEL]

Hi all,
(This is with FTV SE v12)

I am trying to use the Push Button -> Button and I would like to have the same color for the border and the back color with the "beveled" style. I would also like to put my text in top center position but any of this actions looks possible with this kind of button. I could do the last par by add carriage return (Enter) after, but I don't like this kind of things since it is possible with other types of button like Push Button -> Momentary.

The aim of this button is to show an other screen with an action "Display screen ..." with parameters.

Does anyone knows if this is possible ? Should I use another type of button ?

Thanks.

 

[parky]

If you have the border the same as background colour it will not look like a bevelled button, if it is possible then it would have to be a different shade, but even then it would be hard to distinguish betwwen the border & button so there seems to be no point, remember a screen is ony 2D, 3D effect means even if it was the same colour it's the light that reflects that gives it a different appearance.

 

[MGICQUEL]

If you have the border the same as background colour it will not look like a bevelled button, if it is possible then it would have to be a different shade, but even then it would be hard to distinguish betwwen the border & button so there seems to be no point, remember a screen is ony 2D, 3D effect means even if it was the same colour it's the light that reflects that gives it a different appearance.

Yes I understand, the idea was not to have the exact same color but a bit lighter to have the 3D effect, like in the image here. The aim here is to not have the grey border but a blue one.

 

[parky]

sorry I cannot help as I do not have FTV here at the moment, I'm sure someone here will know if it is possible.

 

[alan_505]

Have a look on the general tab to see if there is the option there, this is where it is on ME.

 

[MGICQUEL]

Have a look on the general tab to see if there is the option there, this is where it is on ME.

This what is looking like this page, not options about borders.

 

[MikeyN]

It seems like there is no way to change the color of the border bevel or any of the other styles for that matter. You also cannot select the position of the text within the button. As far as I can tell, this is the only button object that doesn't have these features. I don't see any other way of opening a new display either. The navigation button is useless for what you are trying to do. Strange, these functions all exist in FactoryTalk View ME, and every other HMI software I have used. This is small part of the reason why I don't like using SE. Unlike ME, SE does not have the Goto object. The last time I worked with SE it was V10, and I can't remember if it could do that or not. I only have access to V12 now, so I can't go back and look.

To navigate to a new screen with parameters using the button object you can use the Command Wizard. In the Action tab make sure the Action is set to Run command. Then click on the button with three dots on the right of Press Action. You can scroll down and select Display. At the top of the next pop up, select the page you want to open up by selecting it in the file field at the top. Depending on the parameters you are using, you will either select the option for /T and then list the tags to be used separated by commas or select /P and choose the Parameter File you want to use

 

[MGICQUEL]

It seems like there is no way to change the color of the border bevel or any of the other styles for that matter. You also cannot select the position of the text within the button. As far as I can tell, this is the only button object that doesn't have these features. I don't see any other way of opening a new display either. The navigation button is useless for what you are trying to do. Strange, these functions all exist in FactoryTalk View ME, and every other HMI software I have used. This is small part of the reason why I don't like using SE. Unlike ME, SE does not have the Goto object. The last time I worked with SE it was V10, and I can't remember if it could do that or not. I only have access to V12 now, so I can't go back and look.

To navigate to a new screen with parameters using the button object you can use the Command Wizard. In the Action tab make sure the Action is set to Run command. Then click on the button with three dots on the right of Press Action. You can scroll down and select Display. At the top of the next pop up, select the page you want to open up by selecting it in the file field at the top. Depending on the parameters you are using, you will either select the option for /T and then list the tags to be used separated by commas or select /P and choose the Parameter File you want to use

Thanks for you answer Mikey, yes, that is a shame that every other HMI can do this but not the one I am using. I searched a bit more and on the Panel object for example, it has the property "BorderUsesBackColor" which is a Boolean but this is not present on the Button object for some reasons...

I know how to navigate with parameters, but thanks for the advice though . I was just trying to make the button look nicer than that grey border that does not fit with the colors we use in my company

 

[MikeyN]

Apologies, I must have misunderstood what you were saying when you mentioned using parameters. The more I mess with it, the more I realize how abnormal the button object really is. I don't understand why Rockwell didn't include a much simpler navigation push button object in SE. They have a Navigation object that is incapable of calling up a specific screen, never mind using parameters with it.

I tinkered around with the button a little bit more, and I did come up with a solution, but it is not great by any stretch of the imagination. I created a momentary pushbutton object on the screen, grabbed a screenshot of the button, saved the image as a bitmap, imported the file on the Up Appearance property, set the background color to match the background of the screen, and selected no border on the general tab. Rinse and repeat for the Down Appearance if you want a different image when it is pressed, and in testing it almost looks like a normal button. This could be an acceptable solution if you are only using one of these.

This method of course comes with its own quirks. For instance, even with no border selected, FactoryTalk insists on placing a border around the image no matter how I resized it. This is why I had to set the background color to hide it. This also means that there will always be an area around the image that can be clicked making it impossible to butt two images together so that the borders touch.

I am including an image below that shows the two different buttons (left is the button object, right is the momentary pushbutton that I took the image of) side by side in three different situations. The first is the two buttons sized similarly using snap, but the background is set to match the screen background. It is kind of difficult to tell, but the right edge of the image has been cropped out. The second has the background color of the button object changed to stand out. The third uses two of the same button objects with the background set to white again, but I am trying to butt the two buttons together. Because of the border, it is impossible to make the two buttons touch.

 

[MGICQUEL]

I thought about doing this with an image like you did but we decided with my manager to not lose more time on this, so we worked around the problem by using panels and a button hidden behind the panels. You are still able to click the button and the panel object has this property of "BorderUsesBackColor". We are using this work around a lot in our solution so that's why I was trying to make a (supposed ) "simple" button with enabled and disabled appearance. Maybe we will be waiting on Rockwell to add this functionality in the future in SE!