MexBIOS Development Studio: Visual controls
Visual controls make the software of MexBIOS™ Development Studio interactive. In MexBIOS™ Development Studio there are two sets of visual controls: for input and for output of the information that are assigned to blocks IN and OUT accordingly.
IN
- None;
- Button;
- Track bar;
- Spin edit;
- Client;
Out
- None;
- Label;
- Bulb;
- Progress bar;
- Graph;
- Analog gauge;
- Server;
Assigning visual controls for other block types is not supported.
Setting visual control
- Activate the contextual menu by right-clicking the block.
- Choose under Controls the necessary control.
Fig. 1. Setting visual control for IN block
- None - Cancels the controls that were set earlier.
Visual components for IN block
- Button - This control is intended for definition of two levels of signal that correspond to pushed and released positions of the button.
- BtnGroup: Index of group, to which the button belongs.
- BtnGroup = 0 – the button does not belong to any group. Pushing and releasing the button is carried out by one click on the button. The button is in pushed position only while the left mouse button is clicked and held.
- BtnGroup ≠ 0 – the latching button. Clicking on the button turns it into pushed position. To release the button you need to click it again. Within one group several buttons are not allowed to be in pushed position at the same time. When one of buttons is turned into pushed position, all other buttons are automatically released. All buttons within one group are allowed to be in released position.
- BtnValue1: Value written to global buffer, when the button is turned into pushed position.
- BtnValue2: Value written to global buffer, when the button is turned into released position.
- Track Bar - This control is intended for setting a signal level in a given range.
- Position: Initial pointer position
- Min: Minimum value of pointer position
- Max: Maximum value of pointer position
- Frequency: Number of pointer position ticks
- Client - This control initiates connection and sends requests for data from a server.
- Server Address: Computer name in the network or IP address where the server is running and to which the client is connecting
- Server Port: Port, in which the server is available
- Data Address: Address of the requested data from the server
NOTE: Blocks Client and Server are needed to realize the interprocessor communication feature based on the sockets software interface.
Visual components for OUT block
- Bulb - This control is intended for displaying a discrete signal. Two colors correspond to high and low levels of the discrete signal.
- Color1: Color of logic 1
- Color2: Color of logic 0
- Progress bar - This control is intended for displaying the signal level as percentage of the minimum – maximum range.
- Min: Value corresponding to 0%
- Max: Value corresponding to 100%
- Label - This control is intended for outputting the signal value in its format in the Workspace.
- Graph - This control is intended for displaying the signal as a graph.
- Analog gauge - This control is intended for displaying the signal in form of an analog gauge.
- Angle: Turning angle of pointer between minimum and maximum values
- Min: Minimum value of analog gauge
- Max: Maximum value of analog gauge
- NumMainTicks: Number of divisions between neighbour values in gauge dial
- Precision: the gauge precision
- Server - Server outputs data on request according to application-specific protocol
- Data Address: Address of data requested by client