I'm currently working on an FTView SE v5.1 distributed system that has about 400 displays and is designed for upwards of 20 clients.
We're upgrading from an SE v4.0 system and have decided to switch monitor aspect ratios in the process. We're going from a 1280x1024 display to a 1680x1050 display. With this extra real estate, we've decided that we would like to add an always present menu/status/info bar on the left hand side of the screen (I guess we could do right if that helps eliminate my issue). I've attached an image of the menu bar. Basically there's 12 main menu categories and 12 submenu options for each main menu button. When an operator presses one of the main menu buttons, it shows the submenu. The submenu buttons will then open graphic displays once pressed. The submenu should stay open after pressed. I'd like to make this menu without having to change anything in the ~400 existing displays.
I've tried to implement this in a number of ways, but can't seem to get it to work properly. The most convenient thing for me would to be able to have 1 large display which is docked to the left side. However, the menus get a little difficult to create in this method (I'm using a Multistate indicator for the labels and a really long chained if statement for the button actions, all based on a memory tag). This all worked fine, until I thought about needing to have more than 1 client connected. I then started looking for a way to have "local" memory tags, but of course FTView doesn't have that feature. I feel like there's probably a way to do this in VBA, but I have no experience with OOP, and the whole interaction between that and animation is a little confusing.
Any ideas on how to make a menu like this would be greatly appreciated! I've been working on this for about 30 hrs now and haven't really come up with anything that works.
If you need any clarification/have any questions, please feel free to ask! Thanks!
We're upgrading from an SE v4.0 system and have decided to switch monitor aspect ratios in the process. We're going from a 1280x1024 display to a 1680x1050 display. With this extra real estate, we've decided that we would like to add an always present menu/status/info bar on the left hand side of the screen (I guess we could do right if that helps eliminate my issue). I've attached an image of the menu bar. Basically there's 12 main menu categories and 12 submenu options for each main menu button. When an operator presses one of the main menu buttons, it shows the submenu. The submenu buttons will then open graphic displays once pressed. The submenu should stay open after pressed. I'd like to make this menu without having to change anything in the ~400 existing displays.
I've tried to implement this in a number of ways, but can't seem to get it to work properly. The most convenient thing for me would to be able to have 1 large display which is docked to the left side. However, the menus get a little difficult to create in this method (I'm using a Multistate indicator for the labels and a really long chained if statement for the button actions, all based on a memory tag). This all worked fine, until I thought about needing to have more than 1 client connected. I then started looking for a way to have "local" memory tags, but of course FTView doesn't have that feature. I feel like there's probably a way to do this in VBA, but I have no experience with OOP, and the whole interaction between that and animation is a little confusing.
Any ideas on how to make a menu like this would be greatly appreciated! I've been working on this for about 30 hrs now and haven't really come up with anything that works.
If you need any clarification/have any questions, please feel free to ask! Thanks!