ProTool

I'm in the situation where I need to have a GUI to test with, and thought I'd build an application with ProTool Pro and run a runtime exe on my PC. I'm using the KepWare OPC Server, and that part is working pretty slick. But some of my old ProTool nightmares are coming back, and I'm sure it's because I'm not approaching the project correctly.

Questions:

1. Is there a way to import a list of tags from a text file or database, or whatever? What if I have a 1000 tags? Do I have to create them individually? There has got to be a shortcut. I was able to easily export the S7 DB to Kepware, but it has been painful to create the tags pointing to the KepWare devices.

2. Let's say I have drawn a picture of a Siemens 32pt Input Card to represent the real-world inputs. When I'm finished, I see that I should reduce the size of the little round LEDs by about 50%. Is there a way to select all of the circles and change the sizes all at once? How about other tag properties? Is there a way to affect them globally?

I dont know about the tag list but the size of the objects can be modified by marking all the objects you want to change and then right click and choose "Group". Now all the objects can be rezised or moved at once. Ungroup by rightclicking and choose "Ungroup". Another way is to mark all the objects now you see that one of the objects has a fat border and the others have a small border. The one with the fat border is the "master" now you can choose from various things in the toolbar for example "Make same Width", "Make same hight" and align objects in all directions.

Re 1: Sadly, you do have to create the 1000 tags manually.
The only "shortcut" there is, is to integrate the Project with STEP7 and then "pick" the symbols from the symbol list in STEP7. It is still a one tag at a time proces though.
And that doesnt help you at all, as you have an OPC connection.

Re 2: The various onscreen objects cannot be modified in one group, except for the following:
Text size, font, italic-bold-underline, etc. and foreground and background colors (all objects, not just texts) can allways be changed by selecting several objects and then doing the changes for them all.
To rezise a group of objects on one go, select them all and "group" them. You can then resize the group, and subsequently remove the "grouping". To get an exact 50% size reduction, open the properties for the grouping and adjust the vertical and horizontal size by specifying the exact number of pixels in both direction.

Win CC Flexible addresses both limitations much better. You can import tags from an Excel spreadsheet for example. And you can modify "advanced" properties for many selected objects at a time.
With the latest version 2005, Win CC Flexible should be usable if not exactly great to work with.

About resizing:

If you only want to change the size of each "LED", but keep the position of each, then use Bratts suggestion to modify one object and then use the size of that object as a "master" for all the others.

You can add objects to be highlighted by holding SHIFT pressed while clicking on objects or you can drag a window with the mouse cursor and all objects inside the window will be highligted.
It is the last object that you highligt that will be the master.

Thanks for everyone's help.

You can add objects to be highlighted by holding SHIFT pressed while clicking on objects or you can drag a window with the mouse cursor and all objects inside the window will be highligted.
It is the last object that you highligt that will be the master.

Click to expand...

Ok, I noticed that I can multi-select by dragging a window, and one of them would be the master, but I couldn't force a certain item to be the master. I'll try selecting with the shift key tomorrow. It would be nice to do it with the window though.

The only "shortcut" there is, is to integrate the Project with STEP7 and then "pick" the symbols from the symbol list in STEP7. It is still a one tag at a time proces though.
And that doesnt help you at all, as you have an OPC connection.

Click to expand...

Actually, I'm using KepWare, and it works like an integrated S7 project. When I want to create a new tag, it launches the KepWare browser automatically and I select the item I want. But it sure would be nice to just import all of the tags, since they are already in a nice, tidy list.

Another question: Let's say I have a screen that has 50 dynamic text output fields on it. In the attributes, I color the text red when the tag is a "1'" and green when it is "2". I have the background color the same as the screen background color. If I change the screen background color, is there an easy way to change all of the tag backgrounds at the same time? I don't see an option to make the output fields transparent.

And one other thing: Is there a clever way to display tool tips when clicking or dragging over an output field? It would be nice if when someone clicked on it, they could see what all of the possible values are (I'm converting some INT machine states to useful text for troubleshooting). I see there is a help text option for an input/output field, but it's disabled for an output field. Is this where an invisible button would be handy?

I couldn't force a certain item to be the master.

Click to expand...

If the wrong object is the master, just click on the right one once, and then again on the right one (all while holding SHIFT pressed). The right one will now be the master.

If I change the screen background color, is there an easy way to change all of the tag backgrounds at the same time?

Click to expand...

If there is a little box with the standard colors (typically in the lower right corner) then left-clicking on one of the colors in the box will set all selected objects foreground color. And right-clicking on one of the colors in the box will set all selected objects background color.
You can add custom colors to the ones that are predefined by the system - just click on one of the "empty" boxes and follow the dialogs.

Also, if one color is "default" so to speak, then do not add that one to the ones in the "attributes" animation list. When the tag has a value that is not contained in the list, then none of the defined attributes will diplayed (so the "normally" defined colors will be displayed in stead).
I only define the "special" color animations, so I can easily change the default colors without opening up the animations.

I don't see an option to make the output fields transparent.

Click to expand...

You mean that the INPUT fields cannot be transparant ? OUTPUT fields can be transparant.

Is there a clever way to display tool tips when clicking or dragging over an output field?

Click to expand...

You want to display the Help Text that can be defined also for output fields. The problem is that you have to select the object before activating the help text, and output fields cannot be selected.
I cannot see an easy solution to that one.

I dont know why you cant have functions connected to outputfields it sometimes would have been nice. As Jesper stated this have been corrected in WinccFlexible but Flexible is just so damm slow i dont understand how they manage to use so much internal memory. I had to upgrade my P4 2.2 gz laptop from 512mb to 1024 just to be able to work with the program but its still slow .

Anyhow just as ju stated you can add an invisible button on top of the outputfield to display messages. I Provided an example on how to do this in three diffrent ways.

1. Regular Helptext
2. A system message
3. A timed windowslike messagebox (Script functions needed i panel for this one)

Example created with Protool/Pro Sp2 and Step7 5.3

Thanks for the sample, Bratt. I'll look at it tomorrow. I'm particularly interested in seeing what I can do with scripts.

I used to use ProTool a few years ago, but I found it was taking way too much of my time so I started doing all of my GUIs in VB. But I thought I'd give ProTool a shot again, but it's almost like one of those situations where you go back to an old girlfriend, only to find out why you left her in the first place.

But, I will persevere!