Displays and Symbols > Designer Drawing Tools
  
Designer Drawing Tools
The Drawing tab has the following controls to create, format, and configure displays:
•Vertical toolbar—On the left side of the Drawing tab. Use these buttons to draw shapes, add buttons, and create special windows. For more information, see Table 1.
•Horizontal toolbar—Across the bottom of the Drawing tab. Use these buttons to group, combine, align, and lock the selected objects. For more information, see Table 2.
•Appearance, DisplaySettings, and other settings—Below the main menu buttons, these settings vary based on the type of object selected.
Configure dynamic graphic displays, from the Main Menu, click on the “Draw” icon.
 
The Appearance parameters dictate the brush style used when drawing objects in the display, including colors. Clicking on the Fill option lets you specify Colors, gradients, or objects with which to fill the graphic.
The DisplaySettings dictate the attributes of the display. Displays can be configured as Pop Ups, Dialogs, or normal displays.
Like with any graphical object, displays can have varying colors and patterns, borders, titles and more.
 
One special feature is that you can specify a transition Animation to use when entering the display much like you have in PowerPoint presentations.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Table 1 describes the vertical toolbar commands.
 
Table 1: Vertical toolbar commands 
Commands
Description
Selection Tool
•Click an object to select it.
•CTRL+click to select multiple objects (and object groups), one at a time. Hold down the CTRL key as you click each object.
•Shift+click to toggle selected object from among more than one selected objects.
•Click in an open area of the display then select a group of elements by highlighting the elements while holding down the left mouse button.
•Double-click an object to open the Dynamics Configuration window, which provides settings for dynamic object properties.
Direct Selection Tool
 
•Use this tool to select an object inside a group (and modify its properties). Click the object to select it.
•You can also add, remove, and modify the points in a Polyline with the Direct Selection Tool:
•To move the point select it by clicking the point and holding the left mouse button down. Drag the point to its new position.
•Double-click a point to add a new point adjacent to the selected point.
•Right-click a point to delete the selected point.
Hand Tool
 
Use the Hand Tool to modify the view window by clicking the display background and holding down the left mouse button then shift the display to the desired position.
Geometric objects tools
Right-click to end use of each tool.
To add, modify, and remove points after creating a polygon or polyline, use the Direct Selection Tool.
Rectangle
Creates a rectangle object.
Ellipse
Creates an ellipse object.
Polygon
Creates a polygon object.
Polyline
Creates a polyline object.
Button
Creates a button object.
LabelBox
Creates a label box.
Text Output
Creates a text output object.
Text Box
Creates a text input/output (I/O) object.
To link the text I/O object with a tag, double-click the text I/O object, under the Dynamic configuration window select the TextIO dynamic.
CheckBox
Creates a check box object. Right-click this button to access the following tools:
Creates a radio button object.
Creates a combo box.
Creates a list box.
Creates a password box.
Creates a date picker.
Creates a date/time text box.
Creates a slider control.
After selecting a tool from this menu, it becomes the default tool for that button in the vertical toolbar.
Open Symbol Library
The symbol library includes both built-in and user-defined symbols.
Web Browser
Creates a Web Browser object. Right-click this button to access the following tools:
Creates a Page Selector object, where users can go directly to a page in the application.
Creates a Report Viewer object.
Creates an XPS Viewer object.
Creates a Circular Panel object. For more information, see Configuring a Circular Panel.
Creates a Pie Chart object. For more information, see Configuring a PieChart.
Creates a Bar Chart object. For more information, see Configuring a BarChart.
Creates a Calculator object.
Creates a Child Window object.
Creates an external WPF component.
After selecting a tool from this menu, it becomes the default tool for that button in the vertical toolbar.
Alarm Window
Creates an alarm window. Position the alarm window and double-click to configure the alarm window settings. For more information, see Configuring an Alarm Window.
Trend Window
Creates a trend window. Position the trend window and double-click to configure the trend window settings. For more information, see Configuring the Trend Window.
DataGrid Window
Creates a data grid window. Position the data grid window and double-click to configure the data grid window settings. For more information, see Configuring a DataGrid Window.
Table 2 describes the horizontal toolbar commands.
 
Table 2: Horizontal toolbar commands 
Commands
Description
Grid definition
Screen Zoom
Group
Ungroup
Union
Intersect
Exclude
Exclusive-Or
AlignLeft
AlignHorizontalCenter
AlignRight
AlignTop
AlignVerticalCenter
AlignBottom
Move To The Front
Move To The Back
Change Z-Oder
Resize Width
Resize Height
SpaceEvenlyHorizontal
SpaceEvenlyVertical
FlipHorizontally
Flip Vertically
Lock element
Unlock element
Unlock All Elements
Show All Elements
Hide Selected Element