Modules/Vision

Other languages:
English • ‎российский • ‎українська
Module Name Version License Source Languages Platforms Type Author Description
Vision Operation user interface (Qt) 5.4 GPL2 ui_Vision.so en,uk,ru,de x86,x86_64,ARM UI Roman Savochenko
Maxim Lysenko (2007-2012), Ksenia Yashina (2007-2008) 		Visual operation user interface, based on the Qt library — front-end to the VCA engine.

Contents

The module provides to OpenSCADA a mechanism of the final visualization of the visualization and control area (VCA). The module is based on the multi-platform library Qt of the graphical user interface (GUI) of initially created by the firm TrollTech. In its work, the module uses the data of the VCA engine — module VCAEngine).

Visual control area (VCA) is an integral part of the SCADA system. It applies to the client stations with a view to providing accessible information about the control object and to for the the issuance of the control actions to the object. In various practical situations and conditions the VCA, based on different principles of visualization, may by applied. For example, this may be the library of widgets Qt, GTK+, WxWidgets or hypertext mechanisms based on the technologies HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS and JavaScript, or third-party applications of visualization, realized in various programming languages Java, Python, etc. Any of these principles has its advantages and disadvantages, the combination of which could become an insurmountable obstacle to the use of VCA in a practical case. For example, technologies like the Qt library can create highly-productive VCA, which will undoubtedly important for the operator station for control the technological processes (TP). However, the need for installation of that client software in some cases may make using of it impossible. On the other hand, Web-technology does not require installation on client systems and is extremely multi-platform (it is enough to create a link to the Web-server at any Web-browser) that is most important for various engineering and administrative stations, but the productivity and reliability of such interfaces is lower, that actually eliminates the using of them at the operator stations of TP.

OpenSCADA has extremely flexible architecture that allows you to create external interfaces, including user, in any manner and taste. For example, the OpenSCADA configuration environment available now as by means of the Qt-library, and also the Web-based.

At the same time, independent creation of the VCA implementations in different basis may cause the inability to use the configuration of one VCA into another one. That is inconvenient and limited from the user side, as well as costly in terms of implementation and follow-up support.

In order to avoid these problems, as well as to create as soon as possible the full spectrum of different types of VCA, the project of conception of the Visual Control Area (VCA) is established. The result of this project — this direct visualization module (based on the library Qt), direct visualization module WebVision and the VCA engine VCAEngine.

1 Purpose

This module of the direct visualization of the VCA is designed for the formation and execution of VCA interfaces among the graphic library Qt. The VCA module mostly provides:

  1. formation from the template frames, by assigning the dynamics and without the graphical configuration;
  2. graphical formation of new frames, using ready-made visualization elements from the library - mnemosmes;
  3. forming, in the library, new ones: frames, template frames and display elements.


2 Tool of the graphical formation of the VCA interface

Development of the VCA interface is performed in a single window, realizing many documents interface (MDI) (Fig.2.a). This approach allows you to simultaneously open multiple frames of various sizes. The following mechanisms to control the development are used: toolbars, menus and context menus. Most actions are duplicated by different mechanisms, that allows you to quickly find the tool by the convenient method. Navigational interfaces are implemented by the attached windows. Configuration of the toolbars and attached windows is saved on exit and restored at startup that lets you to customize the interface for yourself.

Fig.2.a. Window of development the VCA interface.

Access to major components of the VCA is made by attached windows, in the Figure 2.a these windows are shown on the left side. These windows contain:

In the main space of the working window the pages of projects, frames of the widgets' libraries, user elements and elements of primitives at the time of their visual editing are placed.

At the top of the working window there is the menu. All the tools needed for development the VCA interfaces are placed in the menu. Menu has the following structure:

Above, under menu, or on the sides, there are the toolbars. Toolbars can be hidden or located, which is controlled in the menu item "View". The following toolbars are provided:

At the bottom of the development window of the VCA there is the status line. On the right side of the status line there are indicators of the visual scale of the edited frame, of the mode of changing of the size of the elements, of the mode of the VCA engine station and the user on whose behalf the development of the VCA interface is done. By double-clicking on the indicator of the user it can be changed the current user, entering the new username and password. In the main field of the status line it is displayed various information and assistance messages.

To edit properties of the visual elements there are two dialogues. The first dialogue allows you to edit the properties of containers of the visual elements, (Fig.2.b) — widgets libraries and projects. The second dialogue serves to edit the properties of the visual elements (Fig.2.d). Changes, made in the dialogues, at once, get to the VCA engine. To save these changes to the database, or restore from the database, it is necessary to use the appropriate tools of the main development window.

Fig.2.b. Dialogue of editing of the properties of the containers of the visual elements.

With the help of the main tab of that dialog you can set:

Fig.2.c. Tab "Diagnostics" of the project.

From this tab you can, for obtain the diagnostic messages: select the time, refresh to the current tiem and select the size-deep.

Fig.2.d. Dialogue of editing of the properties of the visual elements.

With the help of the main tab of that dialog you can set:

Dialogue of editing the properties of the containers of the visual elements contains two tabs: configuration tab of the the main parameters (Fig.2.b) and configuration tab of the mime-data of the container (Fig.2.e).

Fig.2.e. Editing tab of the mime-data of a container of the visual elements.

Dialogue of editing the properties of the visual elements contains four tabs: configuration tab of the main parameters (Fig.2.b), tab of the element attributes (Fig.2.f), tab of the element processing (Fig.2.g) and tab of the element links (Fig.2.h). At different levels of the visual elements hierarchy some tabs can be available, but some are not.

Fig.2.f. Attributes tab of the editing dialogue of the properties of the visual element.
Fig.2.g. Processing tab of the editing dialogue of the properties of the visual element.
Fig.2.g. Links tab of the editing dialog of the properties of the visual element.

2.1 Styles

It knows that people can have individual features in the perception of graphical information. If these features are not taken into account, it is possible to obtain the rejection and abruption of the user to the interface of VC. This rejection and abruption can lead to fatal errors in the management of TP, as well as traumatize the human by the continuous work with the interface. In SCADA systems, arrangements have been made that regulate the requirements for creating the unified UI interface, which is normally perceived by most people. This is practically eliminates the features of people with some deviations.

In order to take this into account and allow centralized and easy to change the visual properties of the interface module is implementing a theme manager of the visualization interface.

User can create many themes, each of which will keep the color, font and other properties of the frame elements. Simple changing of the theme will allow you to change the interface of VC, and the possibility of appointing an individual theme in the user's profile allows to take into account his individual features.

To realize this opportunity, when creating a frame, it is necessary for the properties of color, font and others set the "Configuration" (of the table in the "Process" tab) in the value of "From style". And in the parameter "Configuration template" to specify the identifier of the style field. Next, this field will automatically appear in the style manager and can be modified there. The style manager is available on the project configuration page in the tab "Styles". In this tab, you can the styles create, delete and edit, delete their fields.

Vision prj stl.png

In general, the styles are available from the project level. At the level of the widget libraries you can only define the style fields for the widgets. At the project level, at the choice of style, it is started the work with styles, which includes access to the fields of styles instead of direct attribute values. In fact, this means that when reading or writing a widget attribute these operations will be carried out with the corresponding field of the chosen style.

When starting a project, the project-style will be used. In the future, the user can choose a style from the list of available. The user-selected style will be saved and used the next time the project is launched.


2.2 Linkage with the dynamics

To provide the visualization interface of relevant data, data from the subsystem "Data acquisition (DAQ)" should be used. The nature of these data is as follows:

  1. parameters that contain some number of attributes;
  2. attributes of the parameter can provide information of five types: Boolean, Integer, Real, String and Object;
  3. attributes of the parameter can have their archive (history);
  4. attributes of the parameter can be set to read, write and with full access.

Given the first point, it is necessary to provide the possibility of group-based reference. To do this, we use the logical level concept.

The links provide a transparent type conversion and do not require a special configuration.

To satisfy the opportunities for accessing to archives links make check of the attribute type, and in the case of connection to the "Address", the address of the link is put into the value.

In the VCA terms, the dynamic links and configuration of the dynamics are the one process, to describe a configuration of which the tab "Processing" of the widgets is provided (Fig.2.f). The tab contains a table of configuration of the attributes properties and the calculation procedure text of the widget.

In addition to configuration fields of the attributes the column "Processing" in the table provides, for selective using of the attributes in the computational procedure of the widget, and the columns "Configuration", "Configuration template", to describe the links configuration.

The column "Configuration" allows to specify the link type of the widget attribute:

The column "Configuration template" makes it possible to describe the groups of dynamic attributes. For example, it may be different types of parameters of the subsystem "DAQ" and other interface widgets. With the correct formation of this field, the mechanism of automatic assignment of attributes is worked, with only the parameter of the subsystem "DAQ" or the widget of the interface, which simplifies and accelerates the configuration process. Value of this column has the following format:

There may be several types of links, that are defined by the prefix:

Processing of the links occurs at a period of the widget calculating in the following order:

Figure 2.g presents the tab with the possibility of group and individual assignment of attributes.

When placing a widget in the widget container, all links of the original widget are added to the list of resulting links of the widget container, however, only to a depth at one level of nesting.

From the foregoing it is clear that the links are set by the user during the configuration of the interface. However, in order to allow the creation of general-purpose frames with the function of providing detailed data of different sources of the same type, a dynamic linking mechanism is required. Such a mechanism is foreseen:

Let's examine the example when we have the frame of general-purpose "Control panel of graph" and a lot of "Graphs" in different frames. "Control panel of graph" has links with the templates:

In this case, each widget "Graph" has attributes "tSek", "tSize", "trcPer" and "valArch". Calling the "Control panel of graph" by opening signal from any widget "Graph", the attributes of the "Control panel of graph" are linked together with the attributes of the "Graph" widget, according to the template. As a result, all changes in the "Control panel of graph" will be displayed on the graph, through these links.

If the "Graph" widget has external links to the parameters of the "Data acquisition" subsystem, the "Control panel of graph" links will be installed on the external source. Additionally, if the "Control panel of graph" will be declared the links to the missing attributes directly in the widget "Graph", then the search will be made for the presence of such attributes in the external source — the first one on which a direct link is established, performing, thereby, the addition of the missing links.

To visualize this mechanism the table is provided.

Table. The mechanism of the dynamic linkage.

Attributes of the "Control panel of graph" (the template of dynamic linkage) "Graph" attributes Attributes of the external "Parameter" Resulting link or value of the linking attribute
tSek (<page>|tSek) tSek - "Graph".tSek
tSize (<page>|tSize) tSize - "Graph".tSize
trcPer (<page>|trcPer) trcPer - "Graph".trcPer
valArch (<page>|valArch) valArch - "Graph".valArch
var (<page>|var) var var "Parameter".var
ed (<page>|ed) - ed "Parameter".ed
max (<page>|max) - - EVAL
min (<page>|min) - - EVAL

3 Execution of the VCA interfaces

Execution of the IU interface consists in launching a new project session or connecting to the current one, at the level of the VCA engine. Then the module of direct visualization represents and controls the session data. The main window of the execution mode of this module has the view presented at Figure 3.

Update of the contents of the open pages of the visual interface with periodicity of the project session is implemented. During the upgrade process:

- request, in the model, of opened pages list and checking consistency of the really opened pages to this list;
- requests of modified data on each opened page and its widgets;
- updating content of the pages and their widgets in accordance with the received modified data.

When closing the "Runtime" window closes the project session in the data model if the session is not background and it was the last connection.

The mechanism of the request for only modified data is based on the absolute counter of the session execution. When you make real changes in the attributes of widgets the remembering of the value of this counter is made, which allows us to identify the modified attributes. This approach allows to increase productivity and reduce the load on the traffic in case of access to the model through the network.

Hierarchically, the module assumes the possibility of placing pages of the project as in the main window of execution (Fig. 3), and by placing inside the container widgets, as well as by opening additional windows over the main one.

When you expand the main execution window, or moving to the full-screen mode, scaling of the page content of the VCA interface is performed, filling the entire space of the window and allowing to execute the projects, developed on one screen resolution, at different resolutions.

The main window consists of menu (top) status line (bottom), and the executable contents of the session between them. Menu in the execution mode is positioned as the administrator tool of OpenSCADA, which contains system-wide functions, and is only available to privileged users in the "root" group. Menu has the following structure:

On the status line locates:

The Runtime mode mostly supports multi-language, which depends on the language of the selected user or the execution window, that is if you change the user you will get the Runtime interface at other language of the user. This function enabled for dynamic messages translation of OpenSCADA.

Fig.3. Main window in the execution mode.

4 Presentation of the basic elements (primitives)

This version of the module does not implement all the shapes of the primitives laid by the project. In general, the project provides the following primitives:

Identifier Name Function
ElFigure Elementary graphical figure

The primitive is the basis for drawing elementary graphical shapes with their possible combinations in a single object. The support of the following elementary figures is provided:

  • Line.
  • Arc.
  • Bézier curve.
  • Fill of the enclosed space.

For all the figures, contained in the widget, set the common properties of thickness, color, etc., provides the possibility to specify the above-mentioned attributes for each figure separately and their dynamization.

FormEl Element of the form

Includes support for the standard form components:

  • Line edit.
  • Text edit.
  • Check box.
  • Button.
  • Combo box.
  • List.
  • Tree.
  • Table.
  • Slider.
  • Scroll bar.
Text Text Text element-label. Characterized by the font type, color, orientation and alignment. Support for arguments is provided.
Media Media Element of the visualization of raster and vector images of various formats, playback of the animated images, playback of the audio fragments and view of the video fragments.
Diagram Diagram Element of the diagram with the support of the visualization in the real-time for the flow of several: trends (time charts), spectrum, XY diagrams.
Protocol Protocol Element of the protocol — visualizer of the program messages, with support of the multiple operating modes.
Document Document Element of the generating reports, journals and other documentation on the basis of available data.
Box Container Contains the mechanism for other widgets placement-including with the purpose of creation of new, more complex, widgets and pages of the end visualization.
Function, in plane Function of API of the object model of OpenSCADA Not visual widget, on the runtime side, which allows to include a computing function of the object model of OpenSCADA in the VCA.

At.png For all implemented primitives, except "FormEl," this module supports the conditional generation of events from the mouse manipulator at the transparency of the pointed pixel, more than zero — not complete transparency.

The visualizer module provides and uses set of specific attributes of the generic means, the information of which is given in the table. These attributes are automatically created by the visualizer in their absence and during the first run, or created by the user in the frame of the specified area, as needed.

Identifier (area) Name Appointment
statLine (main page) Status line items

Text field with description of the status line item in the string form "{Id}:{Label}:{ToolTip}:{Color}:{Img}", where:

  • "Id" — identifier, uses also to form events from the widget "stIt_{Id}".
  • "Label" — visual label of the status element.
  • "ToolTip" — context help about the element.
  • "Color" — label color.
  • "Img" — image of the status element, instead the label.
runWin (main page) Window of the execution

Setting the mode of the main window execution:

  • "Original size (0)".
  • "Maximize (1)".
  • "Full screen (2)".
keepAspectRatio (main page) Keep aspect ratio on scale Keep aspect ratio of the pages on scale.
stBarNoShow (main page) Do not show the status bar Hide the status bar of the main window.
winPosCntrSave (main page) Control and save for position of the windows Enabling the windows position control and save.
userSetVis (main page, created manually, the type "String") Setting the user

Change the user or call a dialog to select it. Variants of the value:

  • "*" — call for a selecting dialog of the user;
  • "$" — change the user to the default one;
  • "{user}" — direct change to user, if available.

Consider the implementation of each primitive in more detail.

4.1 Elementary figure primitive (ElFigure)

Support of the following elementary figures is provided: line, elliptical arc, Bézier curve and fill of the closed circuit with the color and image. For the elementary figures the following operations are provided:

Figure shows a part of the screen with a frame containing the elementary figures.

Vision elfig new.png

The figures underlying this widget, containing the points (the start and end ones) that can be connected with the according points of other figures; and the points with the help of which the geometry of the figure can be changed.

It is possible to add the figure using the mouse manipulator:

  1. Select the desired figure from the context menu.
  2. Set, with the left mouse-button, start and end points (for line, with the SHIFT key hold its orthogonal drawing is made).

The deleting of the figure(s) it is possible by pressing "Del", having selected figure(s).

The copying of the figure(s) it is possible by pressing keys "Ctrl"+"C", having selected figure(s).

Moving/resizing of the figure it is possible by using the mouse manipulator or keyboard:

  1. Select the figure, by clicking on it with the left mouse button.
  2. Drag (with the help of mouse or control keys) the figure or one of its control points in the desired location and release the mouse button (key).

It is possible to move several selected figures, selected by holding "Ctrl" (works when the "Connections" button is unlocked) or by mouse.

The connection of the figures with each other it is possible by the following way:

  1. Press the button "Connections".
  2. Select one of the figures and move its start or end point to the desired start or end point of the other figure so that it will get to the appeared circle. Connected figures are moving as well as the individual — the general point is moved for all connected figures, to which it refers, where the priority is given to the arc and two arcs can't be connected directly with each other.

To fill the closed contour from the figures it is possible with the following way:

  1. Press the button "Connections".
  2. Create the closed contour.
  3. Make the double-click of the mouse inside of it.

To delete the fill of the closed contour it is possible:

Rotation of the figure is made around the widget center.


4.2 Text primitive (Text)

Support of the text element with the following properties is implemented:

Figure represents a part of the screen with the frame containing the text examples using various parameters.

Vision run txt.png


4.3 Primitive of the form element (FormEl)

Provides support for the form elements on the VCA frames with the planed properties, including the types:

The "Enabled" and "Active" modes are implemented, as well as the transfer of changes and events to the data model of the VCA — engine.

Figure represents a part of the screen with the frame containing the above-listed elements of the form.

Vision run formel.png


4.4 Primitive of the displaying the media-materials (Media)

Support of the element of the displaying of the media-materials with the following properties is provided:

Figure represents a part of the screen with the frame containing examples of reviewing/playback of the media-data.

Vision run media.png


4.5 Primitive of constructing diagrams (Diagram)

The diagrams construction element releases for types: "Graph", "Spectrum" and "XY", with properties:

The visualizer module provides and uses set of specific attributes of this primitive, the information is shown in the next table.

Identifier Name Appointment
sclWin Zooming the area framed by a window, mouse. A logical attribute type that is created by the user manually, as needed. For true, activates the mode of zooming the trend area framed by the window with the mouse.

Figure represents a part of the screen with the frame containing examples of the diagrams: "Graph", "Spectrum" and "XY".

Vision run diag.png


4.6 Primitive of the protocol formation (Protocol)

Provides for support of the element of the protocol formation with the following properties:

Figure represents a part of the screen with the frame containing an example of the protocol.

Vision prot.png


4.7 Primitive of the report formation (Document)

Provides for support element of the report formation with the following properties:

The basis of any document is the XHTML template. The XHTML-template is the tag "body" of the WEB-page which contains the document's static in the standard XHTML 1.0 and elements of the executable instructions in the user programming language of OpenSCADA in the view <?dp {procedure} ?>. The resulting document is formed by the procedures execution and insertion of their result into the document.

The source for values of the executable instructions are the widget attributes of the primitive, as well as all the mechanisms of the user programming language OpenSCADA. Attributes may be added by the user and they can be linked to the actual attributes or parameters or they can be autonomous, values of which will be formed in the widget procedure. In the case of linked attributes the values can be extracted from the archive-history.

Figure represents the frame, containing a sample of the document.

Vision doc.png


4.8 Primitive of the box-container (Box)

Provides for support of the container primitive, which, in combination, plays the role of project pages. This primitive is the only container-element, which can itself include links to frames from the library, thus forming the user elements of the desired configuration. The primitive implements the properties provided by the project. Let's list, in points, the properties of this primitive:


An example of editing a frame based on this primitive is shown in Figure 2.a, and Figure 3 shows a page that contains a page container built on this primitive.

5 Vector graphics editor

5.1 Purpose

The presence of own vector graphics editor is an integral part of self-respecting SCADA system. Experience shows that the most informative form of the technological process presentation is a mnemonic schemes — a set of signal devices, images of the equipment and internal connections of the controlled object, running on a PC. To create them, you can use any of the existing graphical editors. However, thus obtained the mnemonic schemes are static and do not reflect the dynamics of changes in the characteristics of the process and, consequently, they are inadequate and uncomfortable for perception. Thus, one of the tasks facing the developers of SCADA systems is the creation of a graphical editor for creation (painting) the objects, whose characteristics can be dynamically changed.

5.2 Principles and functions of the graphic editor

The basis of the described editor are three graphic primitives: line, arc, Bézier curve. The dynamically changing characteristics of these primitives include:

Fig.5.2.a. Control points of the line, arcs and Bézier curve.

Examples of the primitives, of different colors, widths, styles, with borders or without ones, are shown in Figure 5.2.b.

Fig.5.2.b. Examples of the primitives, from left to right: line, arc and Bézier curve.

It is possible to connect various graphic primitives, to create complex graphic objects. If the connected primitives make the closed contour, it can be filled with color and image (Fig.5.2.c).

Fig.5.2.c. Fills of the closed contour with the color and image.

The graphics editor allows you to zoom and rotate the figures (Fig.5.2.d) — primitives and complex graphic objects.

The features of the editor also include: selection, moving, copying and deleting the figures.

Fig.5.2.d. Zooming and rotating the figures.

5.3 Basic principles of operation in the graphical editor

In order to get started with the graphical editor, after launching the OpenSCADA project, you need to call "Operation user interface (Qt)". The "Widgets" tab contains a list of existing graphical libraries and items that belong to them.

Suppose we need to add a graphic element to one of the existing libraries. To do this, select the library name, and click the button (Vision ElFigCreate.png) on the toolbar. In the appeared window enter the Identifier and name of the new graphic element. After that, let's move on to this element and press the button (Vision ElFigEdit.png). The drawing area will appear on the right. Using the double-click mouse over this field, or by using the context menu, we will enter the editing mode — the graphic editor mode, which allows you to perform all the provided manipulations with the figures. At that moment, when the graphic element we created is in focus, the tab "Attributes" will look like it is shown in Figure 5.3.a.

Fig.5.3.a. Attributes of the elementary figure.

With the help of mouse, or the "Geometry" field of the "Attributes" tab, let's define the drawing area size and scale coefficients.

Using the "Line" field of the "Attributes" tab, lets define the width, color, line style of the figures, which we'll draw. With the "Border" field let's define the width and color of the border. The "Fill" field allows you to specify color, and image for the fills. "Elements list" contains a list of primitives used to create the graphical object. Elements of all fields of the "Attributes" tab can be dynamically changed in the user procedure.

Graphical primitives can be drawn with the mouse or by specifying the list of graphical primitives ("Elements list"). In the first case, the coordinates of the control points of the primitive are computed automatically, and width, color, style of the line, width and color of the border are set by defaults, from the "Attributes" tab. In the second case, the primitive must be described in the "Elements list" as follows:

line:(x1|y1):(x2|y2):width:color:border_width:border_color:style (1)
arc:(x1|y1):(x2|y2):(x3|y3):(x4|y4):(x5|y5):width:color:border_width:border_color:style (2)
bezier:(x1|y1):(x2|y2):(x3|y3):(x4|y4):width:color:border_width:border_color:style, (3)

Where:

(x1|y1) — coordinates of the first control point of the primitive;
(x2|y2) — coordinates of the second control point of the primitive;
(x3|y3) — coordinates of the third control point of the primitive;
(x4|y4) — coordinates of the fourth control point of the primitive;
(x5|y5) — coordinates of the fifth control point of the primitive;
width — line width, with which the primitive will be drawn;
color — line color, with which the primitive will be drawn;
border_width — border width;
border_color — border color;
style — line style ("0" — solid, "1" — dashed, "2" — dotted).

In this case, the values of the width, color, style of the line, width, and color of the border in the elements list are priority. If you want to use any of the properties, that are set in the fields "Line" or "Border" of the "Attributes" tab, then during the description of the primitive they should be skipped. For example, we want to create a line with: width 3, red color, solid and without border. At the same time in the "Line" field the following properties are set: line width 3, black color and solid style; and in the "Border" field: border width 5, green color. Then the description of the primitive in the elements list will be as follows:

line:(x1|y1):(x2|y2)::red:0:: (4)

Expressions (1) - (4) define the static properties of the primitives that can not be changed in user's procedure. To specify the dynamic properties it is necessary to use the following expression:

line:1:2:w1:c1:w2:c2:s1 (5)

Then, the "Attributes" tab will be appended by the fields: Point 1 (1), Point 2 (2), Width 1(w1), Width 2(w2), Color 1(c1), Color 2(c2), Style 1 (s1) (Fig. 5.3.b). Values of these fields can be changed in user's procedure, using the user programming language of OpenSCADA. Obviously, if desired, not all properties of the primitive can be declared dynamic, but one or more, in addition, one dynamic property can be used repeatedly.

Editing the coordinates of the control points is made using the mouse or by changing them in the elements list, for static points; or directly in the "Attributes" tab, with dynamic points in place ("Point 1", ...). Editing the other properties is made by means of changing the content of the fields "Line", "Border", "Fill" of the "Attributes" tab or the elements list.

Fig.5.3.b. Dynamic attributes of the elementary figure.

There are possibilities:

To connect primitives with each other you need:

  1. Press the button "Connections".
  2. Select one of the figures and move its start or end point to the desired start or end point of the other figure so that it will get to the appeared circle.

To fill the closed contour it is necessary to make double click of the left mouse button inside it or to specify the fill in the elements list as follows:

fill:(x1:y1):(x2:y2):...:(xn:yn):color:image — static;
fill:1:2:3:...:c1:i1 — dynamic.

Where:

(x1:y1):(x2:y2):...:(xn:yn) — coordinates of the start and end points of the primitives that form a closed contour;
color — fill color;
image — fill image.

The priority values are the color and image of the fill, set in the elements list. If you want to use the characteristics set by the "Fill" field of the "Attributes" tab, then, when describing the primitives, they should be omitted.

To scale the figures it is necessary, in the "Geometry" field, to set the scale for the "X" and "Y" axes. In addition, there is the ability to visually zoom in/out the widget without changing the scale in the "Geometry" field. You must exit the editing mode, right click on the widget field, select in the popup menu "Zoom in (+10%)"/"Zoom out (-10%)" or rotate the mouse wheel while holding the "Ctrl" key pressed. Exit the editing mode is made either by pressing the "Esc" or using the popup menu of the widget.

There is a possibility to rotate the content of the widget, for which it is necessary in the "Attributes" window to set "Orientation angle" from -360 to 360.

The graphical editor supports color transparency, defined as follows: {color}-{t}, where color — the color, and t — transparency from 0 (fully transparent) to 255 (opaque).

5.4 Popup menu of the graphic editor

The popup menu by the right-clicking in the editable widget is provided. Depending on what an object is under the mouse, popup menu can take several different forms. Below, in Figure 5.4, there are examples of the popup menu.

Fig.5.4. Popup menu for the lines (line, arc, Bézier curve) and for the fill, from left to right.

The popup menu includes the following sections (from the top to the bottom):

5.5 Properties dialog of the elementary figure

Dialog, versions of which are shown in Figures 5.5.a, 5.5.b, 5.5.c, is implemented for interactive and comfortable user control of the properties of the figure(s).

Fig.5.5.a. Properties dialog of the elementary figure for single figure (line, arc or a Bézier curve).
Fig.5.5.b. Properties dialog of the elementary figure for the group of selected figures.
Fig.5.5.c. Properties dialog of the elementary figure for the fill.

As can be seen from the figures above, the dialog can be of three different forms, depending on the object for which it is called. In the title of the dialog there are the numbers of figures, for which it is called. These numbers correspond to the figures positions in the elements list, starting from the top.

If the dialog called for a single figure (line, arc or a Bézier curve), then it is possible to edit the points' coordinates of the figure (Fig.5.5.a). If the point is connected to the point of another figure or figures, and "Connections" are enabled, then entered coordinates will be applied to all connected figures and fills, which involved the figure, will be redrawn accordingly.

If the dialog is called for the group of selected figures (Fig.5.5.b), properties (attributes) listed in the dialog will be applied to all figures listed in the title of the dialog. When you call the dialog, in the fields of the properties will be shown the data of the figure from the group of selected ones, for which it was called the popup menu. There is the possibility to include/exclude certain properties of the dialog. For this the (Vision disableButton.png) button is provided. In the case of exclusion of individual properties, they will not be processed upon acceptation of the dialog ("Ok" button). After the acceptation of the dialog, all of the data of the enabled properties will be applied to the whole group of figures.

Dialog for the fill's properties (Fig.5.5.c) allows you to manage the properties of the specific fill.

When selecting a check box to the right of a property, it (the property) after the acceptation of the dialog is set to the default value, which is listed in the "Attributes" tab. The "Dyn/Stat" buttons make the appropriate properties dynamic or static.

6 General module configuration

To set up own behavior in non-obvious situations, the module provides the ability to configure individual parameters through the control interface of OpenSCADA (Fig.6).

Fig.6. Configuration page of the module.