Project Properties

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Project Properties

This chapter describes the various properties of a project.

The project properties can be opened in two ways:

•Using the Properties entry of the right click context menu of the project node in the Projects tree window.

•Using the Project Properties entry in the File menu.

 

Please note that not all properties are available at all times. Only the properties available for the device in the currently selected project are shown.

hmtoggle_plus1General Properties

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Shows the absolute path to the project directory.

Please don't change the project directory name outside of the program. This will not change the project name. Use "Save As" or "Rename Project" to save the project under a different name. This will also change the project path to the same name. Next to the path is an "Open Folder..." button which opens the OS file explorer at the location of th eproject.

The version number of the project can be set here. The version can be displayed in the project with the variable @ProjektVersion.

The project date (e.g. release date) can be set here. This date can be displayed in the project with the variable @ProjektReleaseDate

The selected page will be used as project home page. The project home page is the page which opens when the display starts. The Home Page can also be set via context menu in the project tree.

Here the default path for images can be set. Whenever you open an image browser for opening an image, the browser starts using this path.

On display devices running X-Server, the mouse cursor is hidden when this property is enabled.

The panel name of the project is displayed.

Note: This feature only works on supported devices!

The copy protection feature protects your project from being copied from one device to another. It prevents hackers from running your project on other devices.

The copy protection uses the serial or article number of the display to determine if a project is allowed to run on the display.

Enter the serial or article number your project is allowed to run on.

Note: The serial number is device specific. When using a serial number, you have to update your project for each device the project shall run on. Using the article number, the project runs on all devices having the same article number. Note that this only makes sense if you have a specific article number, otherwise the project will run on all devices with the same article number.

If you enable this property, the Article / Serial Number is treated as an article number. When disabled, it is treated as a serial number.

You can customize the image that is shown if a copyright violation is detected.

•Select an image file for using a customized image.

•Deselect the customized image and use the default copy protection warning.

To prohibit "hackers" extracting your project from a device and changing it (e.g. remove the copy protection), you can enable the password protection.

If password protection is enabled, you have to enter the password whenever you try to open the project.

 

Note: It is highly recommended to use password protection when copy protection is used!

If Password Protected is enabled, you have to enter the password to use here.

 
hmtoggle_plus1Logos Properties

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Note that not all image settings are available on all devices.

 

The loading screen image is an image that will be displayed while the project is being loaded on the terminal. Showing a progress bar is possible.

The loading screen image should have the same resolution as the target device display and must be an image in PNG file format.

When selecting an image, the image will be renamed to 'loading_screen.png' and placed in the terminal_files/additional_files directory in the project folder.

To create a progress bar you only need to make parts of the loading screen transparent. the progress bar will become visible automatically. The only constraint is that the progress bar runs from the left to right of the display. It starts at 10% of the display resolution and ends at 90% of the display resolution. Example:

 

If your screen resolution is 480x272, the progress bar starts at

X = 48 = 480 * 0.1

and ends at

X = 432 = 480 * 0.9

You are free to define any height and vertical position of the progress bar on the screen.

Loading Image

The image above shows an example loading screen image. The shaded area is transparent in the image and will be filled with a loading bar when the project

loads. It provides a positive feedback for the end user that something is happening.

 

The progress bar will be drawn in black, filling a white area. So the colors of the loading screen image should be chosen accordingly.

The following image shows the progress bar using the above loading screen image.

Progress Bar

Here is another example:

Progress Bar 2

 

By Pressing on "Deselect image" , the image will be removed.

The selected image will be directly displayed after the cold start of the display after the project is installed.

By pressing on "Deselect logo", the image will be removed.

Note that the deselected boot logo will not be removed from the device upon the next installation of the project.

The selected image will be displayed while the PClient starts and while the PClient shuts down.

By pressing on "Deselect image", the image will be removed.

Note that the deselected image will not be removed from the device upon the next installation of the

The selected image will be directly displayed after the cold start of the display in service mode after the project is installed.

By pressing on "Deselect logo", the image will be removed.

Note that the deselected boot logo will not be removed from the device upon the next installation of the project.

The project icon will be used on the applications running on the target device e.g. sunrise or

for PClient- and variables simulation applications running on windows operating system.

By pressing on "Deselect icon", the selected image will be removed.
hmtoggle_plus1Language Properties

The Languages chapter describes these properties.
hmtoggle_plus1Unit Properties

The Units chapter describes these properties.
hmtoggle_plus1Object Properties

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This property changes the default setting for accepting variable changes. There are two possibilities available:

•Send Value Directly

•Send Value on Enter

Here is an example that describes the difference between them:

 

Lets assume your project uses an numeric field. The value of this numeric field is 1. The variable attached to the numeric field is called FanSpeed. The user uses the encoder to navigate to the numeric filed. Then he presses the encoder to open the numeric filed for editing. Now he rotates the encoder. The value shown in the numeric changes ..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10. When reaching value 10, the user ends editing of the value by pressing encoder again.

Now the difference between the two possibilities is:

Send Value Directly: The variable value of variable FanSpeed changes nine times: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. If the variable was mapped to a transmit CAN message which is sent on any value change, this message would be sent nine times, too. Another example: If the variable @DispBacklightIntensity would have been connected to the numeric field, the user could see the brightness changes while finding the proper value.

Send Value on Enter: the variable value of variable FanSpeed changes only one time (when the user accepts the value by pressing encoder): 10. If the variable is mapped to a transmit CAN message which is send on any value change, this message would be send only one time. Another example: If variable @DispBacklightIntensity would have been connected to the numeric field, the user wouldn't see any brightness change until he presses the encoder to accept the value.

Here you can change the default softkey frame width for landscape display orientation or height for portrait display orientation. whenever you create a new page, the default width / height is used for the softkey frames.

Key Properties

When you enable this property, the user can use the encoder to navigate through the softkeys in the softkey frames.

This value defines the delay time until the softkey frames are faded out (i.e. hidden). Softkey frames are shown again, when the user presses a softkey or if a java script shows them again.

A value of zero means: Disable fade out.

This time defines the time how long a user needs to press a key or touch the screen for triggering a long press event. The long release event will be executed immediately when a long press event was triggered and the user releases a key.

Unused.

Unused.

Border Properties (4)

border Properties

Allows changing the transparent border color. The color which is selected here will not be drawn on the screen, it will be drawn transparent.

It's also possible to disable transparent border color by clicking No Color button. Note: To get rid of the blue border around all objects that are created on the screen, set this property to blue (0,0,255).

When a list object contains more elements than can be displayed at once, a scrollbar appears. This property defines the scrollbar width.

This property allows changing the border color profile. By clicking the button, the following window appears:

Border Profile

The following  values can be configured:

Property

Description

Open For Input

The border color visible when the user is editing a value.

Enabled with Focus

The border color visible when the user has selected an object, but not started editing the value.

Enabled without Focus

The border color visible when the user has not selected an object.

Disabled

The border color visible when the value of an object is invalid.

Note: This profile is obsolete and not used in this version.
hmtoggle_plus1Alarm Properties

The Alarms chapter describes these properties.
hmtoggle_plus1Font Attribute Properties

YouTube_icon Tutorial video about fonts and font attributes

 

Using different font styles in a project is different than in common text writing applications. Each Font Attribute is a combination of font size, font style (italic and / or bold) and font color. Only the combinations you have created as Font Attributes are available when creating your project pages. When designing your project pages you can use all the font attributes you have defined and combine them with the available fonts. Whenever you need a new combination of size, style and color, you need to create a new Font Attribute. This allows you to quickly change e.g. the size of the text for all String Fields that use the same Font Attribute.

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Font Attributes Properties

To create a new Font Attribute, enter a new font attribute name in (4) and click the Add button. The name entered here will be used to select a Font Attribute while creating the project pages. Afterwards you can configure the new Font Attribute as described below.

To change the properties of an existing Font Attribute select the Font Attribute (5). Then change the size (6), style (7) and color (8) according to your needs.

To delete a Font Attribute select the Font Attribute to delete (5) and click the Delete button.

To make new font styles available you can import True Type Fonts here.

You also can delete fonts, because each font increases the size of the projects.

Note: It is highly recommended to delete unused custom fonts.

Note: Please be aware of the copyright situation of fonts.

Note: Font files have a lot of name metadata. The font file will only be used successfully if the font name is the same in as many places as possible. You can check and change these settings with a font editor like FontForge:

 

Bad example, doesn't work:

 

old_1

 

old_2

 

Good example, works:

 

new_1

 

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You can use the preview to see how the selected font looks with the selected font attribute. The background will change color between black and white depending on the brightness of the set font color so it is always visible.
hmtoggle_plus1Line Attribute Properties

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In this category line attributes for the 2D Graph can be created and modified.

To create a new line attribute, enter a name in the Line Attribute Name field and press Add.

A line attribute consists of:

- a color - click on the color bar and select a color

- a width - enter a width or change the value with the up/down buttons. Line widths between 1 and 255 pixels are allowed.

- a "Line Art", i.e. a dash pattern - click on the squares to change the dash pattern

There is a preview field showing the result of the settings made.
hmtoggle_plus1Visibility Properties

The Visibility chapter describes these properties.
hmtoggle_plus1Variable Logging Properties

The Variable Logging chapter describes these properties.
hmtoggle_plus1Input Character Attribute Properties

When you offer the user the possibility to enter values with the encoder, you most likely want to restrict the characters he is able to use.

Example: When your project asks the user to enter his name, you might want to prohibit the possibility to enter special characters like !?_ and so on.

This is what the Input character Attribute Properties are used for. You can store a selection of allowed characters as an Input Character Attribute. While creating your project, you can assign these Input Character Attributes to string objects.

Input Character Attribute Properties

To delete an existing Input Character Attribute choose the one to delete (1) and click Delete button.

To create a new Input Character Attribute enter a name for the new attribute and click Add button. The name is used in the editor while creating project pages to make a string object use the Input Character Attribute.

To change the characters available for an Input Character Attribute choose the attribute to change (1). Then you can choose any of the fonts defined in the tool (3).

Now you can start selecting characters by clicking them in the table (6). The table shows the characters in Unicode (UTF-8 encoding form) code pages.

For faster selection of code pages, you can select the subset (4) (it contains a list of character blocks) and click Select all characters button. Using the same procedure, you can also unselect code pages by clicking the Select all characters button again.

Furthermore there are buttons available for fast selection of typical character ranges (7). They can also be used to unselect characters by pressing the buttons again.

The selected characters are further shown in the bottom of the window (8).

Note: For a complete listing of the normative character blocks in the Unicode Standard, see here.
hmtoggle_plus1Virtual Keyboard

When your project uses virtual keyboards for entering values you should configure, which virtual keyboards have to be used for which language. Because the character set used by languages are very different, you most likely need to create one virtual keyboard per language used in your project.

 

virtual Keyboard Properties

First you need to create the virtual keyboards. Then open the virtual Keyboard section of the project properties and select the virtual keyboards that have to be used for each language.
hmtoggle_plus1Images

Here it is possible to clean up the folders "original_images" and "terminal_files" to delete unused images.

1. If an image is added to a project the original image will be added to "original_files" folder. Additionally the scaled or modified image is added to "terminal_files" folder.

When the project is updated (objects are deleted) it could be that images will be removed from "terminal_files" folder and the original image is not used anymore.

In this case it could be helpful to delete unused original images.

2. Normally the  "terminal_files" folder is automatically cleaned up. But if images have been manually copied to this folder, the user has the possibility to remove them.

NOTE: Please never manually copy images to  "terminal_files" folder. This folder is completely maintained by the application.

If you do anyway please be aware that the files will not be used by the application and disk space is lost on the target device when project is downloaded.

HINT:

Original Files: On clicking "Clean up" (1) all unused images with file extension (jpg, jpeg, bmp, png, gif, svg) will be deleted in "original_images" folder.

Terminal Files: On clicking "Clean up" (2) all unused images with file extension (png, gif, svg) will be deleted.

For more information about "Image Handling" please refer to the Image Handling Chapter.

Category Images

 

hmtoggle_plus1ISOBUS

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For OPUS A6G2, OPUS A8, OPUS B3, X18 and X40, ISOBUS projects can be created, see here.

The ISOBUS functionality can be viewed in this category.

The media player and variables that are not available for ISOBUS devices will be deactivated when an existing project is converted to an ISOBUS project.

 

 

hmtoggle_plus1Hardkey settings

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For devices with a power button, the project-wide behavior of that button can be defined.

This behavior can be overridden by a per-page setting on each page.

On each page the same events can be configured specifically for that page.

Please note that if ANY event is configured for a specific page, NO action from the project properties will be executed while on that page, i.e. if you want a specific action OnPress but the general action OnRelease, you need to put that action into the page event configuration for the Power Key, as well.

On pages that have no event configured, the actions from the project properties will be executed.

 
Please note that a hard shut-off is configured for a press longer than 5 seconds.