JeffS (Customer) asked a question.
So far, I do like the added features, it does look like it will end up breaking backward compatibility, specially if we want things to look nice or take advantage of some of the features. I put this on a screen to see how it runs I do like this new update, it does seem snappier and it seems to have addressed an issue I was having with the indicator getting stuck on, I can no longer make it happen on this firmware.
Request:
Would it be at all possible to make graphs pull the legend text from the PLC like a dynamic text. We end up overlaying dynamic texts over the legends to allow for custom names, but this can lead to alignment issues as sometimes where the text shows up on the legend can display differently. Might be fixed in this version but figured it would be a nice addition to the graphs since changes are being made.
Issues:
We used some stock images that seem to no longer be stock and got imported weird, though I think I can change them in my original file to import better.
Graph controls that were on the top left of graphs are now on the bottom center, that affects us since we often used the area to the right of the controls to add some additional text information. However the images below display: (Left or top) CM5 v8, (Right or bottom) CM5 V9.
We did the graph name like this when there were controls as it kept more space for the graph itself. A label with the controls pushed the controls down to make room for the label even though there was plenty of space to put a title in the area to the right of the controls. I am looking at how I can modify these in the EA9 version so that they import better. For the graph labels I will likely just use the built in so that it imports better even though it loses graph space on EA9.
Looks like I will have to take another look at fonts again as things that looked right in the previous CM5 version now don't display. I do prefer the behavior in the v9 but just another hiccup to run through all screens and address. I will need to try an EA9 import to see if those fonts work better than the programs I built to work on the CM5 that now look like the objects were just slightly too small to show the text fully. Example below where I opened a v8.26 version of the program and then converted that to v9, some text is not displaying on the v9 but was likely because the v8 would show partially cutoff text even if that cutoff didn’t affect the visible text.
The various elements that can now dynamically scale is awesome, as we built our own previously with overlayed numeric displays over the Y axis scale and then converting the graphed values to a generic 0-1000 based on the scaling we configured. We do have a feature I was trying to work out how to handle, and the scaling sliders does help with that as before I was going to have to do something like how we handled graphs where I scale to some 0-1000 generic scale, which I wasn't looking forward to doing.
Very minor but noticed that the thumbnails for the screens generated in v9 look odd vs the v8. Shown below, also in this you can see more text that no longer shows up in V9 so I will have to adjust object sizes as mentioned above.
The screen brightness object lost the up down arrows. I played with the object a bit and couldn't get arrows to ever show up.
I like how bar graph objects work now, but here is a perhaps an unintended consequence. These objects previously always had dead space on either side of the graph as shown below, so we always had to drag the object larger to display it how we wanted. Now this causes the graph upper and lower ends to be underneath objects, or in other locations, off screen. The dead space on either end seems like it is formulaic as it scales with the object so would it be possible to scale the new bar graph narrower to reflect this change? Also, on this page the coloring of one slider changed for some reason.
Previously graph legends would wrap into multiple lines, the lack of wrapping causes much of the legend text to not be visible.
Again, very excited about what this update brings and how it is operating so far. The bar graph for one will break backward compatibility for us as we use them in lots of our products and the scaling issue will require CM5 specific branches which I would love to avoid.
@JeffS (Customer)
In the Symbol Factory items, they should have imported into you project with no issue since they become part of the project, they do not depend on Symbol Factory. Can you share a screenshot of the difference?
The Line Chart is a complete remake. But we can look at giving an option to have controls that the top. Good suggestion.
The font issue in V8 was unfortunate. Many tweaks and adjustments were made to try to make the rendering in Windows and Linux the same. V9 fixes that and renders them the same on the PC as it does the panel. So now the PC and panel will always be the same. Unfortunately, the conversion from V8 to V9 uncovers the issues with V8 and more adjustments to the project may be necessary on your part. It should be no issue from V9 forward.
On your screenshot where you talk about Bar graphs, all I see is Sliders. Am I missing them? I am not seeing what you are describing.
On the Line Chart Legend not line feeding. You now have more control, you can select how many lines you want to display so you are not depending on the auto line feeds. Let us know what you think?
Also, let us know if I did not address everything.
Difference is shown in the last screenshot, the two red X's. In the original file the elements were white background and then white transparent. I changed it to black background and dropped transparency and they imported fine.
For the bar graphs I pulled one off the screen on both versions to show the difference, the bar graph is located above the green slider in the project window.
OK, I see what you mean on the graph legend. What are the chances that however many lines the original project uses becomes the number of lines in the v9 project? I like the flexibility you have added, but really trying to keep backwards compatibility with EA9 projects so I don't have to maintain two branches for existing products.
Only points I see not mentioned were the contrast up/down arrows; Graph legend being able to populate from dynamic texts.
So I did notice some graph differences, looks like if the graph has a label enabled in the original, the converted CM5 v9 graph will have pause enabled.
Also seems the hide/show pen is automatically enabled on any graph imported even if it wasn't enabled on the source graph.
So I started testing with another screen program and ran across an issue where I can't make a bar meter display the bar if the height is less than 21pix.
This looks like an issue in the programming software only, once I loaded it to a screen these bar meters that are smaller than 21 px tall rendered fine. Also displays in the simulator.
Bar meters it seems the fore color always gets a fading fill effect even if the original did not have it.
I'm not seeing that. The overall conversion is not great when it comes to spacing and such but I am not seeing an issue with the fill.
Odd, I even made a blank project with a few bar meters with different configurations and still show them going with a gradient fill option. This is converting from CM5 v8.26 to CM5 v9 beta1.
@JeffS (Customer) Trying to catch up with you. Thank you for all the feedback. We are reporting bugs you mention to the developers.
I missed the bar graph at the bottom. The bar graph is not converting well overall with relation to spacing in different configurations. We will report that.
"Would it be at all possible to make graphs pull the legend text from the PLC like a dynamic text."
The concept of what you are wanting to achieve is a good idea. We have to consider the best way to implement it.
On the Line Chart buttons. Since we have controls that go all the way across the bottom of the chart when they are enabled, it would be not help you for us to move them to the top, they would still be i the way of your text. But having the option to move them to the top is still a good option to have.